Clare L. Deming

Grimspace
By Ann Aguirre
Ace (2008)

I can’t remember who recommended this book to me, but I have had it on my to-read shelf for about a year. It looked to be a quick read and I decided to plunge into it while waiting for another book to arrive in the mail.

Grimspace is the debut novel by author Ann Aguirre and the first book in the Sirantha Jax series. The story is set in a world in which interstellar travel is possible by using paired pilot-jumper teams. Jumpers are rare – born with the J-gene that allows them to enter grimspace and follow the beacons left by an alien race. They are also monopolized by the Corp, the organization that identifies, trains, and employs them until many suffer a fatal burn out.

Sirantha Jax is an extraordinary jumper who is psychologically broken, and that is what makes her such a fascinating protagonist in this novel. Imprisoned for “treatment” after a catastrophic accident on her last trip, she is grieving her former pilot/lover who was lost in the crash. Jax has been interrogated by the Corp and although she has no memory of the events leading up to the crash, she feels incredibly guilty over the loss of life.

When she is rescued from her cell by an abrasive stranger, Jax is thrust back into her role as a jumper. Caught up in the schemes of her rescuers and their mysterious leader, Marsh, Jax finds herself running from the Corp and her past. This book was also a romance, and it was intriguing to follow the relationship between Jax and Marsh because he had his own dark past to rival that of Jax. This forces him to keep his emotions bottled up and his motivations are initially unclear.

As a first novel, this was a solid read. There were a few hiccups initially, where I felt like I had missed some explanation about the technology or the characters. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was engrossed in the story. The plot was unpredictable but logically followed the characters’ motivations, and by the time I finished reading, I decided that I adored this book. There is enough of a resolution in this first novel for it to serve as a stand-alone read, with just enough unanswered questions to leave me wanting more. I plan to pick up the next volume in the Sirantha Jax series soon.