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Grasp the Stars
Pursued by members of every species, Meris-the most ancient and legendary of the Jadamiin-is a stowaway on a ship bound for the Port Earth space station. But the pursuit isn't over-and suddenly Port Earth is embroiled in high level intrigue that could annihilate the entire station.
482 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 6, 2004
78 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Wingert
2 books8 followersJennifer Wingert lives in Iowa, works full-time, and writes in every spare moment she can find. Spirit Fox is her first novel, but it will certainly not be her last.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 30, 2013
Things are Earthport Station are really hectic.
First are the normal snafus when three differing race--human; Phi-Nurian; and Rofan are busy sharing the same spaceport with their differing customs and conflicts. The Phi-Nurians are erractic; the arrogant Rofans like to duel.
Then, the nearby Rofan spaceport is closed due to an unusual emergency, so ships must continue on to Earth Port Station. The workload of incoming ships is suddenly doubled.
And now, our heroine--Deputy Rachel Adjami--is running short staffed. The World Council has sent members of the Xeno Relations Committee to audit Earthport station. Most of Rachel;s staff are testifying ina closed political meeting just when she really needs everyone.(Hmmm-politics hasn't changed much.....)
And two persons in fake Staffers unforms are engaged in some serious vandalism. Just vandalism--at first....
Then the situation increase from hectic to crisis. Meris of Jada is found as a stowaway on a Earth ship. The Jadamiin race has no formal contact with Earth or diplomatic relations. What little info Earthport staffers have comes from the Rofans and the Phi-Nurians. Indeed, Rachel has never met a Jadami before. She soon finds that both the other two races want custody of Meris---because of information they believe she has. And Rachel and her staff is caught up in the crossfire.....
I will review the one negative first. There are some loose ends. I would have liked a few things clarified. However, imho only, I think a series was planned and theseloose ends were to have been addressed in the next book. And I would surely like to read such a sequel....
However, the gaps did NOT stop my enjoying this book. Good pacing; interesting aliens; bits of humor; politics; intrigue and other crises kept me turning pages. Part of the book is told from the alien Meris' point of view and I found it particularly interesting and well done. Definitely deserves 4 stars.
A solid, well written adventure set on a space station and suitable for any science fiction fan. Highly recommended.
Edited 1/30/13 to fix two errors.
First are the normal snafus when three differing race--human; Phi-Nurian; and Rofan are busy sharing the same spaceport with their differing customs and conflicts. The Phi-Nurians are erractic; the arrogant Rofans like to duel.
Then, the nearby Rofan spaceport is closed due to an unusual emergency, so ships must continue on to Earth Port Station. The workload of incoming ships is suddenly doubled.
And now, our heroine--Deputy Rachel Adjami--is running short staffed. The World Council has sent members of the Xeno Relations Committee to audit Earthport station. Most of Rachel;s staff are testifying ina closed political meeting just when she really needs everyone.(Hmmm-politics hasn't changed much.....)
And two persons in fake Staffers unforms are engaged in some serious vandalism. Just vandalism--at first....
Then the situation increase from hectic to crisis. Meris of Jada is found as a stowaway on a Earth ship. The Jadamiin race has no formal contact with Earth or diplomatic relations. What little info Earthport staffers have comes from the Rofans and the Phi-Nurians. Indeed, Rachel has never met a Jadami before. She soon finds that both the other two races want custody of Meris---because of information they believe she has. And Rachel and her staff is caught up in the crossfire.....
I will review the one negative first. There are some loose ends. I would have liked a few things clarified. However, imho only, I think a series was planned and theseloose ends were to have been addressed in the next book. And I would surely like to read such a sequel....
However, the gaps did NOT stop my enjoying this book. Good pacing; interesting aliens; bits of humor; politics; intrigue and other crises kept me turning pages. Part of the book is told from the alien Meris' point of view and I found it particularly interesting and well done. Definitely deserves 4 stars.
A solid, well written adventure set on a space station and suitable for any science fiction fan. Highly recommended.
Edited 1/30/13 to fix two errors.
February 3, 2010
Ebook reread...had forgotten some of this excellent book - wish there was more from this author.
Good story, good portrayal of aliens. Lots of loose ends, although certainly a complete story. I wish there had been more, but this is a worthwhile standalone.
Good story, good portrayal of aliens. Lots of loose ends, although certainly a complete story. I wish there had been more, but this is a worthwhile standalone.
January 27, 2014
The author attempted to write a wheels within wheels plot in the manner of Robert Jordan, Tom Clancy, or David Weber...and tripped over the attempt, feel down two or three flights of stairs, and landed in a broken heap of sadness at the bottom.
The various plots in the book are handled poorly, all of them jumping erratically in a hard-to-read hard-to-follow mess of words and character thoughts. Some of the main issues are:
1)The perspective jumps between far to many characters, most of whom are about as deep as a shallow birdbath and have thought patterns that only vaguely resemble human.
