Review of Grimspace
Apr
13
2008

Grimspace
by Ann Aguirre
320pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 7.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.45/5
Good Reads Rating: 4.1/5

Grimspace is the first novel in the new Jax series by Ann Aguirre. Even though this book just came out in February of this year, Wanderlust, the next book, is scheduled for release on August 26, 2008. While this romantic space opera could work perfectly well as a stand alone book, I was glad to see the next one is coming out so soon, as I am looking forward to reading more about Sirantha Jax’s adventures.

Sirantha Jax is a rare carrier of the J-gene, which allows her to jump a ship through space (grimspace) while jacked in and mentally bonded with her pilot. The monopolizing corporation she works for isolates Sirantha after she is the sole survivor of a crash in which many important people were killed, including her pilot and lover Kai. Since there is a gap in her memory, Sirantha is unsure about whether or not the crash is her fault. However, she is sure that something terrible is going to happen to her if she remains there and decides to take her chances when a mysterious man named March sneaks in to her room to steal her away from them.

After meeting the rest of the crew she is now supposed to work with and learning of their plans to study the J-gene and recruit jumpers from various planets, Sirantha feels as though she may not be better off with these strangers after all. They are in constant danger and Sirantha actively dislikes half of her new companions – a rather snarky lesbian mechanic, a peaceful alien slave, cold-hearted March, and a kind-hearted doctor. She and March in particular grate on each other’s nerves and are constantly bickering.


Grimspace is an entertaining and fast-paced adventure containing a nice blend of character interaction and rapid plot advancement. It is not terribly original, nor is it a novel that will blow your mind with profound insights and deep characters, but it is a lot of fun from the first page to the very last page. The pace is rather fast, sometimes too fast even, as I felt the ending was a bit rushed.

The story is told from Sirantha’s point of view and is all in the present tense. The language is very modern and the prose is nothing special, but it certainly works for an enjoyable tale. Most of the time Sirantha’s thoughts are quite amusing.

Although they are not astonishingly well-written, Sirantha and March are interesting characters with dark pasts with room for more revelations in the future about how they came to be the people they are. Sirantha is one of those badass women who says exactly what is on her mind no matter what the consequences, often leading to trouble. There is a lot of snappy dialogue and tension between the two characters who have a bit of a love/hate relationship.

I have seen a lot of comparisons between this book and the TV series Firefly and I can see the resemblance. This book also reminded me somewhat of Catherine Asaro’s Primary Inversion, although it is less reflective and scientific.

Grimspace is a novel worth checking out if you are a fan of strong female leads, adventure, and romance. It’s a quick read that will not challenge your world view, but it certainly can be challenging to put the book down.

7.5/10

Other opinions:

Review of Melusine
Apr
12
2008

Melusine
by Sarah Monette
496pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 9/10
Amazon Rating: 3.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.17/5
Good Reads Rating: 3.77/5

 

Sarah Monette’s stunning debut novel, Melusine, is the first book in The Doctrine of Labyrinth series. The next two books in the series, The Virtu and The Mirador are currently available, and the fourth and last book Corambis is scheduled for release in 2009. This book and its successors are exactly the types of books I like and have become my favorites I have read so far this year.

Felix Harrowgate is a powerful wizard who is part of high society in the city of Melusine. When at a party with the Lord Protector and other important people in the city, Felix’s enemy Robert reveals a dark secret about where Felix came from and his former profession. Shunned by the others after this revelation, Felix visits the one person who knows about his past – the wizard Malkar who found Felix and became his mentor in wizardry. Malkar controls Felix against his will, harnesses his great magical power, and uses it to break The Virtu, a magical item that has been around for ages and contains spells to protect the city. Once his diabolical scheme has come to fruition, Malkar casts a spell on Felix preventing him from being able to tell anyone the truth about who actually broke The Virtu that drives him completely insane.

Thief and assassin Mildmay the Fox is approached by a beautiful young woman named Ginevra who would like to use his stealth to retrieve some of her belongings from her former lover’s house. Mildmay soon becomes romantically involved with Ginevra and entangled with her dealings with the infamous blood witch Vey Coruscant. Tragedy leads him into stupidity which puts him in the hands of a wizard who believes Mildmay will lead him to Felix, a key player in gaining revenge against the mage’s old foe.


Although it is thoroughly enjoyable, Melusine is the most flawed of the books in the series. The beginning is a bit abrupt, and Felix’s connection to Malkar has not been fully revealed so the control the old wizard exerts over him does not make as much sense as it does in later books. Felix and Mildmay do not actually meet until later in this book, which is the point where the story begins to come together.

The story is told by alternating between the first person point of view of Felix and Mildmay. The changes in perspective are abrupt, but it did not bother me at all. If you do not like one of the characters, it will not be too long before you get to read about the other, and if you love them both, it will not matter which one you are reading about.

