Dear Ellen Connor (aka Ann Aguirre and Carrie Lofty):

I wanted to love this book. I really did. You are both well known names in the industry, and both of you have high praise for your novels. I thought this might be a dynamite pairing. And it has potential. The concept is not an overdone one: a romance in a post-apocalyptic setting. I can get behind that. But I felt like the treatment of it was ham-handed at best. I’m having a hard time mentally articulating what I found so irksome about this book, so I thought I would make you a top five list instead of recapping the plot.

There are spoilers everywhere, so please do not read further if you are not interested.

1) There is no apocalypse you don’t like: famine, plague, werewolves, technology, etc. My problem was that you didn’t stick with just one. Apparently cars stopped working and so did electricity. However, not all electricity stopped working. Radios and SOME cars still work. Guns still work. Generators work? I guess it is a discretionary apocalypse. I don’t know. And then if that wasn’t enough of an apocalypse, everyone is turning into nightmare wolf-dog-things. Which is brought on by an infectious disease that has wiped out cities. And the heroine is also developing psychic powers. I guess this would have worked for me better if you’d stuck with just one aspect and developed it. Instead, we have a constantly mutating – pun intended – apocalypse that I had a hard time following.

2) Tru – Why is he a POV character? I found him smirky and annoying and a massive cliché (he’s the token Goth teenager in the apocalypse, of course). Then I read the descriptions of the next two books and realized that you were setting him up to be a hero for the third book. Eh. Are goths even edgy anymore? I think Hot Topic is about as edgy as American Eagle nowadays.

3) The hero. I did not have problems with his personality. I did have problems with his portrayal. The little description we are given of him is that his hair and his skin are dark due to the fact that he is clearly mixed race. At this point, I turned my book over.

One of these things is not like the other. And that sucks, but I know it is not the author’s fault. So I keep reading…and then felt a twinge of concern. When his race does come up, it’s in a negative context. Let me show you a few quotes.

“When the dark man comes for you, don’t be afraid.”

This is part of the prophecy that Jenna’s father left for her. I cringed. The dark man??? What does his race have to do with the prophecy? Why can’t it just be ‘When the stranger comes for you, don’t be afraid?’

But it gets better/worse.

“I never knew my folks and grew up in foster care,” he said, his throat tight. “A lot of being smacked around, but not a lot of supervision. I knocked off my first convenience store when I was fourteen.”

I just don’t know what to think. Now not only is he the ‘dark man’, he is a criminal brought up in foster homes. You want a clichéd mixed-race hero? Here you go.

Mind you, this book is not chock-full of racefail. Those are really the only mentions of Mason’s past, and I suppose that’s why I don’t know what to make of it. It happens early in the book and I read the rest of the story warily as a result.

But don’t worry – Mason’s the most likable one in the story! Especially compared to…

2) The heroine, Jenna. God. I wanted to slap her. Repeatedly. She is blonde, and privileged, and naturally can do anything and everything tossed in her direction. Mason thinks she is perfect and beautiful and he is not worthy of someone as perfect as her. She becomes the leader of the group when Mason wants to leave everyone behind. She is the nurturer and den mother and defender all in one. She’s perfect. Literally. Even when she’s described, she’s described as perfect.

“…her eyes closing and her priceless-work-of-art chest expelling a long exhale.”

Not only is she perfect, but she develops special powers. She can hear Mason’s thoughts and can communicate with him. And later on, Jenna has a plot development that makes me totally roll my eyes so hard I feared they would fall out of my head.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

1) The similes and metaphors drove me crazy. Every time I ran into a very obvious one, it threw me out of the story and I wanted to call a friend and tell them how awful they were. Can they be that bad? You tell me. Here’s some of my favorites.

• Mason frowned. So did Jenna and Angela, trading their confusion like bread recipes.
• And his cock got hard as an iron pipe.
• His cock blazed against her belly, hard enough to hammer nails.
• Strung tight as fishing line with a whopper on the end, Mason raked blunt nails along the backs of his forearms.
• Her fear tugged him like a parachute deploying.
• His chest was a volcano with its top blown open—burning lungs, thrashing heart, and the sick knowledge that he’d let this happen.
• But Mason turned blasted eyes on him, pulling him into one of those post-modernist paintings where every road led to hell.
• He felt her absence like the end of a rainstorm. One minute his mind was clouded ovee with the interference she always brought. The next…nothing.
• Incredulity melted into a feeling brighter and stronger, like Sarah Connor must’ve felt when she found out Kyle went back in time for her.

