Month after month, Google tells me that my most popular blog post is “Something Wonderful: Slow-burn Sci-fi/Fantasy Romances.” Clearly, I’m not the only person who enjoys that kind of book.
So when I fell in love with the Sirantha Jax series by Ann Aguirre, half of the team behind Bronze Gods and Silver Mirrors, I knew I had to write about it for people who, like me, enjoy sci-fi with a little romance mixed in.
It starts with Grimspace.
I have an odd relationship with Grimspace. It was on my “to read” list for a long time. I’d heard it was a good sci-fi romance, so I wanted to read it, but… too many books, too little time.
I don’t always remember books and movies unless I must (or if I revisit them). Once I got a copy of Flightplan from the library, thinking about how I’d been wanting to watch it. As the story unfolded, I realized that I had already seen it. It wasn’t very good, but I couldn’t remember the ending, so I finished it anyway.
I experienced that kind of forgetfulness with Grimspace. When I read it last year, it felt oddly familiar. At first I thought I’d read a sample chapter online. But the sense of déjà vu stayed with me through the entire book. I’d read it before and then somehow forgotten that.
So when I finished the book for the second time, I initially told myself that, even though I’d enjoyed it, it was clearly a forgettable book. I decided that I didn’t need to bother with the rest of the series.
But the characters wouldn’t let me go.
This time the book was anything but forgettable. I wanted to know what was next for Sirantha Jax and her companions. I wanted to stay with them a little longer. So I picked up the next book, Wanderlust, and from then on I gobbled the rest of the series up. (Warning: Grimspace stands alone, but books two through five end in cliffhangers.) When I reached the end of the sixth and final book, Endgame, I had a serious case of post-series depression.
One of the things that makes the characters so marvelous is that they grow and change throughout the series. Jax becomes more selfless and much less shallow. She moves from someone who sees herself solely as a star “jumper” — someone with the ability to help a ship navigate through “grimspace” — to someone who wrestles with moral issues and works to acquire more skills so that she can better contribute to her team and the world.
The physical changes she undergoes are even more significant. By the end of the series, she is quite literally no longer the person she was at the beginning. She undergoes several physical enhancements to help her with her various missions. These enhancements could have taken the series over the top if Aguirre hadn’t handled them well. But because Jax has to wrestle with questions about what she discloses to people and with the downsides to her enhancements, it’s easier to take those changes. And really, they’re more realistic than we like to believe. People are already modifying their bodies through things like cosmetic surgery, performance-enhancing drugs, and medical interventions, such as increasingly advanced pacemakers and stents. The changes that happen to Jax are a fairly realistic projection of what we might do in the future.
March, the primary love interest, is also complex. He has a strong sense of duty, which Jax both admires and hates. He is able to read minds, but that ability went uncontrolled for a long time, resulting in some emotional scars. His experiences as a mercenary also haunt him. Throughout the series, Jax and March are both drawn to and hurt by each other as a result of their experiences.
But the series is about far more than the relationship between March and Jax. Aguirre brings in a host of believable characters, including Saul, a kind scientist who is too focused on his research; Dina, a prickly mechanic; Loras, who seethes with anger over the fact that his people have been forced into submissive dependence on humans; Velith Il-Nok, an insect-like alien who is an outcast among his people; and Jael, a genetically engineered human who is understandably cautious about sharing that fact with others.
Then there’s the world-building
Aguirre doesn’t just create realistic characters, she does a great job with world-building. Over the course of the series, Jax travels to several different planets, encountering cultures that are truly alien. Loras, who is La’hengrin, is humanoid, but many of the aliens are far from human. There are long-lived Ithtorians like Velith Il-Nok, who express complex thoughts through an intricate bow called a wa. There are the frog-like Mareq, classed as primitive by humans. And there are the Morgut, spider-like creatures with sophisticated technology, who see humans in much the same way that we see cattle.
But what about the romance?
“Was I screaming?”
I don’t remember. My throat isn’t sore, although the rest of me is.
“No,” Doc says from the doorway. “At least not so the rest of us could hear.” I register March’s surprise, but Saul continues, regarding us with an inscrutable expression. “He came from the cockpit at a dead run, yanked you out of your seat. What happened, Jax?”
“Psychotic break.” I feel like I’m signing away my personal liberty by admitting as much, like maybe the Corp had a point in keeping me confined.
But Doc just nods, looking thoughtful. “Let’s get you to medical.”
It’s only then I realize that I’m still sitting on March’s lap, and his arms fall away from me with the slow, swimming reluctance of a mudsider learning to move in zero G. And I say quietly in the confines of my own head: Thank you. Not expecting to be heard. To my surprise, as I fold to my feet to follow Saul, I receive a very soft response that maybe I am not meant to hear.
I will always come for you, Jax.
Grimspace – by Ann Aguirre
While romance plays a key role in the series, it is not primary to these books. This is Sirantha Jax’s story. That story includes her relationships, but it is also very much about her adventures and development as a person. The Sirantha Jax series is solid sci-fi filled with adventure, political intrigue, and war.
That said, the romance is also an important part of every book in the series. Grimspace could definitely qualify as a slow-burn romance, but Aguirre manages to maintain a sense of romantic tension throughout the series, including slowly developing a relationship between Jax and another character that presents additional challenges to her relationship with March. Aguirre had me on a rollercoaster; there were times when she broke my heart and times when my spirits were soaring along with Jax. If you love both science fiction and romance, this series should satisfy you.
I should note, because I know that it may matter to some readers, that there are explicit sexual encounters in the series. These scenes aren’t frequent.
I’ll be reading more of Aguirre’s work.
I’d already started paying attention to Ann Aguirre after reading Bronze Gods and Silver Mirrors. Now that I’m a fan of her Sirantha Jax series, I’m certain that I’ll be reading more of her novels. In fact, I recently picked up another book set in the Sirantha Jax universe, Perdition, the first book of the Dred Chronicles. I plan to start it soon. If you decide that you, too, like her work, I recommend signing up for her email list (you can subscribe on her “free book” page). She’s also active on Facebook.
