Written by contributor Christina ‘DZA’ Marie
Trigger warning in this book for torture, lots of violent death, and mentions of rape.
Jackson doesn’t pull his punches, but he also doesn’t go overboard, which I appreciate. And evil is (mostly) punished. The prose is as blunt and to-the-point as the story, with lots of swearing. It fits the characters and the mood, but if that’s a no-go for you, you’ve been warned.
Basically, Anton, a ruthless career terrorist, spends the book hiding his identity from September Long, a brilliant, but disgraced, intelligence officer, as they travel from planet to planet, investigating the crisis he caused, while Leon gets captured first by space pirates, then a sadistic military captain from Titan.
The story is told in third person POV from all three characters, including our villain, Anton, and he is excellent. In an age of sympathetic villains, Anton’s opening chapter includes murdering an entire family, and he does so gleefully. He’s horrible, but because he’s having so much fun, we have fun reading him.
Having the villain as the POV character changes the source of mystery and suspense. Normally, in a detective story, the conflict revolves around the question “who’s the criminal?” But since we know who the criminal is and what he’s doing, the question transforms into “what’s Anton’s end-game?” and “Will Tem figure it out in time?” It’s an excellent use of dramatic irony.
Tem, one of the story’s two main protagonists and the one who spends the most time opposite of Anton, could use a little more work. It’s not that she’s boring; she’s tough as nails, fiercely intelligent, and has a personality that’s mostly dry wit, righteous fury, and alcohol.
But she’s not the villain. Unlike the pure evil Anton, we actually care about where she comes from and her backstory, but we don’t really get it. We’re told early on that she’s something called an “ultra,” a modified human with super strength, and this becomes more relevant at the end of the story, when we’re told there’s a prejudice against them and that’s why she tries to keep it a secret. I would have liked to see the impact this has on her relationships and backstory. She’s stuck on a ship with a bunch of powerful strangers. In addition to the stress of solving this case before more people die, can we get the stress of her trying to hide her “shameful” origins, too?
Leon is the most sympathetic protagonist, mostly because we get to see the struggles of his past and how that influences his present. The rest of the galaxy is prejudiced against people from Titan, which is where Leon was born and raised. This gives him an immediate disadvantage that we empathise with. And, unlike Tem, he’s a space rookie and spends the majority of the book absolutely terrified as he gets highjacked, then kidnapped and threatened with torture, then put in charge.
There are a bunch of other characters, too: Tem’s partner, the scientist she recruits, Anton’s accomplices, the space pirates Leon deals with, and the sadistic captain of the Cronus. A lot of them die, and while some of the character deaths are delivered with the right amount of oomf, others are barely commented on. I get that Jackson’s going for a grimdark feel, which naturally means a lot of death and despair, but a dead character is still a big deal, and the surviving characters should have at least a bit of mourning.
I also wish we’d gone more into the worldbuilding. But as this is the first of a series, we have more chances to explore the brutal and complex world Jackson’s created.
Overall, this is a really great debut novel, with potential to go further. I give it three and a half stars, and look forward to seeing more from this series.
The Aggressive is available from Amazon.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The Solar System is on the brink of war and three misfits are thrown together on the warship Aggressive.
A pilot, a terrorist and a special agent. As they journey from Earth out towards Saturn, each must face the brutal reality of survival in the cold depths of space.
Anton Biarritz, a ruthless career terrorist, masterminds a devastating attack on Earth and makes his escape aboard the warship Aggressive. Posing as a misanthropic diplomat, he must preserve his identity and reach the edge of the Solar System to fulfil his dark task.
September Long is a brilliant, but disgraced, intelligence officer determined to bring Anton to justice, whatever the cost. As the stakes rise, she finds herself isolated and caught in a deadly battle of wits in the cold, emptiness of the outer planets.
Thrown into the middle is Leon Wood, a young pilot officer on board the Aggressive, seeking to escape his past growing up under an oppressive regime on Titan. As Titan breaks ties with the ruling powers on Earth, Leon finds himself trapped between forces far greater than he ever imagined possible.
THE AGGRESSIVE plays out across a Solar System dominated by power struggles and commercial interests. Moving outward from Earth, the trio must navigate gangsters, pirates and the worst of humanity as they approach their journeys end around Saturn.
The Aggressive is a no holds barred adult sci-fi thriller – expect cursing & violence throughout.