Should you name check your namesake in your book? My gut tells me no. Someone please come and trade me your thoughts on the matter. We can share them…like bread recipes.

Reading this might make you think I loathed the book. Not true. While I did roll my eyes quite a bit, I kept picking it up to see what would happen next. I feel I should give the authors credit for showing people struggling to fight in an apocalypse, rather than taking the easy way out and showing it a few years later. The story itself was fairly fast paced and full of action. If you are looking for apocalypse romance, this is a very good place to start. I just wish I had connected with the characters, the writing, or the world more than I did. Instead, I did not connect with any of it. Am I on board for the next one in the series? Despite my mocking…probably. So that is a point in its favor, right? Right.

D

All best,

January

Book Link | Kindle | Amazon | nook | BN | Borders
| Sony| KoboBooks

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: His Secret Past by Ellen Hartman
2. REVIEW: Silent Night Stakeout by Kerry Connor
3. REVIEW: Circumstantial Marriage by Kerry Connor

Welcome to Ace and Roc's forthcoming books giveaway!

Thanks again to Dear Author for giving me this opportunity to let you know about some of our terrific upcoming titles. As always, there are too many great books for me to mention all of them, so you can look at our site (http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/specialinterests/scifi/index.html) to see everything we publish.

March 2010

SHALADOR'S LADY BY ANNE BISHOP

I've said it before and I'll say it again-’Anne Bishop is really special. Her Black Jewels novels are intense and sensual and both her anti-heroes and the way she turns fantasy tropes on their heads made her books groundbreaking when they first came out. SHALADOR'S LADY continues the story of Lady Cassidy, the Rose-Jeweled Queen who is striving to restore her land (and struggling to believe in herself). If you've read Anne Bishop before, then you know it's unusual for her to feature a character with a lighter-colored (and less powerful) jewel. In both this book and the previous story about Lady Cassidy, THE SHADOW QUEEN, I love how Anne is exploring what it really means to be a Queen (a witch who rules the Blood, and is considered to be the land's heart and the Blood's moral center). It's not just about how much fire power you've got.

FIRST TRUTH by Dawn Cook

Dawn is most known for the terrific urban fantasy she writes under the name Kim Harrison (I'm looking forward to digging into BLACK MAGIC SANCTION myself). So not as many people are aware of the wonderful traditional fantasy novels she wrote as Dawn Cook. We are reissuing them with beautiful new covers, and FIRST TRUTH is kicking it off. It's a romantic fantasy, about Alissa, a young woman who never believed in magic. But her mother insists she's inherited her father's magical ability and must go to the Hold-’the only place her talents can be trained. As she learns to use her powers, she also finds love with a wandering musician. The style of these books is necessarily different from the Kim Harrison novels, but readers who also enjoy traditional fantasy should have a great time. There are three more books in the Truth series, and they will be released in May, July, and September.

April 2010

HELL FIRE by Ann Aguirre

This is the latest in Ann's Corine Solomon books, a terrific urban fantasy series about a woman who can touch an object and know its history. Corine's voice is tremendous and whether the book takes place in the southwest (BLUE DIABLO) or the steamy south, the setting comes alive. In HELL FIRE, Corine leaves Texas to go back home to Kilmer, Georgia, in order to discover the truth behind her mother's death and the origins of her "gift". Her ex-boyfriend Chance (who doesn't want to be her "ex") is there as well, having promised to lend his particularly supernatural brand of luck to Corine's search. (Fun fact: all the book titles in this series are tequila cocktails. I'm not a drinker, but the internet is an amazing research tool!)

SILVER BORNE by Patricia Briggs

I am so excited for you to read the next Mercy Thompson novel! If you're new to the series, Mercy is a car mechanic (and shapeshifter). She lives in a world of vampires, werewolves, fae and witches, and while humans are aware preternatural beings exist ever since some of the more "harmless" fae came out, what humans know is only the tip of the iceberg. It's so hard to know how much to tell you about the book itself since I don't want to spoil anyone. I'll just say that SILVER BORNE starts off with Mercy getting the message that she needs to return a book of fae lore to the person she borrowed it from, but things quickly become more complicated when Mercy finds out her werewolf friend, Samuel, is in trouble and she needs to go to the hospital where he works to help him. There are some scenes in this one between Mercy and Adam, her mate, that made my heart skip a beat, they were so emotionally intense. This is a wonderful series, with characters who grow and change, and a world that keeps getting richer with each book.

