Ann Aguirre

Sirantha Jax — (2008-2011) Romantic science fiction. Publisher: Sirantha Jax had the Midas touch. She and her pilot could do no wrong until the incident on the Sargasso. She's the only one who could say what went wrong, but she doesn't remember. Or doesn't want to. Now she's sitting on Perlas Station, waiting for the other shoe to drop. If dream therapy doesn't kill her, the Corp will, and after losing everything but her mind in the crash, she isn't sure she cares. Until the man in the suit strolls into her cell...

Forthcoming (working titles):
Aftermath
Endgame

Grimspace

I'm not usually a sci fi reader. Call me a wuss, but whenever I would try to read sci fi, I usually got too distracted by all the sciencey stuff to remain focused on the story. But I had seen Grimspace advertised on a website and the cover caught my eye. At that point my reaction was about as intellectual as "Ooo, pretty colors..." but hey, attractive covers are a plus. Then the book caught my eye again, this time in the bookstore, and lo and behold, it sounded interesting. I figured, what the heck? What I didn't know at the time of purchase was that it's something called "romantic" sci fi. This left me a little worried; I wanted what was promised to me on the back of the book, not a romance novel with spaceships and lightsabers.

Starting out, I really wasn't sure what to make of it. I found Jax to be inconsistent as a character at first and hard to empathize with. There were little quirks of writing style that drove me crazy, like the incessant use of the word "frag" as a swear and Aguirre's habit of leaving off things like proper nouns from the start of a sentence. For example, you'd get "Could have seen it" rather than "I could have seen it". This became really fragg — er, really frustrating pretty quickly. But for all of that, I found it pretty easy to keep reading. Okay, I suffered a major WTF moment on the planet Lachion. You've got gobs of space open to you and you choose to colonize a planet with packs of man-eating flying dinosaurian creatures that can rip through the plate armor on vehicles and smell blood in the air from miles away? Why!? I think perhaps that taking time for a little bit more history of these sorts of places would be good, and I think Ann Aguirre could manage it fine without bogging her story down.

So about halfway through I suddenly realize that I'm rather enjoying myself. A short time later I notice that I'm really enjoying myself. The book is fun and witty, and those little quirks that were annoying me either thinned out or became less noticeable (hard to tell in the middle of reading). You learn more about Jax, which makes her character come together at last, and she's remarkably easy to empathize with. Her thoughts are often selfish, her first instinct tends to be about what is good only for her, but I could understand where she was coming from after a while. She's an interesting protagonist with a lot of potential, I think.

Grimspace is light on things like technobabble and scientific info dumps, which keeps it from bogging down. And the romantic element really isn't a concern. It's far from being the main plot focus and though it gets a little bit obnoxious towards the end, it never comes close to consuming the whole novel (I think some of this feeling has to do with the first person POV, which makes it difficult to get across the perspective of other characters). Being far from savvy when it comes to science, though, and sci fi for that matter, I wanted the opinion of someone who was — my fiance, in this case. He didn't find the romance element to be obtrusive either and the science that was there was mostly sound (he did question what precisely these dinosaur creatures eat when human flesh is unavailable, since that wasn't mentioned. Which I have to admit is a pretty good point). So that's a pretty strong recommendation from someone who has a clue what they're talking about.

I personally was a bit concerned with the end. I found it seemed a bit too pat, too perfect, and I really hope it will be addressed in Wanderlust. Even with the few misgivings I have, I'm looking forward to Wanderlust a lot. Good thing it'll be out in August. You can see the cover above. Ooo, pretty...
—Beth   Comments

Wanderlust

So one of the problems I've been having recently, when it comes to returning to authors I've already read, is book blurbs that fill me with a sense of foreboding. The plots have been sounding so thin (and often matching). Not Wanderlust though. When I read the blurb for Wanderlust, I got excited.

