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A review by melindavan
Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
4.0
This month in the Vaginal Fantasy Hangout we focused on Science Fiction romance. There’s really not a lot to choose from in that particular niche, but I’m glad we read this one. I really enjoyed Grimspace. The two main characters, Jax and March, are both older. By that I mean they are in their early thirties, as opposed to being 18 or 25. For me this made them a bit richer through all their life experiences. Sirantha Jax (Is that name awesome or what?) had been married before. She skipped out on her old life to join the Corp and be a “jumper,” which means she can plug into something called Grimspace and jump a spaceship lightyears at a time. Not many have the ability, and it’s hinted that Jax might just have something a bit alien in her make-up that makes it possible for her to plug in to Grimspace and not eventually burn out.
When the story opens, Jax is stuck in what appears to be a psych facility, having been falsely accused of deliberately crashing a ship. She was the sole survivor, and it quickly becomes apparent that she wasn’t meant to live through it. March is the one who busts her out of the facility. He needs a jumper so he can locate other people with the same ability in order to start a private academy of jumpers with the hope that they can make a living free of the Corp. Since Jax now has no love for the Corp, she joins him in his quest. It’s a David and Goliath type of story, and it was fun to root for the little guys.
First Line: “Are you afraid of falling, baby?”
No, I’m afraid of landing.
He’s laughing, and I’m smiling. Stupid idiot smile, don’t you know what comes next? Wake. Wake now. I don’t want to see this, not again. It’s not helping me deal. This thing is roken. Oh no. No.
I sit up, shuddering, shoving the dark mop of hair out of my face, and my fingers come away wet with sweat.
Normally, I’m not a big fan of starting out in the middle of a dream sequence. Usually it means I have no idea what is going on, and not sure what is real and what isn’t. Here, however, it works. Because Jax herself has no idea what is going on and what is real. She’s been in a huge crash. She’s lost the love of her life, and feels responsible for it. Plus, you find out later, the evil people who run the place are trying to make her take the blame for the crash, so they are deliberately making her relive stuff in the hopes she goes insane. I have to say, I was hooked by this opening. It was bewildering, and more than a little confusing, but in a good way. Er, you know what I mean.
The part that grabbed me the most about this story was the narrative voice. This is told first person, present tense. But more than that, it reads like a stream-of-consciousness journal. I felt like I was completely in Jax’s head. It was like seeing the unedited, raw jumble of thoughts that we all have running through our minds and thank goodness, nobody gets to see but us. It really worked for this story, and it gave it a raw edge that drove the pace and plot.
I loved the space aspect of this, the visits to other worlds, the inclusion of the Corp which operates pretty much as I would expect a big, out of control organization to act. The world building, no pun intended, is full and rich and the characters are so real I feel like I know them. While this is a romance, the romance doesn’t really take center stage at all. If you’re looking for erotic fiction this isn’t it. Even the sex scenes are pretty tame, and there’s not much of that. What you get is a solid story, intriguing plot and characters, and spaceships. What’s not to like?
When the story opens, Jax is stuck in what appears to be a psych facility, having been falsely accused of deliberately crashing a ship. She was the sole survivor, and it quickly becomes apparent that she wasn’t meant to live through it. March is the one who busts her out of the facility. He needs a jumper so he can locate other people with the same ability in order to start a private academy of jumpers with the hope that they can make a living free of the Corp. Since Jax now has no love for the Corp, she joins him in his quest. It’s a David and Goliath type of story, and it was fun to root for the little guys.
First Line: “Are you afraid of falling, baby?”
No, I’m afraid of landing.
He’s laughing, and I’m smiling. Stupid idiot smile, don’t you know what comes next? Wake. Wake now. I don’t want to see this, not again. It’s not helping me deal. This thing is roken. Oh no. No.
I sit up, shuddering, shoving the dark mop of hair out of my face, and my fingers come away wet with sweat.
Normally, I’m not a big fan of starting out in the middle of a dream sequence. Usually it means I have no idea what is going on, and not sure what is real and what isn’t. Here, however, it works. Because Jax herself has no idea what is going on and what is real. She’s been in a huge crash. She’s lost the love of her life, and feels responsible for it. Plus, you find out later, the evil people who run the place are trying to make her take the blame for the crash, so they are deliberately making her relive stuff in the hopes she goes insane. I have to say, I was hooked by this opening. It was bewildering, and more than a little confusing, but in a good way. Er, you know what I mean.
The part that grabbed me the most about this story was the narrative voice. This is told first person, present tense. But more than that, it reads like a stream-of-consciousness journal. I felt like I was completely in Jax’s head. It was like seeing the unedited, raw jumble of thoughts that we all have running through our minds and thank goodness, nobody gets to see but us. It really worked for this story, and it gave it a raw edge that drove the pace and plot.
I loved the space aspect of this, the visits to other worlds, the inclusion of the Corp which operates pretty much as I would expect a big, out of control organization to act. The world building, no pun intended, is full and rich and the characters are so real I feel like I know them. While this is a romance, the romance doesn’t really take center stage at all. If you’re looking for erotic fiction this isn’t it. Even the sex scenes are pretty tame, and there’s not much of that. What you get is a solid story, intriguing plot and characters, and spaceships. What’s not to like?