May 2010

DEAD IN THE FAMILY by Charlaine Harris

DEAD IN THE FAMILY is the much anticipated new novel in Charlaine's Sookie Stackhouse series, the basis for the HBO series TRUE BLOOD. The Sookie books have a lot of heart and thanks to you, wonderful readers, they've come a long way since the first in the series, DEAD UNTIL DARK, was published in 2001 as an Ace original paperback. Being an Eric fan, here's the tidbit from the cover copy of DEAD IN THE FAMILY that caught my attention:

Sookie is hurt and she's mad. Just about the only bright spot in her life-’besides the fact that she is, after all, still alive-’is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman, who is under scrutiny by the new vampire king because of their relationship.

BEWITCHED & BETRAYED by Lisa Shearin

If you think "sexy goblin" is a misnomer, than you've never read Lisa Shearin. Lisa writes traditional fantasy with a modern attitude, and the story is told in the sassy first person voice of Raine Benares, an elf sorceress who got stuck with an artifact of unimaginable power (that unfortunately eats souls). Whoever controls Raine, controls the artifact, and all this constant running and fighting to get away from the people after her is really putting a damper on her life. On top of that she's got an elf paladin and a goblin mage vying for her affections. There are significant relationship developments in this one-’you won't want to miss it!

THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD by Suzanne McLeod

First in a brand-new urban fantasy series, this is about Genevieve Taylor, a sidhe-’one of the noble fae-’and she's unusual even in a London where celebrity vampires, eccentric goblins, and scheming lesser fax mix freely with humanity. She's also a rising star at Spellcrackers.com, where she finds the "M" in magic-’which can mean anything from mischief to malice to murder.

GHOSTS & ECHOES by Lyn Benedict

This is the next book about Sylvie Lightner, an unlicensed PI working out of Miami who specializes in cases involving the magicus mundi, i.e. things that go bump in the night. Sylvie wants an easy case this time, something straightforward, so she agrees to investigate a series of thefts in her area-’but nothing is as simple as it seems. The plot involves Hands of Glory, Sylvie's teenage sister, and coming back from the dead, and it's fantastic. (I personally find hands of glory incredibly creepy, and I was getting chills, in a good way.) This is an excellent series, well worth a try if you like your urban fantasy on the dark side.

Anne Sowards is an executive editor at Penguin Group (USA) Inc., where she primarily acquires and edits fantasy and science fiction for the Ace and Roc imprints. Some of the great authors she works with include Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Ilona Andrews, Karen Chance, Jack Campbell, and Rob Thurman. When she’s not reading, she listens to Chinese rap and spends way too much time playing video games. Follow her at http://twitter.com/AnneSowards.

We are giving away:

• SHALADOR'S LADY / Anne Bishop – 3 ARCs
• FIRST TRUTH / Dawn Cook – 3 finished copies
• HELL FIRE / Ann Aguirre – 3 ARCs
• DEAD IN THE FAMILY / Charlaine Harris – 1 ARC (sorry, they are very scarce)
• BEWITCHED & BETRAYED / Lisa Shearin – 3 ARCs
• THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD / Suzanne McLeod – 3 ARCs
• GHOST & ECHOES / Lyn Benedict – 3 ARCs
• SILVER BORNE / Patricia Briggs – 3 finished copies

TO WIN:   Leave a comment listing the top two books you would want AND tell us your favorite Ace/Roc book (in other words, build up our to be read list)

Related posts:

1. ACE/ROC Fall Fantastic Preview and Giveaway
2. BERKLEY Fall Fantastic Preview and Giveaway
3. GIVEAWAY: Bantam/Ballantine’s Fall Release Preview

In reviewing my emails (because my memory, as you know, is terribly spotty), I see I received the book for review from you. I had enjoyed Grimspace and heard that this book was fresh for the romance genre and it is. Kyra is a grifter, working with her father, until he is beaten and left for dead by a casino owner named Serrano. Kyra runs a long con on Serrano, not just to take his money, but to humiliate him. She does this by learning what Serrano likes and transforms herself into the perfect woman, luring him in, and then ultimately humiliating him by gambling away his engagement ring, taking his money, and publicly admitting she just dated him for the money.

Serrano has his security guy hire a hitman to retrieve the money and kill Kyra, in that order. Reyes is one of the best but he’s a hitman with scruples. He is meticulous about who he kills and for whom he kills. He agrees to take down Kyra because she allegedly killed her father. A woman that kills her father needs killing herself in Reyes’ mind. Foster, the guy who hired Reyes, didn’t have a long history with Reyes and so it seemed a little farfetched that Reyes would just accept the “report” given to him, as if that was sufficient to whitewash his kill. Reyes is set up, curiously, as a one man judgment squad. He decides if you are worthy of taking out based on the information provided and he takes you out. Reyes realizes later he’s been lied to by Foster by I wondered how often he has been lied to. It’s not something Reyes even considers.

