Review: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre

• Title: Grimspace
• Author: Ann Aguirre
• Type of book: Science Fiction
• Copyright:2008
• Publisher:Ace
• Why I read this book: I first heard about this book in January at the Dear Author website. They were so enthusiastic about the book I put it on my list of books to buy for February and I’m glad I did. It’s an excellent book!

The book is written in first person, present tense which is very effective. I imagine it’s difficult to write a book in present tense, but Aguirre pulls it off. It has an immediacy not found in many books.

Sirantha Jax, the main character, is a jumper (navigator) who jumps ships through grimspace.

Try to describe grimspace for us.

At parties, when everyone’s knocked back a few, there’s always someone who asks me to do that. They don’t seem to understand, it’s like trying to define red for a blind man. If you’re not a jumper, then you’re blind to the most extraordinary, primordial colors. And nothing I say will help you understand.

The name’s misleading. Grimspace means inexorable, implacable. Not to be appeased. You see, grimspace will have its due from all who traverse it. But it’s beautiful there, or we wouldn’t be drawn back, time and again, driven on by a jones stronger than anything mankind could devise. Jumpers burn out smiling for a reason.

Jumpers tend to burn out within a matter of years. Jax hasn’t burned out yet, but the last ship she jumped crash landed killing everyone but her–including the man she loved. She’s accused of causing the crash, but has lost her memory of it.

Jax has such a distinctive voice. Sometimes she’s paranoid, sometimes she thinks she’s crazy, sometimes she worries she’s about to burn out. She makes mistakes, but grows and changes and discovers she has something to live for. Because the book is written in first person the reader only has Jax’s point of view. We slowly see and understand as she does.

March is also a multi-layered and complex character who is slowly revealed during the book. He springs Jax from solitary confinement (supposedly dream therapy to help her remember the crash, but perhaps planting new “memories”). He is not altruistic; he needs her to join his rebels to fight the Corps monopoly on interstellar travel. He is something of an idealist though believing he and his group can change things, that they can battle a huge bureaucracy and win.

This is just the type of science fiction I love…an imaginative, exciting and adventurous story. The next Sirantha Jax novel–Wanderlust–comes out the end of August 2008 and when I checked the website I discovered there will be two more after that. I can’t wait!