Now that Sirantha Jax has exposed Farwan Corporation for what it really is, she's kind of suffering a bit of a career dilemma...i.e., she doesn't really have one. Until the Conglomerate offers her a job as an ambassador to Ithiss-Tor (for those of you who have read the first one, that's the home of Velith, the seriously awesome bounty-hunter from Grimspace.) The natives aren't likely to jump at the chance to join the Conglomerate as it is, but Jax is going to have to deal with organized crime, people-eating nasties, and a strange grimspace-related illness before she even gets to Ithiss-Tor. Oh, and let's not forget that things aren't exactly going smoothly with her pilot/lover, March.

One of my biggest worries come out of Grimspace was how Ann Aguirre would handle the fall of Farwan. To me it seemed a bit too tidy at the end there, so I was glad to see that the fallout from the whole mess was spreading far and wide...and the cons were proving to outweigh the pros. There were a lot of consequences to Jax's actions in the last book, and I really like it. I couldn't be happier with the way Aguirre chose to handle it...it was like she was reading my mind.

There are some really fun, exciting scenes along the way. The encounter with the Morgut is creepy and tense (even though the Morgut remind me of the Magog from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, even more in Wanderlust than they did in Grimspace. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing). I loved the return to Lachion, where we get to see the fallout from the events there in Grimspace. Those, along with the encounter with the Syndicate, make for a fast moving and interesting plot. And the end...oh, the end. That was brilliant. Completely threw me for a loop. I just wasn't expecting that, and I loved it.

I always enjoyed the characters in the first book, and they're just as fun in the second one. Velith is probably one of my very favorites, but all of them are likeable (which is impressive when you consider that 98% of them are smart-mouthed headcases with attitude problems). There are two new additions to the crew, both of whom I take to pretty well (and both of whom are smart-mouthed headcases with attitude problems...hmm). And though it's still not fully connecting for me, the relationship dynamic between March and Jax has taken a big leap forward. The banter between them especially showed a lot of spark and chemistry.

My problems with Wanderlust were pretty minor. I found Jax slightly annoying and whiny, and she had a tendency to repeat her thoughts (which can be a consequence of first person POV anyway). One might say this relates to the illness she's struggling with, and as she begins to feel better she does kick herself in the ass and goes back to being productive Jax, which makes for some great excitement. I think part of the problem I had with it was that perhaps I was missing something, or had forgotten something, because the illness all came a little out of left field to me. Like maybe it should have been emphasized a little bit more in the beginning. That, I think, kind of ties into my third problem, that sometimes the writing can be a little dry and bland. I don't always feel that the characters, but Jax especially, react as strongly to what happens as they should.

None of these things were enough to kill my enjoyment that much. I gobbled up Wanderlust in no time flat and would like to have my hands on the next one sometime, oh, yesterday. Possibly the day before. Jax's adventures are fun, and though normally I'm a patient reader, I can't wait for the next one. So I'm just gonna be over here working on my time machine and when I figure out how to get far enough into the future to snag the third book (Doubleblind), I'll let y'all know, okay? —Beth   Comments

Doubleblind

Of all the books I’ve been looking forward to this year, Doubleblind was pretty high up on the list. When we last left our heroine, Jax, she was in the orbit of Ithiss-Tor, preparing for a diplomatic mission with high stakes: Recruit the distant but formidable Ithtorians to the human cause. Fail, and the human race gets eaten by the Morgut. If they’re lucky. But the Ithtorians aren’t very fond of the idea and Jax’s job is to change their minds. She also has to deal with March, whose head is pretty much screwed six ways to Sunday thanks to the war on Lachion in Wanderlust.

I’ve generally enjoyed this series a lot. Ann Aguirre writes well (though her style can take some getting used to at first); the books are well plotted and paced; and the romance doesn’t overwhelm the sci-fi. And on some of those accounts, Doubleblind wasn’t an exception. It might have been short on action, but that was necessary for the story being told.

Hold your nose, folks — here comes the cold water. I had Issues with Doubleblind. Some were big, most were relatively small, but in the end it all became one big wobbly Jenga tower. And you know what happens when the Jenga tower gets wobbly. That’s right, it topples over and crashes, generally eliciting a groan from whoever was last to take a block from the stack. Reading Doubleblind made me feel a bit like that person.

