Review: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

Description:

By all accounts, Sirantha Jax should have burned out years ago…
As the carrier of a rare gene, Jax has the ability to jump ships through grimspace—a talent which cuts into her life expectancy, but makes her a highly prized navigator for the Corp. But then the ship she’s navigating crash-lands, and she’s accused of killing everyone on board. It’s hard for Jax to defend herself: she has no memory of the crash.

Now imprisoned and the subject of a ruthless interrogation, Jax is on the verge of madness. Then a mysterious man breaks into her cell, offering her freedom—for a price. March needs Jax to help his small band of rogue fighters break the Corp monopoly on interstellar travel—and establish a new breed of jumper.

Jax is only good at one thing—grimspace—and it will eventually kill her. So she may as well have some fun in the meantime…

(Book Blurb)

Review:
I so love science fiction and this book gets an extra point for being such a great book in this genre. The created world is developed in such great detail and with so much love that it sucked me in from the beginning. The concept of the J-Gene is thoughtful and gives the whole story a ethical and moral aspect. Ann Aguirre’s writing flows and she knows how to give each character just the right words to say. Every person in this book is an individual and talks like one too.

Jax is a real kick-ass heroine. She always says what she thinks and is one of the truest and most candid characters I ever met or read about. She doesn’t care if her opinion is hurtful or if it will cause her trouble. She can’t shut up and sometimes that's the worst character trait imaginable. She has to earn the trust of the crew and before she can even think about that she has to clear herself off all the prejudices the crew has. She’s not the perfect heroine, she makes mistakes and shows a few not so good character traits but this only made her more real in my eyes.

The side characters are mostly hostile in the beginning. They all have lost something or suffered in the attempt to rescue Jax. This makes the getting to know each other really complicated. They don’t want to give her a chance but they realize soon that not everything is like they thought it is. I really loved the Doc who’s the only one to be without prejudice against Jax. March is difficult in the beginning and needs a few talks and fights with Jax till these two warm up. The bonding of the characters (not only between Jax and March) is well described and we learn to love them on the way. The bunch of people becomes a group while the story is told and you can feel how they start to respect each other.

The story is complex, full of moral questions and has a few bloody and disturbing scenes too. The bad ”guys” are disturbingly frightening and the solution of the conflicts isn’t a walk in the park. Loved the plot, loved the genre, loved the characters, loved the romance- perfect book.

To learn more about Ann Aguirre and her books please visit her website here.

The Sirantha Jax Series:
1. Grimspace:

reviews @goodreads, buy @amazon

2. Wanderlust: reviews @goodreads, buy @amazon
3. Doubleblind:

reviews @goodreads, buy @amazon

4. Killbox (release October 2010)

I bought this book on my own.