The characters are certainly the highlight of this book and Monette did a fantastic job of giving both Felix and Mildmay very distinct voices and personalities. Mildmay’s heavy use of incorrect grammar and invented lower class slang annoyed me a bit at first, but eventually I got used to it and it’s hard not to love his character’s sense of humor and honest bluntness. Very little is seen of Felix in this book when he is not out of his mind, but his insane perspective was handled quite well and I enjoyed reading his sections, too.

This is dark fantasy at its best – gritty without being bloody and more about the characters themselves and the world around them than violence and swordfights. The suffering of the characters is heartfelt without being overwhelmingly depressing. Mildmay’s way of looking at the world around him can lighten up even the darkest of situations.

Those who would be offended to read a story containing bad language, rape, and/or sexual content should avoid this book, however, since all those elements are included. It’s handled so naturally, like its a part of everyday life and that’s just the way things happen sometimes and does not feel like it is intended for shock value.

I highly recommend Melusine to anyone with a penchant for character-driven, non-cliche dark fantasy that comes alive off the pages. It certainly contains some flaws but the characters are so realistically written that it does not really matter.

9/10

Sarah Monette’s Doctrine of Labyrinth
Apr
09
2008

Warning: The following is not a coherent review. It is just the ramblings of someone who has discovered a new series to add to the favorites list. (However, it is spoiler-free.)

Although I will be reviewing each book in the Doctrine of Labyrinth series individually when I get a chance, I finished The Mirador last night and just want to babble about it since I have no one to talk to who has read it. This is exactly the type of series I love and has moved Sarah Monette into my list of top 5 favorite authors.

This was not a fast-paced, action-packed series – it was more about the world and the characters, especially the characters. About two thirds of the way through The Mirador I realized not much had actually happened when thinking about how to sum up the story, but I hadn’t even noticed (and didn’t care) because the characters were so fascinating. Each book developed them further and delved more into who they were. They were very realistic and sympathetic yet rather flawed.

I may be so enamored of the characters because I could relate to them so well, especially Mildmay, whose personality is very similar to mine other than the whole assassin/thief thing. The more I read about him in The Virtu and The Mirador, the more I realized I’ve never been able to relate to a character as well because I’ve never read about a character who reminded me so much of myself.

Limiting the points of view to just 2 or 3 characters was a fantastic way for writing the series. Most of the books I’ve read with good characters either have one really good main character or are doorstoppers with so many characters that it is hard to keep them all straight sometimes. Monette did an amazing job of giving each character a very distinct voice, and reading their thoughts on the world and others was great fun.

I’m very glad I got the impression I would love these books from the reviews I read and bought them all in hardcover. The next book is supposed to be out sometime next year, and I can’t wait for it! I haven’t been this excited about a new series since I discovered Wraeththu about a year ago.

Review of The Sparrow
Apr
06
2008

The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
448pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 6/10
Amazon Rating: 4/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.28/5
Good Reads Rating: 4.29/5

Mary Doria Russell’s first novel, The Sparrow, failed to live up to my (rather high) expectations. I had heard that it had well-developed characters, an interesting first contact story, thought-provoking commentary on religious themes, and a haunting ending that stayed with you long after reaching the final page of the book. It sounded exactly like the kind of book I love, but it just did not capture my interest to the extent I had expected, although I did not dislike it. I will most likely not be picking up the sequel, Children of God.

Emilio Sandoz, the once revered Jesuit priest, is now famous as the only survivor of a space mission to the planet Rakhat and infamous as a whore and the murderer of an alien child. The Jesuits are attempting to treat Emilio’s disfigured hands and coerce him into telling them the story of what happened to him while he was away from earth. The story alternates between Emilio and the Jesuits in the year 2060 and flashbacks of the discovery of life on Rakhat, the trip to this distant planet, and the events that occurred there.

The half page long prologue introducing the Jesuit’s desire to go meet God’s other children had me intrigued. The first couple of chapters relating Emilio’s current state made me curious about how he became such a bitter man. I enjoyed most of the parts that took place in the year 2060, but the parts about the past dragged a bit, especially in the beginning. Too much time was spent showing the relationships forged between the members of the space mission and it seemed to take forever for the plot to advance to the actual discovery of alien life and the time spent with the residents of Rakhat. Normally, I would enjoy this, but none of the characters were well-written enough that I found this particularly interesting. They were mostly too perfect or too cheesy or just too obviously meant to fit into a particular stereotype. Somehow the characters just did not appeal to me that much other than the broken Emilio in the present. The interactions between him and the other priests were far more interesting than the dinner parties of the past.