Kyra and Reyes have convenient morals. Kyra only screws over bad people and Reyes usually only kills bad men. Bad being relative here. They both don’t like drug dealers and at one point burn down a meth lab. Later they take a bad drunk/drug dealer on the side for a little con. Like many cons or morally ambiguous characters, they are good people to the core. Their justifications somehow make them all good. Whether that’s a realistic view of things or not, it’s how the story is played. And for all Kyra’s “wickedness” as Rey would put it affectionately, she still reads fairly innocent.

Admittedly, Reyes is pretty heartless. There is some sort of perverseness in Reyes character that he would have sex with someone he planned to kill. Later in the story, we are shown a real streak of ruthlessness. In the end, Reyes loves only Kyra. She’s his lodestone, and, I imagine serves as his conscience in the future.

There were other things that niggled such as Kyra so easily accepting Reyes as a partner. For someone who was on the run, this seemed improbable and quite stupid. She never even once thought that Serrano was out to get her; that Reyes somehow just so coincidentally shows up in two backwater towns hundreds of miles apart.

The sexual tension is really well done and after a wild romp in the bed, Kyra considers whether to break her no second night rule. It’s inevitable that she will, but the delicious tension that overlays the wait adds spice to the story. I was surprised at how sexy the book was but it fit with the danger. The adrenaline rode the two of them hard, particularly after a fight. I thought the romance was particularly well down. You really see how these two fit together.

They both knew each other’s flaws. I think this is why the con/killer setup worked so well. Neither was a deceived innocent.

Reyes ground his teeth. Something dark and primitive swept over him at hearing this asshole practice his sloppy endearments on her. It was all Reyes could do not to punch the son of a bitch in the face, which told him he had a problem. No wonder she’d played Serrano-’and so well. Kyra was a pro, all right, well schooled in manipulating a man’s emotions. And that made him twice the fool-’because even knowing what she did, he found himself susceptible.

Toward the latter half of the book, it really lights up. Kyra and Reyes fall for each other. For some reason Kyra begins to trust Reyes. For Reyes, Kyra is like no other. Her gift for the con, her matching scruples, her wicked ways all allow him to dream of a perfect kind of marriage, not in the white dress church style, but of the matching of hearts and souls.

As the two travel along, Kyra biding her time and Reyes trying to figure out if he kills her or scotches his perfect reputation and throws in with her, the story grows darker and darker. Kyra and Reyes are some kind of Bonnie and Clyde with the bad guys trailing them making things worse and worse. When the truth comes out on both ends, Reyes realizes how close to heaven he touched with Kyra now that he’s lost her and Kyra who is sick with shame over being duped and in bed with an assassin.

This book is very edgy and I appreciate the risks that it takes with the genre itself. It’s dark and the characters aren’t always doing likeable things. There is no questioning of morality in this story. You take the characters as they are. Everyone in that group of grifters, drug dealers, killers, thieves, have a differing take on the right v. wrong thing. Living up to your reputation, making sure you don’t harm those who don’t deserve it. That’s the code by which the characters of this book live. Trusting someone is the hardest thing to do, the most vulnerable thing to do. These emotions were well conveyed by both characters and while some of the contrivances that worked to bring Kyra and Reyes together made the earlier part of the book less believable, the romance made up for it. B-

Best regards

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Skin to Skin by Dionne Galace
2. REVIEW: Second Skin by Caitlin Kittredge
3. REVIEW: Still Waters by Deanna Lee

In the First Sale series, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Ann Aguirre debuted with break out urban fantasy titles, author of Grimspace and Wanderlust. This month, Ann’s serving up Blue Diablo, a little more romance with your heaping of urban fantasy. On sale date is April 7, 2009, but may be in bookstores now.

***

My First Sale: or How Defenestrating the Rulebook Worked for Me

Before Grimspace, I wrote a number of novels. I wrote to the market. I tried to please. I got a small break when I signed with my first agent, but I was still writing to the market. I tried my hand at contemporary romance, which wasn’t my strong suit. I was so frustrated. Some of the joy went out of writing too. I started to feel like, “What’s the point? Nobody but me will ever read this.”

To counteract that feeling, I went with it. I said to myself, “Okay, if nobody but me will ever read it, then I’ll write for me.” I sat down at the keyboard with a blank mind — no plot, no idea, no characters, and just began to WRITE. It was-magical; I rediscovered the joy. I didn’t think about selling it. I tossed out every rule I had ever heard or read, every consideration about what was hot and what I might sell. The book that emerged was-different, sooo different that my current agent didn’t want it.

