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nattyg's review against another edition
5.0
I enjoyed this a lot. It was fantastic and I'm salivating for the next one.
sylwniw's review against another edition
1.0
I really tried to finish this book. Only had a few chapters to go but just couldn't take it.
It began with the writer/editor not picking up on sentence structure. The words just didn't flow right to make sense. I overlooked that because I was interested in seeing where the story lead. The next thing that bugged me was the main heroine was just a bit brainless and overlooked the important bits. For example she has just been rescued by some strangers and doesn't bother to ask why until half way through the book. Finally the one that got me was that she decides that she will do what she wants to do with her life and wants to become a prostitute at a hard core fetish club. I mean get real. There is much more I want to say about this book but my patience is wearing thin to talk about all the wrongs in this book. All I have to say is the main heroine character was weak, selfish and lacked common knowledge.
It began with the writer/editor not picking up on sentence structure. The words just didn't flow right to make sense. I overlooked that because I was interested in seeing where the story lead. The next thing that bugged me was the main heroine was just a bit brainless and overlooked the important bits. For example she has just been rescued by some strangers and doesn't bother to ask why until half way through the book. Finally the one that got me was that she decides that she will do what she wants to do with her life and wants to become a prostitute at a hard core fetish club. I mean get real. There is much more I want to say about this book but my patience is wearing thin to talk about all the wrongs in this book. All I have to say is the main heroine character was weak, selfish and lacked common knowledge.
runningoutofink's review against another edition
3.0
Entertaining at times, perplexing at others.
At the start of the story, Sirantha Jax is "recovering" from a crash that killed her pilot and every other person aboard ship. She is a jumper, meaning that she has a special gene that allows her to navigate grimspace, essentially a faster than FTL method of navigating large distances in space. Being a jumper requires being metaphysically linked with a pilot, which usually results in a romantic connection as well. Jax is reeling from the loss of her pilot and the trauma of the crash, while her employers are forcing psych visits on her that are meant to break her, so they can pin the whole thing on her. It takes a while for Jax to come to that realization though.
Before she breaks, she's rescued by a grim, gruff man named March. He convinces her to leave with him and together they make it back to his ship, where the rest of his crew waits for her. They literally cannot leave without her, because their previous pilot and jumper are both dead, having died in the effort to retrieve Jax. She immediately takes the guilt of their deaths on herself and forces herself to jump with March as her new pilot, which feels like a betrayal to her previous pilot Kai.
From this escape, they pretty much jump from disaster to disaster, all the while Jax is taking every little bit of guilt she can gather from every interaction. This is around the time where I start to get pretty frustrated by Jax. She's literally making no decisions for herself; she is a passive crewmate that allows everyone else to make decisions for her and just goes with the flow. She asks zero questions about what her rescuers intentions are. Eventually we get a few answer, but Jax's passivity is incredibly frustrating, especially since she's our narrator for the entire story. It's all just happening around her.
In addition, she starts to take on a familiarity with the rest of the crew that is really difficult to believe, given that she's know them for all of a day or so? The timeline is pretty blurry, especially in the beginning. She starts to make comments about the other characters, like how "March is never not mean to her" which is a pretty big generalization when he really hasn't been mean to her at all and if anything, she's been pretty mean to him; not to mention that, again, she's been with him for about a day or two and that whole time they've been constantly running from things. She makes these sorts of generalizing comments about all of the characters, with very little basis to them.
The only relationship that feels remotely well-paced is the one between Jax and Dina. They start out pretty openly disliking each other, but the way their relationship evolves over time feels much more realistic than the rest of Jax's insta-connections, and I found myself really enjoying a lot of the banter between them.
The first time I really start to like Jax, and actually connect with her character, is when she says enough is enough and leaves the crew. She finally makes a decision for herself and actually voices an opinion of her own, and stands her ground! Granted it's 70% of the way through the book at this point, but it was nice to see her with some actual backbone. Obviously she eventually has to go back, and Doc makes sure that she does go back. But it's easier to accept her relationship with March when she does go back, because she's had time to process her trauma and her conflicting feelings about him after the loss of Kai.
The ending gets wrapped up pretty quickly after this. The foreshadowing from all the times where March warned Jax about his dark past is fulfilled when he decides to take a bunch of hostages and threaten to blow up an entire city when he thinks Jax is dead. Luckily Jax shows up just in time to talk him off the ledge, while her brand new bounty hunter friend releases recordings of Jax's innocence and the Corps' evil plans to the public, resulting in riots and rebellion across the galaxy.
Sure, sure sure sure.