2)Seemingly interesting aliens, their cultures and societies, are hinted at often but never explained. Leaving the aliens(and even the current human society/culture!) as completely nebulous and horrifically unsatisfying.
3)Sexuality. The author appears to have an obsession with adding inane details or hints about either alien or human sexuality to every other page, but completely fails to properly address it at any point. The relationships, such as they are, are painfully shallow and brutally abrupt. Many hints are given about deviations or oddities among the humans, and even more tidbits about how aliens differ, but nothing is ever actually addressed. At the very least some picture of what human society considers 'normal' was needed as a jumping off point for the reader, and it was notably absent.
4) Science/Technology. It's underwhelming to say the very least, though the reason for this one is harder to define. It's not the lack of explicit descriptions and detail...unless the author is a physicist or does exceptional research such detail is generally inadvisable. It's more...disjointed? I suppose that's as good a word as any, what IS described is disappointing and what isn't is baffling. Things like shields are mentioned, and become important, without any reference point for what they are or do.
5) No resolution. The book ultimately feels like the world's longest prologue. I reached the end of the book, hoping with each dwindling page that some climax or revelation that would bring it all together would appear. Only to be disheartened and confused as the book ended with zero real resolution of ANY of the myriad plots. Were this the first book of a series this might be excusable. However, as the book is a decade old and no others were written it's more baffling that someone actually published this disappointingly incomplete work!
In the end this book ends up feeling as if someone had good ideas for 44 different books, but only time enough to write a single novel. They attempted to cram all the best pieces of a dozen incompatible stories into 500 pages or less. In the end this book is one of the worst pieces of Science Fiction I've ever managed to finish. Which is terribly disappointing as the actual technical and creative quality that shines through the sludge leads me to believe that the writer is actually quite talented. I very much hope that the writer makes another attempt, hopefully having learned something from the experience.
The various plots in the book are handled poorly, all of them jumping erratically in a hard-to-read hard-to-follow mess of words and character thoughts. Some of the main issues are:
1)The perspective jumps between far to many characters, most of whom are about as deep as a shallow birdbath and have thought patterns that only vaguely resemble human.
2)Seemingly interesting aliens, their cultures and societies, are hinted at often but never explained. Leaving the aliens(and even the current human society/culture!) as completely nebulous and horrifically unsatisfying.
3)Sexuality. The author appears to have an obsession with adding inane details or hints about either alien or human sexuality to every other page, but completely fails to properly address it at any point. The relationships, such as they are, are painfully shallow and brutally abrupt. Many hints are given about deviations or oddities among the humans, and even more tidbits about how aliens differ, but nothing is ever actually addressed. At the very least some picture of what human society considers 'normal' was needed as a jumping off point for the reader, and it was notably absent.
4) Science/Technology. It's underwhelming to say the very least, though the reason for this one is harder to define. It's not the lack of explicit descriptions and detail...unless the author is a physicist or does exceptional research such detail is generally inadvisable. It's more...disjointed? I suppose that's as good a word as any, what IS described is disappointing and what isn't is baffling. Things like shields are mentioned, and become important, without any reference point for what they are or do.
5) No resolution. The book ultimately feels like the world's longest prologue. I reached the end of the book, hoping with each dwindling page that some climax or revelation that would bring it all together would appear. Only to be disheartened and confused as the book ended with zero real resolution of ANY of the myriad plots. Were this the first book of a series this might be excusable. However, as the book is a decade old and no others were written it's more baffling that someone actually published this disappointingly incomplete work!
In the end this book ends up feeling as if someone had good ideas for 44 different books, but only time enough to write a single novel. They attempted to cram all the best pieces of a dozen incompatible stories into 500 pages or less. In the end this book is one of the worst pieces of Science Fiction I've ever managed to finish. Which is terribly disappointing as the actual technical and creative quality that shines through the sludge leads me to believe that the writer is actually quite talented. I very much hope that the writer makes another attempt, hopefully having learned something from the experience.
August 24, 2019
I really enjoyed reading this book. That being said I have read several reviews most of which give it a poor rating. I really don't understand why. There are some great characters (most well developed), as well as lots of action plot twists, and even some romance. The title is part of a poem supposedly from The Collected Flights of Prudence Clarke, whom it seems does not really exist. Kudos to Jennifer Wright for writing such great poetry for this book.
This is the story of Deputy Rachel Ajmani of the Port Authority on Earth Port. Things have gotten severely hectic for all the humans in charge on Earth Port since the Rofan spaceport of Igsha Reey has suddenly closed, the Xeno-Relations Committee of Earth's World Council has decided to conduct a surprise audit, and a Jadamiin stowaway, named Meris, has been discovered on a Human spaceship. The Rofans and the Phi-Nurians are jockeying to claim this stowaway and the Jadamiins are trying to kill her. At the same time, two unidentified human port workers have been seen sabotaging the station, but can't be found or stopped.
