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A review by selfwinding
The Iron Jackal: A Tale of the Ketty Jay by Chris Wooding
3.0
The previous installment in the series had me much more excited, though this one started strong, taking the Ketty Jay crew to yet another corner of their fictional world. By far one of the strongest elements of this series is the world building and that each new installment develops another area of the world. The first two focus primarily on Vardia and Yortland, and this one takes the crew into Samarla where we get to learn more about Samarlans, Murthians, and Dakkadians. That part I enjoyed immensely.
One of the weaknesses of this book is that the timeline is supposed to be short—Frey has about two weeks to return the cursed blade to where it came from—and there is an absolutely unbelievable number of tasks for them to do within that time frame. Some of the side missions are interesting and fun—I particularly enjoyed the Harkin's race in the Firecrow—but the entire time I was reading it I was thinking, "Wow, this is just like the narrative drag that is the podrace in Phantom Menance and Naboo in Attack of the Clones," neither of which are associations I think any author hopes to inspire. So, some pacing issues in this one to be sure.
I appreciate that this novel gives more character development and backstory for Silo. He's been one of my favorite characters, so I really enjoyed getting to know more about his history and seeing Frey treat him like a human. Speaking of Frey and humans, he's continuing to develop into one! The character growth for Frey in this novel is at times a little heavy-handed, but welcome especially considering where he started from in the first novel. (Frey's relationship with Trinica continues to be concerning, especially in regards to his respecting her choices, but ultimately The Iron Jackal ends in a place I was comfortable with.)
My one major complaint: NOT ENOUGH JEZ. Jez, I miss you.
One of the weaknesses of this book is that the timeline is supposed to be short—Frey has about two weeks to return the cursed blade to where it came from—and there is an absolutely unbelievable number of tasks for them to do within that time frame. Some of the side missions are interesting and fun—I particularly enjoyed the Harkin's race in the Firecrow—but the entire time I was reading it I was thinking, "Wow, this is just like the narrative drag that is the podrace in Phantom Menance and Naboo in Attack of the Clones," neither of which are associations I think any author hopes to inspire. So, some pacing issues in this one to be sure.
I appreciate that this novel gives more character development and backstory for Silo. He's been one of my favorite characters, so I really enjoyed getting to know more about his history and seeing Frey treat him like a human. Speaking of Frey and humans, he's continuing to develop into one! The character growth for Frey in this novel is at times a little heavy-handed, but welcome especially considering where he started from in the first novel. (Frey's relationship with Trinica continues to be concerning, especially in regards to his respecting her choices, but ultimately The Iron Jackal ends in a place I was comfortable with.)
My one major complaint: NOT ENOUGH JEZ. Jez, I miss you.