I’ve never minded (and have even enjoyed) the romance in the JAX books, despite the melodrama. Unfortunately, it consumes something like half or more of the book this time, often completely shoving the diplomatic mission out of Jax’s mind. She spends a lot of time thinking about how to “fix” March and how broken he is and how haunted he is, etc. etc. I told myself to just relax, and for a while there I wasn’t minding it so much. But I’m not sure how I feel about things like March trying to strangle Jax in his sleep, post-traumatic stress or no. That’s just not kosher, right there. And while Jax working to make progress with him is pretty powerful, her rather sudden “fix” of him feels too pat and therefore cheap. And honestly, I can’t help feeling (in that cynical part of my cranky black soul) that the entire war on Lachion was contrived to add more melodrama and angst to the relationship between Jax and March.

I hate to have to make this particular pun, but Jax’s attitudes towards the Ithtorians Just Bugs Me. Her ‘voice’ is derisive from the get-go, referring to the Ithtorians as Bugs, which she (and thus the readers) knows is considered derogatory. I would think she would at least start with some respect towards them, considering that her close friend Vel is an Ithtorian. In fact, overall I don’t care much for the way Ann Aguirre represents an alien culture here. The Ithtorians are ambitious and ruthless; they don’t care about actual truth and justice; anyone different is considered unstable and sent to a cruel life in the mines. Odder still, this attitude is greatly at odds with the environment they choose: Generally beautiful architecture and lots of plant life, and a special bow called a wa, which can apparently be used to communicate entire lines of flowery poetry.

The peripheral characters, outside of Vel and Doc, are alarmingly absent. They’re there, as such, but their actual presence is rare. And a few of the times they are present, they’re still only scenery, with no actual speaking lines. That’s a shame. Jael, Hit, and Dina are fascinating characters, with back stories rife with plot material. I wouldn’t have minded a little more time on them, a bit less on The Jax and March Show.

Speaking of characters (this is where I’m about to get semi-spoilery, just a heads up) one of the things that I often find frustrating about first person books in the tendency towards character assassination. You know: You see a character only through the MC’s point of view and then something happens that is completely and utterly counter to everything you know about said character. It’s the easiest thing in the world to say “Oh, but you only ever saw them through so-and-so’s eyes” but sorry, I don’t buy that. So when one of the secondary characters does a face-heel-turn, I don’t believe it. I’ve got an answer in my head for why it looks like this character betrayed Jax but why in fact they really didn’t — only they did.

I’m left sort of scratching my head. Why? Why didn’t we see any signs of this? Even Jax herself can only come up with one “hint” that she should have seen. That’s not satisfactory to me. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Carol Berg (who has an unnerving knack for making you, the reader, feel as if you have in fact been betrayed by this character yourself) but to me it’s a sign of poor writing. It’s jarring and far too pat, and feels like Ann Aguirre didn’t have a clue herself what would happen until she wrote it. Perhaps if the secondary characters weren’t MIA for some ninety percent of the book it could have been handled more smoothly, but there you have it.

I had myriad little problems with Doubleblind as well. I was a few steps ahead of Jax for most of the book (except where I couldn’t be due to my logic just not bending that way) and couldn’t help wondering what was taking her so long. There’s some inconsistencies as well — I’m pretty sure when Jax first meets Vel, she thinks of him as a “Slider” and is creeped out by the Ithtorian ability to look like anyone, even your best friend; but in Doubleblind this is suddenly a learned ability (being able to appear as human) and one only Vel knows. Which is unfortunate because it could have provided a rather awesome plot twist here instead of the confusing turn of events we got.

Because I tend to mull a book over before reviewing it, Doubleblind has taken some hits in retrospect. The more my mind wandered through it, the more I stepped in plot holes. But I did mostly enjoy reading it at the time. And really, no one is perfect. Doubleblind might be a bit of a let down but I remain confident in Aguirre’s ability to write a well-balanced story of action, adventure, and romance. —Beth   Comments