The Iron Jackal

Tales of the Ketty Jay, Book 3

By: Chris Wooding

Narrated by: Rupert Degas

Things are finally looking good for Captain Frey and his crew. The Ketty Jay has been fixed up good as new. They've got their first taste of fortune and fame. And, just for once, nobody is trying to kill them.

Even Trinica Dracken, Frey's ex-fiancée and long-time nemesis, has given up her quest for revenge. In fact, she's offered them a job - one that will take them deep into the desert heart of Samarla, the land of their ancient enemies. To a place where the secrets of the past lie in wait for the unwary.

Secrets that might very well cost Frey everything.

Join the crew of the Ketty Jay on their greatest adventure yet: a story of mayhem and mischief, rooftop chases and death-defying races, murderous daemons, psychopathic golems and a particularly cranky cat.

The first time was to clear his name. The second time was for money. This time, Frey's in a race against the clock for the ultimate prize: to save his own life.

©2019 Chris Wooding (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group

Remarkable!

I love Chris Wooding's Ketty Jay series! This part of the magnificent journey does not fail to deliver! And the voice actor continues to impress!

Pretty enjoyable, if repeating its flaws

Honestly, pretty good. It finally feels like the Tales of the Ketty Jay is where the author wants it to be, his intent with his characters being made obvious, with a generally entertaining plot and an interesting work with the "black spot" trope. I was left mostly with good impressions, some solid chuckles, and also pretty happy to have finally spent more time on Silo.

The one thing I could fault it about was the somewhat continuously navel-gazing presentation of character personalities, where we are told exactly how they feel and why both by themselves in their own thoughts, and the passive surrounding narration. At this point it does not even feel like it is disrespecting reader intelligence, but just that Wooding had a some sort of rule stapled on top of his laptop, "Always make it known what character motivations are, directly, in every chapter they have, regardless of whether they changed or not from the previous one", so it is something that gets repetitive really quickly, and is mostly exhausted 1/3 of the book in, while continuing to be reestablished for the rest of it. It does compensate with some self-satire, I guess, and overall witty presentation, but it does unfortunately feel that this is the ceiling of his writing skillset and there is just something about character presentation he can't get entirely right, despite it being his main focus.

Rupert Degas was once again an absolute banger of a narrator, I have yet to hear a book narrated by him that didn't absolutely slap. I pretty much got the books because they had his name attached to the narration rather than being entirely interested in the premise, and so far I have not regretted it, and in fact been happily surprised as they improved distinctly from the first book.

A brilliant story...

A fantastic team of author and narrator makes this book a highly entertaining listen. I’m so glad that “Retribution Falls” was not the last and only story of this Saga. Just a great story with nutritious content.
Highly recommend it.

The day the Jackal ends...

I'm hard pressed to even begin the process of listening to the next and last book. I don't want the ride to end. I genuinely adore these books: The plot, the characters, the dialogue, the growth of the characters, the narrator, they all combine to make a remarkable book and series.

Rupert may be the single best english speaking narrator in the business. Strike that, Rupert IS the best.

I recommend this book and this series to anyone who can hear.

Excellent

Great story, with amazing narration. I love the group dynamic and the team interactions and dialog.