My first big break came when I signed with Laura Bradford, who fell in love with Jax. She didn’t rep SF at the time, but she learned the ropes for me. (I thought I’d written a futuristic romance, mind you. Shows what I know.) She signed me on March 29, pitched on April 11 (my husband’s birthday!), and within two weeks, we had a nibble. An editor fell in love with the book and she took it immediately for approval. I was on tenterhooks.

On that fateful day, May 14, my son forgot his lunch and his swimming kit. I hiked over to his school, seven blocks away, so I was sweaty when I got back to my home office. (Walking on a hot day in Mexico City is tough!) There was a cryptic email waiting for me from Laura. “Hiya, pop onto IM when you get a chance, would you?” My first thought was: crap, she wants to let me down easy. I knew, despite the editor’s great love for Jax, our nibble was a long shot. There were other pitches out, but none at the approval stage. So I squared my shoulders, signed on, and typed: “I’m here.”

I waited. It was a sunny day. The sky was heartbreak-blue overhead, sunlight dappling the fine pale whorls in the bark of the Noche Buena tree outside my office window. I know this because I stared at it for ten minutes, waiting. I scuffed my bare feet. Waited. I studied the purple bougainvillea climbing the terracotta garden wall and decided it needed trimming. Fidgeted. I thought stuff like, if this is good news, I’ll light 27 candles for the Virgin Mary, and then become a good Catholic. I’ll give up sex for Lent. Please don’t let this be another rejection. I don’t have any chocolate in the house.

Then Laura’s reply popped up: “We have an offer from Ace.”

Ace. My dream publisher. Their authors include those I’ve venerated over long years of dreaming: Sharon Shinn, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris. The idea that I would join such august company undid me. When I caught my breath, I yelled until the housekeeper came to see if I was hurt. Through tears, I told her, “Marta, vendí mi libro! Vendí mi libro!!” and then she bounced too.

And that’s how defenestrating the rulebook worked for me.

Related posts:

1. My First Sale by Tracy Ann Warren
2. My First Sale by Cindy Gerard
3. My First Sale by Carrie Vaughn

• DELICIOUS by Sherry Thomas*, Grade A
• CRY WOLF by Patricia Briggs, Grade A
• PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS by Sherry Thomas*, Grade A-/A
• WICKED INTENTIONS by Lydia Joyce, Grade A-
• “LOS CONVERSOS” by Jesse Sandoval, in the anthology TANGLE, Grade A-
• “EMBER” by Bettie Sharpe**, Grade A-
• THE EDGE OF IMPROPRIETY by Pam Rosenthal, Grade A-
• THE DUKE OF SHADOWS by Meredith Duran*, Grade A-
• “REMEMBER” by Astrid Amara, in the anthology TANGLE, Grade A-
• YOUR SCANDALOUS WAYS by Loretta Chase, Grade B+/A-
• GRIMSPACE by Ann Aguirre, Grade B+/A-
• “LORD RONAN’S SHOES” by Astrid Amara, in the anthology TANGLE, Grade B+/A-
• QUEEN OF DRAGONS by Shana Abe, Grade B+
• “FERAL MACHINES” by Ginn Hale, in the anthology TANGLE, Grade B+
• LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH by Emily Giffin, Grade B+
• MINE TO POSSESS by Nailini Singh, Grade B+

*Full disclosure from Janine: Meredith Duran and Sherry Thomas are my good friends and critique partners, but since I enjoyed their 2008 books very much, I felt it would be a glaring omission not to include their them on my list of favorites.

**Added by Janine in 2009: Readers should know that I am now exchanging critiques with Bettie Sharpe as well. However, that was not the case when I read “EMBER.”

Related posts:

1. Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jennie F
2. Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jayne
3. Best of 2008 List: Reviewer Jia

To say I was eager to get my hands on a copy of Wanderlust would be a complete understatement. I loved Grimspace. In fact, my only real complaint was that I wanted more. I wanted more Jax, more March, and more about how the big revelation regarding the Corporation would affect them both. But of course, those were answers left for another book. Although not quite as good as the first, I found Wanderlust to be a satisfying sequel with the same intriguing characters, and a skillfully constructed world that continues to grow even richer.

