by Ann Aguirre
Part of Sirantha Jax, book 4
First published 2010
Sirantha Jax can do something almost nobody else can. Her genetic makeup lets her navigate faster-than-light ships through grimspace, the strange dimension that makes interstellar travel possible. She has spent time as an ambassador, but the meetings and careful words were never going to suit her. She walks away from that post. The reason is urgent. Flesh-eating aliens are hitting stations on the far edges of inhabited space, and the Conglomerate's military keeps showing up after the killing is already done. Someone has to fill that gap. Jax decides she will. She starts building a militia to defend the frontier, and she cannot afford to be selective about recruits. The people who answer her call are criminals, mercenaries, and raiders, the worst that grimspace has ever carried. Jax has to hold them together, point them at something worse than themselves, and trust that a force built from the bottom of the barrel can actually protect the people the Conglomerate abandoned. The tension at the heart of the book is simple and hard. Jax is not a politician and not a general. She is a jumper with a loud mouth and a willingness to throw herself at problems. Now the problem is enormous, and the tools she has are broken.
Genres: science-fiction, military-fiction, adventure, action
Vibes: action-driven, fast-paced, gritty, high-stakes, suspenseful
Tropes: against-the-odds, found-family, ragtag-team, reluctant-leader
Setting: grimspace, inhabited space, frontier stations
356 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Ace
Content warnings: gore, violence