by Ann Aguirre
Part of Sirantha Jax
First published 2009
Sirantha Jax has spent her career jumping ships through grimspace, a navigator who solves problems with speed and nerve rather than tact. Now the Conglomerate has sent her to Ithiss-Tor as an ambassador, tasked with convincing the Ithtorians to ally with humanity against a mounting threat from raiders, pirates, and the flesh-eating Morgut. The Ithtorians are not warm hosts. Their exoskeletons are not the only thing hardened against outsiders, and their council chambers demand exactly the kind of careful maneuvering Jax has never practiced. She is not working alone. March, her lover, is locked in a state of permanent combat readiness, his instincts honed to kill. Every tense moment in the negotiations risks triggering him, and Jax has to hold the mission together while also fighting to reach the man she loves underneath the soldier he has become. The stakes are not abstract. The Outskirts are bleeding, and an alliance with Ithiss-Tor may be the only thing standing between humanity and collapse. Jax keeps asking herself the same question: why would anyone hand this job to her? The answer might be that no one else was desperate enough to try.
Genres: science-fiction, romance, military-fiction, adventure, action
Vibes: emotionally-charged, fast-paced, gritty, high-stakes, tension-filled
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, lovers-in-danger, mission-critical-relationship
Setting: Ithiss-Tor, grimspace, the Outskirts
302 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Ace
Content warnings: violence, war