Wanderlust begins not long after Grimspace left off. The Farwan Corporation and its vast power over the universe are no more. The Conglomerate- a once useless organization of planetary representatives- has rushed in to conduct investigations and to seize control. Unfortunately for Jax, she soon finds out that she is broke and in need of employment. She also discovers that the Corporation’s research and training program have been shared with all interested organizations, thus destroying their monopoly on inter-planetary travel, and leaving Jax at loose ends. With no money and few choices, Jax accepts the Conglomerate’s offer to become an ambassador on an important mission to the planet of Ithiss-Tor.

Before she heads out, Jax gains an inkling of how dangerous the mission will be when her self-indulgent mother pops back into her life for the first time in 15 years. It seems that Ramona Jax landed herself in debt to the Syndicate, a powerful underworld organization led by the mysterious Mr. Jewel. Mr. Jewel gives Jax a choice: fail her mission or her mother will die. Of course, Jax isn’t the type to be threatened- even with her own mother’s life. As usual, she counters this serious situation with her own trademark sense of humor. It’s that sense of humor that kept me so engaged in the story, often grinning from ear to ear.

"Do you plan to accept the appointment?" She seems nervous, almost frightened, in fact. Her red-lacquered nails tap out a subliminal statement on the glastique table.

"I thought I’d become a junk dealer." Yes, I’m baiting her deliberately. "Maybe do salvage runs, or possibly just settle down on New Terra and go to work in recycling. Have some brats. Would you like that?" I ask March.

You’re so evil, he tells me silently.

Then he chokes out, eyes watering. "Whatever you want."

Shit, I wish I’d recorded that. I can think of any number of situations where playback would come in handy.

After surviving so much in Grimspace, you’d think Jax could catch a break. Unfortunately for her, there’s no letting up. This time around, she’s suffering from a mysterious illness that leaves her tired, fragile and nearly defenseless. She’s no longer capable of rushing right into all the action, but is instead forced to stand back and watch, often the one needing protection from others. Jax is worried that she could die and copes with this fear by distancing herself from March. The illness leads to even more complications until finally March makes an important decision that will have a great impact on their future. Without giving away too many spoilers here, I’ll just say that I wanted to see much more at this part of the book. I felt that March’s decision was believable in light of his history, but that his subsequent character development on Lachion was rushed. Maybe my problem was that so much of this happened off screen, but it was such a significant change in his character and I wish there had been more page time devoted to it.

Once in awhile you come across certain characters that just remain with you long after you’ve finished a book. For me, I found those characters in the cast of Grimspace and Wanderlust. In particular, I enjoyed getting to know more about the bounty hunter Velith and found his relationship with Jax both amusing and sweet. Jax and March, of course, remain my favorites. After the first book, I was worried that I would lose some interest in their relationship. They were so great together, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough for me. I really need conflict to sustain my interest in a romance. This may frustrate some readers who want their characters to have a HEA, but for me it’s imperative that there’s something more than just smiles and laughter and endless declarations of love. Luckily, there’s plenty of conflict. Jax and March each have their own set of demons to deal with. For Jax, it’s the loss of her lover Kai and learning to trust and to need someone again. For March, it’s his past and a debt that he feels obligated to pay back. Their conflict, a natural progression of the years of suffering and loss that have shaped them, was heart-wrenching and I found myself very caught up in the emotional angst of their relationship.

I had a little trouble getting into the first part of the book. The beginning moves a little slowly, particularly before they get off planet. There are also some plotting issues. Like the first, Wanderlust has an episodic narrative that breaks up the pacing of the book. I didn’t really notice it so much in Grimspace as I did here. Additionally, I had trouble understanding the relevance of certain events and grew increasingly impatient for the story to get back on track. As it turns out, those events lead to consequences that are in fact very relevant to the larger story, but it wasn’t until I had read  ¾ of the book that I began to see the big picture. Towards the end, I had to accept the fact that the series of events that seemingly just got in the way were in fact the actual story. I enjoyed the action, but definitely experienced some frustration as the book progressed.

Overall, I liked Wanderlust. A lot. I didn’t love it as much as Grimspace, but I’m very much a fan of this series, and can’t wait to see what happens next.

B

:) Loonigrrl

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

Related posts:

1. GUEST REVIEW: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
2. REVIEW: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
3. GUEST REVIEW: The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

Thank you for inviting me to write this review of Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace. After reading your review last month I was eager to read this and even more delighted to win one of the 20 ARCs you gave away. I am happy to report that I enjoyed the book as much as you did.

