Review: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

Title: Grimspace
Author: Ann Aguirre
Pages: 312
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
Rating: A

From Goodreads:

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…

Grimspace is a great, fast-paced adventure story staring Sirantha Jax. She's fiesty, smart, and has a few issues. After the crash, she finds herself under the protection of Folly's crew, who also, by chance, needs a jumper. She has lost her memory and is on a mission to find out the truth. On the way she meets a great cast of characters including her love interest, March. There's Dina the tough engineer, Loras the savant, Doc the ship's doctor, and March the pilot. I felt like this whole crew was reminiscent of that of Firefly (which is a good thing). I really thought the characters were interesting and different and offered a lot of banter and tension between each other.

This book reads fast and it helps that the first person narrative is provided by Jax. It's not the easiest ride being in her head, but it certainly adds to the experience. She develops a romance with March that I thought was sweet and not too overwhelming. My only problem was I thought that they seemed to fall for each other seriously in the short amount of time that is spent in the book.

I'm still testing the waters with a lot of science fiction, especially space opera because I tend to find it comes off a bit heavy, but for Grimspace, it's the opposite. It's a great adventure with the right amount of everything. There's action on every page, ending in what is obviously an opening for a sequel.

Overall, this is the perfect kind of adventure story for me. There's a great female lead, a good romance that's not too heavy, and tons of action. I recommend this to anyone interested in those things. I've already bought the sequel Wanderlust and can't wait to get to it! A

You can read an excerpt on the author's website or listen to a sample of the audio book.