In the end, I think this story wanted to be big and epic with some dark, scary, bad-ass characters. But it tried to do that without doing a lot of the work to make it believable. I had a hard time suspending my disbelief long enough to feel the things I think the author wanted me to feel. There were moments that I genuinely enjoyed, and I'm hoping that maybe the next books will improve on the story-telling enough to let me fully enjoy the story!
At the start of the story, Sirantha Jax is "recovering" from a crash that killed her pilot and every other person aboard ship. She is a jumper, meaning that she has a special gene that allows her to navigate grimspace, essentially a faster than FTL method of navigating large distances in space. Being a jumper requires being metaphysically linked with a pilot, which usually results in a romantic connection as well. Jax is reeling from the loss of her pilot and the trauma of the crash, while her employers are forcing psych visits on her that are meant to break her, so they can pin the whole thing on her. It takes a while for Jax to come to that realization though.
Before she breaks, she's rescued by a grim, gruff man named March. He convinces her to leave with him and together they make it back to his ship, where the rest of his crew waits for her. They literally cannot leave without her, because their previous pilot and jumper are both dead, having died in the effort to retrieve Jax. She immediately takes the guilt of their deaths on herself and forces herself to jump with March as her new pilot, which feels like a betrayal to her previous pilot Kai.
From this escape, they pretty much jump from disaster to disaster, all the while Jax is taking every little bit of guilt she can gather from every interaction. This is around the time where I start to get pretty frustrated by Jax. She's literally making no decisions for herself; she is a passive crewmate that allows everyone else to make decisions for her and just goes with the flow. She asks zero questions about what her rescuers intentions are. Eventually we get a few answer, but Jax's passivity is incredibly frustrating, especially since she's our narrator for the entire story. It's all just happening around her.
In addition, she starts to take on a familiarity with the rest of the crew that is really difficult to believe, given that she's know them for all of a day or so? The timeline is pretty blurry, especially in the beginning. She starts to make comments about the other characters, like how "March is never not mean to her" which is a pretty big generalization when he really hasn't been mean to her at all and if anything, she's been pretty mean to him; not to mention that, again, she's been with him for about a day or two and that whole time they've been constantly running from things. She makes these sorts of generalizing comments about all of the characters, with very little basis to them.
The only relationship that feels remotely well-paced is the one between Jax and Dina. They start out pretty openly disliking each other, but the way their relationship evolves over time feels much more realistic than the rest of Jax's insta-connections, and I found myself really enjoying a lot of the banter between them.
The first time I really start to like Jax, and actually connect with her character, is when she says enough is enough and leaves the crew. She finally makes a decision for herself and actually voices an opinion of her own, and stands her ground! Granted it's 70% of the way through the book at this point, but it was nice to see her with some actual backbone. Obviously she eventually has to go back, and Doc makes sure that she does go back. But it's easier to accept her relationship with March when she does go back, because she's had time to process her trauma and her conflicting feelings about him after the loss of Kai.
The ending gets wrapped up pretty quickly after this. The foreshadowing from all the times where March warned Jax about his dark past is fulfilled when he decides to take a bunch of hostages and threaten to blow up an entire city when he thinks Jax is dead. Luckily Jax shows up just in time to talk him off the ledge, while her brand new bounty hunter friend releases recordings of Jax's innocence and the Corps' evil plans to the public, resulting in riots and rebellion across the galaxy.
Sure, sure sure sure.
In the end, I think this story wanted to be big and epic with some dark, scary, bad-ass characters. But it tried to do that without doing a lot of the work to make it believable. I had a hard time suspending my disbelief long enough to feel the things I think the author wanted me to feel. There were moments that I genuinely enjoyed, and I'm hoping that maybe the next books will improve on the story-telling enough to let me fully enjoy the story!
writeralicia's review against another edition
5.0
Great book!
I'm not really in a review-writing mood right now, so I'll keep this brief. This book was non-stop awesome for the first 75% or so. I love the idea of grimspace, an alternative to faster-than-light travel. Plus, we have a conspiracy theory, some romantic tension, bounty hunters, and a flawed and tormented heroine. Fun, fun, fun!
Imperfections that I'm willing to overlook because of the overwhelming awesomeness of most of the book: It slowed down a tad between the 75% and 90% marks--when Sirantha's internal torment overwhelmed her and she needed a break. I didn't love that little interlude, but I understand it; it seemed a reasonable path for her. March, the love interest, could have been developed a little more. Most of what I know of him, I learned from Sirantha's thoughts. I didn't get to see his personality as much as I got to hear about it. But I did root for him and Sirantha to couple up, so I guess he was well enough developed for me to care.