The two main alien species discovered on Rakhat were the more compelling part of the story of the previous life of Emilio, although that was unfortunately a fairly small part of the flashbacks. The less intelligent, more naive Runa were greater in number but subservient to the more vicious Jana’ata. There were the usual common occurrences for first contact stories – misunderstandings abounded between the humans and the aliens and the humans made what they thought was a minor change that turned out to be a big mistake.

After all the mystery surrounding the details of how Emilio came to be the only survivor and such a different man from the person he was when he left, the ending revelation seemed rushed and very anti-climatic. The ending failed to affect me as much as one might expect partially because I already knew what was going to happen, but mostly because I never formed any real emotional attachment to any of the characters. It failed to shock me on the level I had anticipated, and therefore the tragic end did not keep resurfacing to my mind once I had put the book down.

One aspect of this book that was handled well was Emilio’s belief that the reason the obstacles that could have prevented the trip to Rakhat were so easily removed meant that it must be God’s will to go to this planet. Everything seemed so perfect, Emilio felt so happy and blessed about meeting God’s other children and learning to communicate with them, and relations with these aliens seemed to be going wonderfully. Then one little mistake caused the death of everyone left other than Emilio as well as the downfall of Emilio himself. The priest must deal with his guilt about convincing his friends that this mission was God’s will and being the sole survivor.

The stronger points of the descent of Emilio Sandoz, the religious themes, and the alien race are overshadowed by too much time spent with weak, uninteresting characters that I did not come to care about.

6/10

Review of Primary Inversion
Apr
05
2008

Primary Inversion
by Catherine Asaro
384pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 8.5/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 3.63/5
Good Reads Rating: 3.94/5

Primary Inversion, a novel in the Skolian Saga, is the debut novel of Nebula Award winner Catherine Asaro. Although it is not chronologically the first novel in the series, it is supposed to be a good place to start. The series mostly focuses on the story of different members of one family and a few of the books are closely linked (for instance, The Radiant Seas continues the story begun in Primary Inversion and is about the same characters). This partially space opera, partially hard science fiction novel had me hooked from the early pages and proved to be difficult to put down.

The universe is comprised of two main empires that are at war with each other – the Skolians and the Traders (there is also a third empire that is neutral and is not mentioned very much in this book). The Traders, due to a flaw in their engineering, not only can withstand pain but derive great pleasure from it and therefore particularly enjoy torturing the empathic Skolians.

Primary Inversion is told from the first person point of view of Sauscony, otherwise known as Soz, a Jagernaut Primary (a soldier fairly high in the hierarchy with advanced technology making her strong and quick). While on a neutral planet with her colleages, Soz is hit on by a man who is obviously a Trader and most likely of the ruling family. She notices he does not seem like the other Traders, but cannot immediately figure out why.


This novel has almost everything one could hope for in a space opera – interesting technology and societies, political intrigue, and a pretty cool space battle. A lot of the focus in the middle of the story is on Soz, as she deals with the after-effects of her experience as a spy on a Trader planet and some events in the present. Some may find this to be a little too emo, and there is also some romance, although not too much. This book is certainly not a straight romance novel, as I have heard some of the other books in the series are. The beginning and the end (especially the end) are rather fast-paced and make up for what some may consider to be a slow middle.

Soz is an interesting and well-developed character, both because of her life as a Jagernaut and a member of the royal family and her internal conflict. She is an empath, one who can feel others emotions as though they are her own, yet she is in many ways an emotional cripple. Soz has a hard time expressing her thoughts and feelings and being truly close to people. Her character is likable – believable yet flawed.

This book was very easy to read quickly in spite of a lot of technological explanations (particularly in the beginning when much of the Jagernaut technology was explained to a young man in training). It was mixed in with plenty of dialogue and insight into the characters that kept it from being heavy reading.

If you don’t mind some internal struggle and romance but enjoy space opera featuring well-developed characters and societies, I would recommend giving Primary Inversion a shot. It is very easy to begin reading and very difficult to stop reading. I look forward to reading more books in this series.

8.5/10

Thank Goodness It’s April!
Apr
01
2008

March is over and I could not be happier! It was a very hectic month; I think the only weekend I didn’t have to do work was Easter weekend and of course I was busy with the holiday then. Hopefully, now I can get back into reading and reviewing more.

Even without having a lot of time to read, I have 4 books to review (Primary Inversion, The Sparrow, Melusine, and The Virtu). Now I have just started the final book that is out in Sarah Monette’s The Doctrine of Labyrinths series, The Mirador. I can’t wait for the next book; this is one of my favorite recent finds for books. Unfortunately, it’s not supposed to be out until next year, but it could be a longer wait so I shouldn’t complain. It’s one of those superb character-driven series with great characters (although I would not recommend it to anybody offended by language or sexual content).