As you know, this book is written in the first person, from heroine Sirantha Jax’s POV. Generally speaking, I prefer a book written from multiple POVs. Maybe it is just what I am used to. But I have to say that this book works very well coming from Jax’s POV. Despite that "limitation" there is a very real sense that all of the characters grow and change as a result of what they go through together. And this ultimately is what makes Grimspace succeed for me. Ms. Aguirre is able to give us a strong sense of the other characters, especially March, even though we are not inside their heads. In your review you pointed out that Jax is not “loveable … [or] particularly honorable.” But, she is honest. During periods of introspection, she analyzes her actions and admits that some of those actions have had negative consequences. Jax grows and learns from her mistakes and eventually she comes to a point where she is able to refer to herself as the "new Jax." She likes herself better, and I as a reader liked her better, too.

As I read this book I was really struck by Ms. Aguirre’s earthy use of language to help us understand Jax’s personality. It is not "nice" language (although it isn’t excessively crude or rude either). The language reinforces the idea that Jax has gone through life with a cocky, devil-may-care attitude, and despite her new-found sense of responsibility, that attitude is still very much a part of who she is. It made her very real to me. There is also some wonderful description that put interesting pictures in my head. Your review referred to the description of grimspace as an "orchid unfurling." My favorite description was this one:

They say you never forget your first glimpse of Gehenna. Over the tall buildings the sky swirls with orange and red, true titian, a feature of the unique atmosphere. Of course that same air would kill human beings; hence they built the entire city inside a dome. Eternal sunset, that’s why the place is so wild. You know the feeling you get just before full dark? Sundown makes you feel like the world burgeons with possibility, and that’s Gehenna for you. (ch. 37)

It really got me wondering what it would be like to see such a sight.

Going in, I was a little worried I’d be able to buy into the romance. While I do enjoy SF/F, I needed the romance angle to work if I was going to be happy with this book. We know right from the start that Jax’s pilot and partner, Kai, died in the crash that is being blamed on Jax. Jax tells us how much she loved Kai. I needed to see Jax grieve for Kai and then set her grief aside believably before she became emotionally attached to March. Fortunately, this part of the book worked very well since it took place over a several month period. Ultimately I found the romance to be very convincing and satisfying. March is a man with unusual psychic abilities. He can read Jax’s thoughts and when they’re together he reacts to most of them with a word or a look. So while we don’t have his POV in the book, we still get a good sense of it through how he reacts to Jax. I really liked how this was done by Ms. Aguirre. Finally, March is not a perfect man. He, too, makes a costly choice. But that saves him from being a stereotypical hero and thus he is a far more interesting character.

I’ve already read the excerpt from Wanderlust (found here) and I’m eagerly awaiting its release in September so I can read more about Jax and March. I see Dina will be back and I hope we see more of Velith (a secondary character who appears late in the book) too. Meanwhile I do recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy adventure and space opera, or to anyone who wants to try something a little different.

Thanks again, Jane!

Phyl

***

Phyl won this book as part of our DearAuthor giveaway. We have another giveaway for Sherry Thomas’ book, Private Arrangements. Other reader opinions for Grimspace:

• Teri, Writer Unboxed
• Bettie Sharpe, Sharp Words
• Tumperkin, Isn’t It Romance?
• Shara, Calico Reaction
• Bernita, An Innocent A-Blog
• Leslie, The Good, The Bad, and Unread
• Azteclady, Karen Knows Best
• Shannon C, Flight Into Fantasy
• Wendy, Kicks & Giggles
• Michele Lee, Michele Lee’s
• Caitie, eHarlequin
• Anime-Babbble, Anime-Babble
• Keilexandra, Eschewed Obfuscation

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
2. GUEST REVIEW: The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
3. GUEST REVIEW: Bad for Each Other by Kate Hathaway

I’m not sure why I respond so well to urban fantasy stories. I think it has to do, in part, with the escapism factor. These books are often gritty but because of the otherworldly nature, it is easy to take. Easy to lose oneself in an entire other world. While Grimspace is not an urban fantasy story (i.e., no retelling of myths and legends) but rather a space odyssey, it still works for all the same reasons.

Sirantha Jax has the J-gene, a sensory gene that allows her to be a jumper. Jumper’s are vital for interstellar travel and therefore minor gods. Only Jax made a mistake or someone made a mistake and her last jump ended with the death of her pilot and lover. Pilot and jumpers are often lovers. Its nearly impossible not to be because the pilot and the jumper become one for that infitesmal moment that the ship and its occupants are “about to slingshot through our target beacon and back out to straight space.” Some pilots can’t even get it up without being “jumped in”.

The world opens up to me, an orchid unfurling at accelerated speed. I think of it as the primeval soup from whence all life originally came, a maelstrom of chaos and energy, sights the human mind isn’t supposed to be able to parse, let alone convert into coherent images that can be used to navigate.

