Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre

Sirantha Jax is about to learn that breaking the Corp’s hold on the world was just the beginning of her troubles. Sure she’s gotten justice for the death of her lover and crew, and exposed the crash that the Corp arranged and tried to pin on her to the Conglomerate. But now a powerful piece of the world government system is missing and visionaries and bullies from all over are trying to take up the slack.

So when the Conglomerate offers to make her an ambassador, Jax finds herself not only in need of the job, but also in a unique position to be one of the first Conglomerate citizens to make it to the home world of a notorious race of insect-like beings. If only she can get past the space pirates, civil wars, the Syndicate and her own mother first.

Like Grimspace before it, Wanderlust is more than just a story about a girl who navigates space ships through the unfathomable depths of grimspace (something akin to wormholes and subspace pathways combined). This story is about Jax, shattered spirit and failing body, in the middle of a complete life upheaval trying to figure out which pieces fit, which don’t and what to do with her new sense of responsibility and loyalty. It’s hard not to be paranoid and hopeless when everyone seems to either want to kill you or kill for you, when even your body is betraying you and life seems unwilling to give you the time to heal. Aguirre takes readers there, to a flashy science fiction world with a dark side where even the planetary civil wars, human-eating aliens and missions to save the world fade under the compelling clutches of the small band of characters that have come together under enormous pressure and against monstrous odds just to do what they think is right.

Wanderlust is an exciting new tale in the science fiction genre which captures the humanity in even the most odd of aliens and takes the reader for a nonstop action ride that’s hard to put down.