Despite the flaws, this book is a great ride. I give it high marks.
I'm not really in a review-writing mood right now, so I'll keep this brief. This book was non-stop awesome for the first 75% or so. I love the idea of grimspace, an alternative to faster-than-light travel. Plus, we have a conspiracy theory, some romantic tension, bounty hunters, and a flawed and tormented heroine. Fun, fun, fun!
Imperfections that I'm willing to overlook because of the overwhelming awesomeness of most of the book: It slowed down a tad between the 75% and 90% marks--when Sirantha's internal torment overwhelmed her and she needed a break. I didn't love that little interlude, but I understand it; it seemed a reasonable path for her. March, the love interest, could have been developed a little more. Most of what I know of him, I learned from Sirantha's thoughts. I didn't get to see his personality as much as I got to hear about it. But I did root for him and Sirantha to couple up, so I guess he was well enough developed for me to care.
Despite the flaws, this book is a great ride. I give it high marks.
blodeuedd's review against another edition
3.0
Even if I liked the beginning I had a hard time getting into the book, and then suddenly when i had read 1/3 of it I was in. What changed? Perhaps it was that I didn't like Sirantha in the beginning.
Sirantha jax is one tough chick, all mouth and no one gets in her way. She can be rather closed off, and even I thought she was kick-ass, I didn't like her. Then comes March, and frees her from her prison where she had been tortured. He was like her and those two were at each other like cat and dog. Then something changed and I started liking the both of them. The book got more meaning. There is a struggle because her wounds are fresh from the crash where she lost her pilot and lover, but you just know that those two are meant to be. And I long to find out.
I have always liked sci-fi so that was sure not a problem for me, though I have actually read way too few. perhaps because sci-fi is so male, ships and weapons. Therefore I have gone for the more philosophical and epic in the past. This, well this is a treat, romance, I love it and I get the space angle too. Not all romance has to take place at earth, or my fav, in the past.
There is her getting to know the crew of his, I like the doc by the way, and then learning what they want her to do. I do like a bit of political involved too, since the more I read the more I don't like the Corp. They may have lost they goal some time ago. There is colonies, seems to be a Swedish one, lol, and bounty hunters. Now what would a sci-fi book be without a alien bounty hunter.
Oh and yes there is romance, don't fear, and I am sure they will be more in the next books. Where she gets to free the the universe, read the other blurbs that there will be more aliens, bad aliens, I hope so.
It was a nice little read, some sci-fi, some romance. An escape read that always feels different from the paranormal ones, I guess it's cos I always think space could happen, but vampires and werewolves, I only wish.
madgee's review against another edition
3.0
4.5 stars
Wasn't sure about reading sci-fi, but Grimspace had engaging, well-developed characters, some interesting worlds, and a gripping plot. Definitely looking forward to book two!
Wasn't sure about reading sci-fi, but Grimspace had engaging, well-developed characters, some interesting worlds, and a gripping plot. Definitely looking forward to book two!
nevclue's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the story here. Sirantha is a fantastic heroine: strong, flawed, and interesting. The love interest is compelling, but not overbearing. Fairly standard space-world building, but fun. There's an evil capitalist company, various humanoid and non-humanoid species, space pirates. I listened to this on tape and I found that certain stylistic quirks irked me, but it wasn't a deal breaker. Will definitely read the next one. Hopefully there will be more politics :)
ofearna's review against another edition
2.0
As you can see, the cover are is LOVERLY! So I read the book. It was OK, but not good enough I ever ready anything else by the author. Seems she decided to jump on the PNR but wanted to write SF, too... OK we'll do a PNR/SF, but meh.
steadyboyfriend's review against another edition
5.0
Once again I am wishing Goodreads gave us the ability to put stars and a half because I would give Grimspace 4 and a half stars. I will get to why I don't want it to be five stars in a second. I did love this book, read it in a good two days, would have been less if it hadn't have been for work. I liked the main character and that she wasn't portrayed as this perfect amazingly hot hero or as a mary-sue, she was flawed which caught me instantly. I thought the world that Aguirre built around this story was able to suck a reader in with an amazing grace and the characters were originally. Not to mention the fast paced, action back bloody fight scenes there were, those are ALWAYS great in any story. I am rambling now, not my best review but to put it simply I adored this book; except for the romance! I found myself skimming through the romance sections of the book, they moved way too fast for my liking and were not believable in the slightest, and as much as I hate to say it... bordered on a bad romance novel. If the romance had been replaced with just a great friendship in this book, it would have been perfect in my eyes.