Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

Ann Aguirre

I think I entered all possible contests for this book, but in the end I bought it (TBR.. um.. 135, not getting smaller). Grimspace is actually the first book in a series, but the story is self contained. This is a book that falls under the science fiction romance category. If you like Linnea Sinclair you may like Ann Aguirre too. Actually, I think Sinclair is one of her beta readers from the acknowledgments I read.

The main character Sirantha Jax is a jumper – someone with a rare J-gene, that allows her to "jack into grimspace" and with a pilot, send a spaceship through a hyperspace jump. At the start of this novel Sirantha finds herself confined and under surveillance by the Corp after a horrific accident which has killed everyone on her ship but herself. The Corp seems to think that Sirantha made a mistake, and she may go to trial for it. Meanwhile, she also feels worried about her sanity (J-gene carriers are known for frying their minds). In steps March, who offers to break her out of her prison – telling her it's either escape or let the Corp break her with their therapy ("They don't want to know what happened; they just want to ensure you're in no condition to talk about it. Ever."). In order to escape March has to replace Jax's dead pilot – which is the equivalent to a forced marriage according to Jax – because in grimspace the jumper and their pilot become so in tune they are practically one person. Once Jax escapes she gets caught up in whatever March is up to and much space action stuff ensues.

Lazy bullet time:

Overall very enjoyable and addictive to read. It delivers what I wanted, which was action, space stuff and some romance.
Each chapter reminds me like a chapter in a Nancy Drew mystery – it tends to end on a "dun dun dun!" note. I thought this habit was a bit odd, not really bothersome, just wasn't sure why it was that way. Also each chapter ended up being very short – there are 53 chapters in all, so I guess you can say there were a lot of – oh what happens next? moments. Lots of action going on.
Although I said this reminded me of a Linnea Sinclair novel, the writing is very different. There is a lot more grit in this – more death, more grey areas, especially with the heroine – she's not always a good person. She would rather look after herself first, while March wants to save everyone. This was interesting.
The book ends with a definite conclusion and it feels like a stand alone, but there is a larger story arc you catch a glimpse of, and so I can see where the author could continue. I'm glad that it does because I think I did say after I finished this – "There should be more" and I double checked and there was. Ann Agguire's website says book 2 is Wanderlust (August 2008), which will be followed by Doubleblind and Killbox. Sounds cool. I do like the covers so far too.
A lot of interesting secondary characters make appearances. Some of them do not stay around for long. They may show up in later books. Some of them I wish I got to know better before they disappeared.
There was an interesting bit about assassins in this that I really want to be followed up on in book 2. Really do.
There was a creepy Jurassic Park bit in this too. Guess I can't say much beyond that without spoiling.
A couple of times the banter incited a laugh out of me (the baby z bit).
Excerpt of Grimspace. Excerpt of Wanderlust.