Aftermath by Ann Aguirre - review

Aftermath

Ann Aguirre

cover - I'm not always crazy about these covers, but they do seem to try with the scars on her arm (though the scars do seem to follow a pattern rather than a random shards of shrapnel kind of scars you'd think to find from a crash victim) and I've found that all of the covers seem dramatic and cool in their own way. To be honest though, if I weren't already on the look out for this series, I'm not sure the the covers would have pulled me in - and yet I did pick up the first in the series oh so long ago...

Ann Aguirre has done it yet again. She's managed to write another damn good book in a damned good series. I have yet to be disappointed in any Jax novel. This is no exception, although I did find myself a bit frustrated with all Jax's thoughts about not being able to be with March with the new complication in his life. I would be just a frustrated with any person who seemed to be thinking repetitively like this though, so it must be my own issue.

I don't know why, but I didn't see a trial coming at the end of the last book. In fact, I'm not sure what I was expecting when Hit and Jax went off - possibly to be lost in grimspace. Some sort of disaster, but I didn't expect what they found when they came back, or what Jax went through after being rescued.

For those who haven't read the various shorts that Aguirre makes available on her website, there's an interesting insertion of an online piece that has to do with Vel and the history that he has with an old friend of Jax's. The online piece was on Aguirre's website a while ago, but I don't think it's up anymore.

There were also some sections that were from previous novels, flashbacks of Jax's and I'm not sure how I feel about those. Whenever any author does this, it tends to pull me out of the story, and yet I can see why they do it. Better a word for word flashback than a process where a detail gets changed, or the tone is different.

All things considered, I enjoyed reading Aftermath immensely and the knowledge that there's another book to follow (Endgame) is at once good news and bittersweet because Endgame will be the last novel of the series. No telling what's going to be happen for Jax. Is she going to be alone? Have March with her? Have only Vel with her? Have both men part of her life? Both men are very important to her in different ways, yet with seemingly equal importance. Will she finally have some HAPPINESS?

Because of the focus of this novel, some of my favorite side characters have very minor roles. I missed them. There are some that leave for good. I hope to read more of my favorites in final novel - Dina and Hit. Vel has always been one of my favorite characters, I definitely got my fix of Vel, he's in a large part of this novel.

Aftermath was a great addition to the series, and of course left me wanting more the minute I finished reading it. This is a series that is definitely worth keeping on the shelf to re-read every once in a while. So now I wait with mixed feelings for the final installment of this series, hoping that Ann Aguirre will consider writing another SciFi series - I enjoyed this one so very much.