Title: Grimspace
Author: Ann Aguirre
Series: Sirantha Jax (Book 1)

Sirantha Jax is one of the few blessed- or cursed- with the rare J-Gene, which gives her the ability to jump space ships through the Grimspace (think hyperspace) along with the help of a pilot. Then one of her jumps goes horribly wrong, crashing her ship and killing a lot of people, including the man she loves. Jax ends up in a prison cell, a place that could very well drive her insane. So when a strange man enters and offers to help her escape, she can't help but agree. But there is a cost behind Jax's prison break. Will she be able to pay it?

The Sirantha Jax books, as well as the author Ann Aguirre, have been recommended to me many times, so it's safe to say that I went into Grimspace with pretty high expectations. Unfortunately, I think these high expectations ended up marring my reading experience some. Grimspace is not a bad book by any means. It is a flawed book (as one might expect from an author's debut novel), but ultimately a fun read that succeeds due to the strength of it's heroine, it's romance, and it's gritty science fiction setting.

While reading Grimspace, I couldn't help but compare it to John Scalzi's Old Man's War, which I recently read. Their storylines may be quite different, but both books do a lot of similar things, plot and character wise. Unfortunately, these elements are not always as successfully explored in Grimspace, as they were in Old Man's War. One thing that both novels do well is craft likable protagonists. I found I really liked Jax, and all of her flaws and poor decisions didn't shake those feelings at all. The story is told in a fast-paced, episodic format, much like a television show. Although I connected fine to Jax and her crew, the same can't always be said for the characters they encounter on their adventures. Because of the fast paced, action focused nature of the story, I often felt as if I never got a chance to know them before zipping off to another planet. As result, I often found myself wishing the author would slow things down a little more, and maybe cover less territory in one book. Episodic formats don't always work well for me because depending on what “episode” we're in, the book can easily change from being a very good read, to a less enjoyable one. This happened while reading Grimspace. It probably took me about a hundred pages to really get into the book. After that, my enjoyment was more consistent, but given that the book is only three hundred pages, this is somewhat troubling. One thing the novel does really well is the romance, which serves as a nice ongoing thread throughout all of the episodes, but never really overwhelms the plot, which I appreciated. The gritty sci-fi setting (especially when combined with the banter between the crew) was also quite attractive, and should appeal to fans of the science fiction show Firefly.

Final Thoughts: ometimes, high expectations can be a bad thing, because while I did take some issue with the episodic format, the somewhat relentless pacing of the novel, and the underdeveloped side characters, I can't help but feel that these flaws aren't exactly unheard of for a debut novel, which Grimspace is. Grimspace may have it's issues, and it did take me a while to really enjoy it, but it's ultimately a really fun read. I do have plans to continue the series, even if I'm not really in a rush to read the next book. Three and a Half Stars

Next I will be reviewing Mind Games by Carolyn Crane