The Rofans resemble lupine Klingons, with the same penchant for violence. The Phi-Nurians resemble large cockroaches with no ability to control excretion, and a proclivity for mindless aggression when confronted. And, of course, the human saboteurs may be the wiliest villains of all.
I personally found this book to be a great read and recommend it to fans of Space Opera.
This is the story of Deputy Rachel Ajmani of the Port Authority on Earth Port. Things have gotten severely hectic for all the humans in charge on Earth Port since the Rofan spaceport of Igsha Reey has suddenly closed, the Xeno-Relations Committee of Earth's World Council has decided to conduct a surprise audit, and a Jadamiin stowaway, named Meris, has been discovered on a Human spaceship. The Rofans and the Phi-Nurians are jockeying to claim this stowaway and the Jadamiins are trying to kill her. At the same time, two unidentified human port workers have been seen sabotaging the station, but can't be found or stopped.
The Rofans resemble lupine Klingons, with the same penchant for violence. The Phi-Nurians resemble large cockroaches with no ability to control excretion, and a proclivity for mindless aggression when confronted. And, of course, the human saboteurs may be the wiliest villains of all.
I personally found this book to be a great read and recommend it to fans of Space Opera.
May 15, 2018
This was a light, fun, but somewhat annoying book.
Too little time was spent on the alien cultures, especially on that of one of the main characters, the Mother of Multitudes. The principle of the paths was never elaborated upon, rendering the significance of the supposedly revelatory fourth path, friendship, laughable as the constant invocation of the paths for oaths.
The human characters were wholly unlikeable for their immaturity. The doctor, Tigre, was completely insufferable with his pettiness, petulance, and adolescentesque anguish. The warden Jackson character was almost equally as annoying for similar reasons. The emotional turmoil experienced by these two is as corny as that of the characters of the Twilight movies. I imagine the same lip-biting lustful indecision.
Too little time was spent on the alien cultures, especially on that of one of the main characters, the Mother of Multitudes. The principle of the paths was never elaborated upon, rendering the significance of the supposedly revelatory fourth path, friendship, laughable as the constant invocation of the paths for oaths.
The human characters were wholly unlikeable for their immaturity. The doctor, Tigre, was completely insufferable with his pettiness, petulance, and adolescentesque anguish. The warden Jackson character was almost equally as annoying for similar reasons. The emotional turmoil experienced by these two is as corny as that of the characters of the Twilight movies. I imagine the same lip-biting lustful indecision.
September 24, 2018
An interesting book in regards to the location, as well as the multifaceted plots against the locations itself. The alien species discussed in the book are also pretty unique.
Where it loses me is the character relationships (the romances/sexuality in this story are a joke), the lack of expanded lore on, well, just about anything, and an incredibly jarring and unsatisfying denouement.
Regardless, I still burned through the book pretty quickly and enjoyed myself for the most part.
Where it loses me is the character relationships (the romances/sexuality in this story are a joke), the lack of expanded lore on, well, just about anything, and an incredibly jarring and unsatisfying denouement.
Regardless, I still burned through the book pretty quickly and enjoyed myself for the most part.
May 25, 2018
While the plot sometimes got lost towards the end, the setting and characters were both very imaginative. I only wish that the author had written more material in this world, but I believe this was her second (and last) book.
October 2, 2023
I couldn't get past the first pages which were full of yucky rapey stuff and felt like the story was a sequel with a lot of missing back story.
July 13, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. I have been looking for years for the sequel. Is the Author still alive? Still able to write? Please write the sequel(s)!!
June 25, 2008
Another description of life on a space station orbiting earth, but this one has a twist. A strange alien (supposed to me the "mother of the universe") shows up hotly pursued by those who would exploit her supposed godhood. Dragged into the conflict are two police officers who, amid the chaos of an overcrowded space station, don't try to save their galaxy, just their jobs.
Mildly confusing in places with some language.
Mildly confusing in places with some language.
November 8, 2021
This is a twisty, somewhat complicated story. Complicated like a detective novel with a few kinks along the way. I understand the point of the ending, but find it rather disappointing nonetheless. It gave a hint about Trabail's future, but nothing more. I'm really not surprised that Jennifer had only two books published, one of which was a collaboration. I think this one will go to the used book store (if they'll take it) or the donation bin at the local public library.
June 5, 2015
After Spirit Fox I had to read a stand-alone by Ms. Wingert. A lovey Royo-esque cover and a great story--wonder if she'll do any more books...?
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June 15, 2008Keep an eye out for a sequel....
May 22, 2015
This book would not let me put it down!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews