melsocool's review against another edition
4.0
The characters were a bit shallow. There was a little too much going on in the story and too little writing to properly flesh the story out. That said, it is compelling. I hope the later books on the series improve.
paradoxically's review against another edition
3.0
I've read Grimspace a couple of times already, and it's a good book. It has a solid main character, as well as an interesting and diverse cast that compliment Jax, and the story, well. It does take a little to get into--not because of Jax (or at least not for me), but mainly because of a few characters that just sort of grate on you and make you want to strangle them. Just a little bit. Um.
The beginning of the book is pretty bumpy. Jax comes off rather harshly, even after all that she has gone through. Very rough, very brash, and kind of broken in various ways. The other characters aren't much better. They rescued Jax from what is pretty much certain death, but they aren't really glad to do it. I think it just bothered me that they planned to use Jax--and for people who plan to use her, they don't really try to ease her into things, or even be all that pleasant to her (well, a few of them, anyway). Granted, they have their own reasons for being as they are, but it never failed to give me prickly, irritated feelings.
I like main characters best, always. It bugs me when people are crap to them without (to me) a really good reason for it. Or even then, aha. This contributes to huge amounts of my feelings towards the beginning of the book, while others would probably think everything is fine and dandy and they're just getting use to each other.
Still, the book does get better and things do smooth out to a much more enjoyable read. The romance is pretty typical alpha, inscrutable male meets and has endless little fights with the main character that ultimately culminate in love and so on. Not going to lie, I'm a sucker for this, so I don't mind the trope at all. The plot is a bit messy and it jumps around rather quickly. You kind of want the author to have a more narrowed focus; or at least have a focus that is a bit tighter than this execution.
The prose is very nice to read though. It's smooth, it's easy, I rather like the writing style. It just feels like the first book an author puts out. Which it is. Rough around the edges, but holds a lot of potential. Overall, a solid start to a series. 3 stars.
The beginning of the book is pretty bumpy. Jax comes off rather harshly, even after all that she has gone through. Very rough, very brash, and kind of broken in various ways. The other characters aren't much better. They rescued Jax from what is pretty much certain death, but they aren't really glad to do it. I think it just bothered me that they planned to use Jax--and for people who plan to use her, they don't really try to ease her into things, or even be all that pleasant to her (well, a few of them, anyway). Granted, they have their own reasons for being as they are, but it never failed to give me prickly, irritated feelings.
I like main characters best, always. It bugs me when people are crap to them without (to me) a really good reason for it. Or even then, aha. This contributes to huge amounts of my feelings towards the beginning of the book, while others would probably think everything is fine and dandy and they're just getting use to each other.
Still, the book does get better and things do smooth out to a much more enjoyable read. The romance is pretty typical alpha, inscrutable male meets and has endless little fights with the main character that ultimately culminate in love and so on. Not going to lie, I'm a sucker for this, so I don't mind the trope at all. The plot is a bit messy and it jumps around rather quickly. You kind of want the author to have a more narrowed focus; or at least have a focus that is a bit tighter than this execution.
The prose is very nice to read though. It's smooth, it's easy, I rather like the writing style. It just feels like the first book an author puts out. Which it is. Rough around the edges, but holds a lot of potential. Overall, a solid start to a series. 3 stars.
orangesyellows's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
tense
medium-paced
3.0
mousegrey's review against another edition
Distracted by other books and not quite in the right headspace. I also want to do a reread of this series (and all the books I own) while taking notes and quotes etc, which means starting from the beginning.
lynseyisreading's review against another edition
3.0
What a shame.
(This is not really a review, just a rambling observation).
Such a good idea and a nice cast of characters. Sadly, it lost my interest pretty quickly.
One of my biggest pet peeves when reading is when characters start acting as if they've known each other a lot longer than they have, or are a lot closer than I feel they should be. It completely stops me from being able to connect to them. Here, the main character was saying things like, 'he always does that' and ' I can't remember a time when I didn't feel that way about him' after what felt like about 30 minutes. When an author races ahead of herself like this leaving her readers behind by overestimating their level of involvement, it makes me stop trusting the story. And if I don't trust it, I can't lose myself in it.
Add to that a plot that started strongly, but began meandering at the midway point until if fizzled and died - a quiet death, too, not even anything showy or dramatic - and it had lost me altogether.
Still, I give it three starts for the interesting premise.
3 stars! ★★★
(This is not really a review, just a rambling observation).
Such a good idea and a nice cast of characters. Sadly, it lost my interest pretty quickly.
One of my biggest pet peeves when reading is when characters start acting as if they've known each other a lot longer than they have, or are a lot closer than I feel they should be. It completely stops me from being able to connect to them. Here, the main character was saying things like, 'he always does that' and ' I can't remember a time when I didn't feel that way about him' after what felt like about 30 minutes. When an author races ahead of herself like this leaving her readers behind by overestimating their level of involvement, it makes me stop trusting the story. And if I don't trust it, I can't lose myself in it.
Add to that a plot that started strongly, but began meandering at the midway point until if fizzled and died - a quiet death, too, not even anything showy or dramatic - and it had lost me altogether.
Still, I give it three starts for the interesting premise.
3 stars! ★★★
zoealyce's review against another edition
4.0
So may I just say that this is the first time I've really ventured into sci-fi. I downloaded this book far too excited for the premise, and as you can see that I read this whole book in a mere 4 days; the premise was good.
In fact, I loved this much more than I'd like to admit! That geeky little part of me that has emerged is doing fist pumps as we speak!
I have to admit a couple of things that annoyed me though - Thus the not quite 5 star rating.
Firstly I found the first couple of chapters quite clunky, and I didn't really understand what was going on. It wasn't until chapter 5-6 that I stopped feeling dumb and realised that we weren't meant to know the full story just yet.
Secondly, to begin with I really struggled putting faces to the names of each character. I haven't decided if that has to do with my goldfish brain memory.. Or if the characters where simply all introduced all together and with little description.. Either way it's confusing and annoying.
And lastly but definitely not least is holy crap; how many God damned times do I need to read "oh Mary" is one book!? Use a real curse word! Even the word "shit" would read better 4 times on a page than "oh Mary" or "dear Mary" or just plain friggen "Mary"! Argh! Jax is 33, I'm sure she won't get a smack for letting the f-bomb slip!!!
Anyway.. I'm more than half way through book 2 and bless Mary the whole Mary swearing has been culled! Thank Mary for that! - see how damn ridiculous that reads!?
Pain in the arse phrases aside, I truly enjoyed this book... In fact I fell in love with this book! Jax is such a kick arse, and I really identify with her stubbornness.
We don't even need to mention March or I'll be typing all night *gushes*
"So would I recommend this?" You find yourself asking..
Yes! Yes you should! Jax is awesome, March is sexy and all other characters are interesting and unique.
The plot is well planned out, and the story progresses at a steady pace. The writing improves as the plot unravels, and you'll be left wanting more!
4 out of 5 fragging stars!!!
In fact, I loved this much more than I'd like to admit! That geeky little part of me that has emerged is doing fist pumps as we speak!
I have to admit a couple of things that annoyed me though - Thus the not quite 5 star rating.
Firstly I found the first couple of chapters quite clunky, and I didn't really understand what was going on. It wasn't until chapter 5-6 that I stopped feeling dumb and realised that we weren't meant to know the full story just yet.
Secondly, to begin with I really struggled putting faces to the names of each character. I haven't decided if that has to do with my goldfish brain memory.. Or if the characters where simply all introduced all together and with little description.. Either way it's confusing and annoying.
And lastly but definitely not least is holy crap; how many God damned times do I need to read "oh Mary" is one book!? Use a real curse word! Even the word "shit" would read better 4 times on a page than "oh Mary" or "dear Mary" or just plain friggen "Mary"! Argh! Jax is 33, I'm sure she won't get a smack for letting the f-bomb slip!!!
Anyway.. I'm more than half way through book 2 and bless Mary the whole Mary swearing has been culled! Thank Mary for that! - see how damn ridiculous that reads!?
Pain in the arse phrases aside, I truly enjoyed this book... In fact I fell in love with this book! Jax is such a kick arse, and I really identify with her stubbornness.
We don't even need to mention March or I'll be typing all night *gushes*
"So would I recommend this?" You find yourself asking..
Yes! Yes you should! Jax is awesome, March is sexy and all other characters are interesting and unique.
The plot is well planned out, and the story progresses at a steady pace. The writing improves as the plot unravels, and you'll be left wanting more!
4 out of 5 fragging stars!!!
diaryofthebookdragon's review against another edition
4.0
Sirantha Jax is one of those series that I've been planning to read for ages, but never got the time. I regret my procrastination so much, since this looks like will turn out to be one of my favorites.
What did I like in Grimspace?
+ Exploration of weird new planets and species.
+ Kick-ass heroine with stubborn streak. Jax plows trough and somehow manages not to get killed. With her determination, she reminded me of Kate Daniels.
+ A crew of quirky side-characters with well-developed personalities. I felt like they were one big dysfunctional family.
+ Mystery part of the story was good and I didn't know what was going to happen next.
What could be better...
- At first, I was a bit overwhelmed with too intense world-building. It took some time until all the terms and internal politics made sense to me.
- The romance. There is potential, but something was missing for me to see when the 'spark' ignited between them.
[b:Grimspace|1828067|Grimspace (Sirantha Jax, #1)|Ann Aguirre|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1298780718s/1828067.jpg|1827857] reminded me of [b:Fortune's Pawn|15790894|Fortune's Pawn (Paradox #1)|Rachel Bach|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375610325s/15790894.jpg|21512449], another great sf series with kick-ass heroine I love. While there were some minor flaws, there is a lot of potential in this series. I'll definitely read the next book soon!
What did I like in Grimspace?
+ Exploration of weird new planets and species.
+ Kick-ass heroine with stubborn streak. Jax plows trough and somehow manages not to get killed. With her determination, she reminded me of Kate Daniels.
+ A crew of quirky side-characters with well-developed personalities. I felt like they were one big dysfunctional family.
+ Mystery part of the story was good and I didn't know what was going to happen next.
What could be better...
- At first, I was a bit overwhelmed with too intense world-building. It took some time until all the terms and internal politics made sense to me.
- The romance. There is potential, but something was missing for me to see when the 'spark' ignited between them.
[b:Grimspace|1828067|Grimspace (Sirantha Jax, #1)|Ann Aguirre|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1298780718s/1828067.jpg|1827857] reminded me of [b:Fortune's Pawn|15790894|Fortune's Pawn (Paradox #1)|Rachel Bach|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375610325s/15790894.jpg|21512449], another great sf series with kick-ass heroine I love. While there were some minor flaws, there is a lot of potential in this series. I'll definitely read the next book soon!
nakedsushi's review against another edition
2.0
Imagine Anita Blake, but in space, written into a terrible Firefly fanfiction. That's what Grimspace read like. The first 1/3 of the book was entertaining in the way that exploring a new world and new characters is, but I soon realized that each character was just a cardboard cutout.
Sirantha Jax, the main character is mouthy, selfish, and thinks she's hot stuff, but there's no actual evidence of why she's like that. Oh, other than she was born with some special J-gene that lets her jump spaceships into some dimension called Grimspace that allows faster-than-light travel. It's not a skill she learned through heard-earned experience, so I have no respect for her and her attitude.
Then there's March, the love interest who's very alpha-male, tortured soul, with a heart of gold. Boring. Their chemistry is hardly believable beyond the cliched "You just understand me like no one else does."
The only good thing I can say is that it was a short book.
Sirantha Jax, the main character is mouthy, selfish, and thinks she's hot stuff, but there's no actual evidence of why she's like that. Oh, other than she was born with some special J-gene that lets her jump spaceships into some dimension called Grimspace that allows faster-than-light travel. It's not a skill she learned through heard-earned experience, so I have no respect for her and her attitude.
Then there's March, the love interest who's very alpha-male, tortured soul, with a heart of gold. Boring. Their chemistry is hardly believable beyond the cliched "You just understand me like no one else does."
The only good thing I can say is that it was a short book.