Pieces of Stars

I read another book by this author and it wasn't for me. So why did I pick up yet another one? Well, after the whole SWFA debacle, Aguirre posted a blog entry that outlined her abuse as a sci-fi author at the hands of other MALE writers. My interest was piqued. Mostly because I LOVE sci-fi and I wanted to try another female sci-fi author.

Disclaimer: I have no idea if the men that she mentions in her blog actually read her book or not. It seems from her story that she was prejudged and I just want to say that is a horrible thing. You should never be judged simply by your gender in any field. Kudos to her for sticking with a job that seems like it was pretty tough at times.

That being said, if those men HAD read Grimspace, I think they would have been justified in saying it wasn't great sci-fi. Because I don't think it is. A step up from Beth Revis, but far below the likes of say Anne McCaffrey, Octavia Butler, or Sheri S. Tepper.

The thing that I've noticed about Aguirre now, is that you can sit down and read her books. They are interesting, I'll give her that. There are a few times when I said to myself, "Just one more chapter" and three hours later I was still reading. :) That is definitely a good thing.

And unlike Enclave, I actually liked her MC. Jax was a relatable and sympathetic character. She even had bonafide character growth in this book. Excellent.

But man alive, just like Enclave, this book was full of continuity errors and plot holes.

First of all, the timeline was so random. A month here, three weeks, six weeks, and there were several times I had to page backward and reread something to make sure I hadn't missed a detail.

Second of all, there were parts where things happened that just didn't make any sense! The ending, for instance. Talk about crazypants!!! It was like she just threw it together at the last minute and said, "Yeah, that'll work." It read extremely amateur to me. Which I'll come back to, never fear.

The continuity errors, well, for instance, at one point she notices that her shipmate hires two guards (like out of nowhere), and all I could think was ???? because two chapters earlier, she is honest to god complaining that they have no money and no conceivable way of getting more. So where did the hired mercenaries come from? It is never explained. This kind of thing happened over and over again.

In all this, my main question was... "This got past an editor this way??" I mean, SRSLY? No editor worth their salt should have let this go buy without a red pen on MANY sections of it. I can't forget to mention the incomplete sentences, either. I can understand that being part of the narrative voice. I have no problems with an author breaking some rules. The problem I have here is that it didn't really seem to be consistent. The incomplete sentences were just sort of thrown in here and there without making a really impact on the voice. And not to sound bitter, but if an indie did that, they would be REAMED by reviewers.

Will I read the next one? Yeah, I think so. I really liked the characters. The love story was great. The writing was exciting. And the sci-fi was tolerable enough that I could overlook some serious flaws to pick up the next one.