Because of the J-gene I can sense the beacons, feel them pulsing like sentient life, and perhaps they are, for all I know. Perhaps if we could find their frequency, we could converse with them, and discover we’ve long been diving down the gullets of cosmic dragons and shooting out their cloacae to somewhere else, and guess what, they aren’t exactly happy about it. On second thought, some mysteries simply shouldn’t be delved.

I loved that phrase “an orchid unfurling”. I could really envision the stars and the pulse of light that I imagine the ship would give off as it released into the galaxy.

Sore in heart and body, Jax is in the Corp lockup awaiting judgment for the mess she just survived. She knows that the future for her isn’t pretty. Most jumpers only have a set number of jumps inside them before they flame out. Some go crazy and some choose to retire but many know when their last jump is their last jump and refuse to go quietly into the night. That’s Jax or that’s how Jax wanted to be.

March is a man with a savior’s complex. Jumpers are virtually limited to the Corp which means the Corp has the stranglehold on interstellar travel. The Corp is the one making new discoveries, new treaties, conquering new lands. Everyone else is left in the dust. March wants to change that by finding people in remote places that might have the j-gene and turn those people into jumpers but he needs a jumper to do that and when Jax is incarcerated, he sees his opportunity.

This book is probably going to be shelved in the fantasy/science fiction aisle, but it could easily fall into the romance section because it is a romance, just not a traditional one with traditional folks playing traditional roles. Sirantha Jax is not a loveable being. She’s not even particularly honorable. She is, though, a survivor, one whose thirst for life draws you in like a beacon.

He shoves me toward the boarding ramp of a cutter that’s seen better days. From his manner and the way he’s dressed, I expected a big hauler or a sporty little cruiser, something with a high price tag and a lot of amenities. Not this junk bucket that looks like it should’ve been decommed before the Axis Wars. The gray squad closes on us with military precision; using cover and working the perimeter in a metric circle. Soon they’ll be on us, boarding the ship. A laser blast sears the metal at my feet and I fall back, further up the ramp.

Talk about ass choices. I’ve got this shit bucket and a nutcase or a bunch of Gray Men coming for me.
He reads my look and shrugs. "However she looks, this ship is sound. Can you jump, Ms. Jax? Our lives depend on it."

Jump? But I don’t have a pilot.

My look or my mind? Because he adds, "Yes, you do."

My throat tightens, and I feel a fist curling around my intestines. It’s a cramp, rising nausea. It’s being told you have to remarry before your husband’s cold in the grave. Before I can say a word, he boards. No more conversation. It’s up to me now. Stay or go. Reluctantly I admire the fact that he doesn’t bullshit, doesn’t explain, doesn’t persuade. Maybe he knows I can’t resist a mystery or a challenge or both. Or maybe he just knows I’m not looking to die today, because the Gray Men are almost on me.

I follow.

March and Jax want each other but Jax’s loss is too fresh to allow herself to feel anything but lust. With her strong ties to the Corp being severed, Jax is at a loss. She doesn’t know quite who she is and what she wants to be.

The drawbacks in this story is that it is a bit plotless and episodic in nature. I know that bothers some people but I felt that the emotional development of Jax and Jax and March as a couple were enough to smooth out those issues.

While the book is set in some intergalatic future, the core of the story is about Jax’s character development and how she falls in love, again, with March. The writing is evocative and as someone who really isn’t a fan of a) space travel books and b) first person present tense, this book worked for me on nearly every level. I’m very excited about the future of space travel presented by Ann Aguirre. A-

Best regards

Jane

***

This book will go onsale on February 26, 2008.

I was chatting via email with our new reviewer, Jia, about whether she was enjoying the reviewing gig. Sure, she is getting free books, but not every book she gets is going to be one she is interested in reading. She replied in one of our various exchanges that it is the book that you receive that you wouldn’t have read but that you really enjoy that make it all worthwhile. Ann Aguirre’s book is one of those. I wouldn’t have read her if I saw it in the store because science fiction is just not my thing.

So I am glad that she opened my eyes to the fact that a good story is a good story no matter the setting. I hope I can do that for some of you. I am privileged to be able to give away 20 ARCs of Grimspace. The catch is that you must post about the book at some public place, whether it is a message board, forum or blog and you must send me the link. We’ll choose one review to repost at Dear Author on the day of the release of the book.

Ms Aguirre has a contest on her blog as well which you can check out here.

Related posts:

1. REVIEW: Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb