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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
WOW
Just... WOW
Every book I read in this series ends up surpassing the one before. I loved this so much...
I admit that I ended up predicting the big reveal, but it didn't bug me and I enjoyed the rest of the book nonetheless.
And from the ending of book 2, it was kinda easy to predict anyways.
Travis is still the MVP of the series IMO ahah and I will never stop loving him, he's too precious.
I really enjoyed the protagonist of this book as well, Anna. She's so well written.
Now, that said, I have a gripe... Just one more book in this series isn't enough for me!! I want more! I can't see how just one more book is going to answer all of my questions and resolve everything.
Like for example,are we going to get to the planet where is set Planetfall? Are we going to see all our precious characters come together there? (I hope so!! I really need them to come together on the new planet and sort things out over there)
Luckily I already have Atlas Alone and will soon find out the answers to all my questions XD
Just... WOW
Every book I read in this series ends up surpassing the one before. I loved this so much...
I admit that I ended up predicting the big reveal, but it didn't bug me and I enjoyed the rest of the book nonetheless.
And from the ending of book 2, it was kinda easy to predict anyways.
Travis is still the MVP of the series IMO ahah and I will never stop loving him, he's too precious.
I really enjoyed the protagonist of this book as well, Anna. She's so well written.
Now, that said, I have a gripe... Just one more book in this series isn't enough for me!! I want more! I can't see how just one more book is going to answer all of my questions and resolve everything.
Like for example,
Luckily I already have Atlas Alone and will soon find out the answers to all my questions XD
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This series keeps getting better with every book. Newman is a great author and I love her voice work on all her books, but this one was particularly excellent. It was hard to put down and that's WAY more annoying in an audiobook.
A few thoughts:
I really appreciate the way that Newman writes characters with mental illness. Every protagonist in this series has been struggling with mental illness of some kind and, while it's always part of the plot, it's not convenient and it's not merely to make the story go. It shows them as real people. And Newman is unsparing in her depiction of how people are mistreated, shamed, and shunned for mental illness. This is either incredibly painful to read and be reminded of or incredibly gratifying to read and feel seen. The way she handles postpartum depression in this book is excellent.
I also appreciate how terrifyingly real the world she presents is. The govcorps, the lack of privacy, the runaway economics...she's doing a scarily good job of extrapolating the future and also reflecting on the ways in which the people living within that future just, you know, shrug at the atrocities.
It's also a really good psychological thriller.
I'm so glad I've finished it and now I can actually read more about the next book, which I've been avoiding looking at anything having to do with it lest it spoil this one.
A few thoughts:
I really appreciate the way that Newman writes characters with mental illness. Every protagonist in this series has been struggling with mental illness of some kind and, while it's always part of the plot, it's not convenient and it's not merely to make the story go. It shows them as real people. And Newman is unsparing in her depiction of how people are mistreated, shamed, and shunned for mental illness. This is either incredibly painful to read and be reminded of or incredibly gratifying to read and feel seen. The way she handles postpartum depression in this book is excellent.
I also appreciate how terrifyingly real the world she presents is. The govcorps, the lack of privacy, the runaway economics...she's doing a scarily good job of extrapolating the future and also reflecting on the ways in which the people living within that future just, you know, shrug at the atrocities.
It's also a really good psychological thriller.
I'm so glad I've finished it and now I can actually read more about the next book, which I've been avoiding looking at anything having to do with it lest it spoil this one.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This one left me cold, most due to how little patience I have for the main character. So much anger, denial, waffling back and forth, struggling with guilt and denial of guilt, when she was the cause of at least half of her troubles.
It is well written, intricately plotted, peopled by real humans, and is a beautiful story. This is definitely a case of wrong book for the wrong reader.
Anna flies to Mars upon corporate orders to paint and be a geologist. In fact, she was sent there to investigate why extra supplies are being sent to a relatively small Outpost. However, she immediately found a note left herself by herself, everything feels like deja vu, and the AI is hiding and changing information.
Turns out there is a second Martian base nearby, where Gabor was building a spaceship to follow the first space ship, which left earth forty years ago on a mission to seek God. When Anna (and the other 3 members of the Outpost) found the second base, Dr. Arnolfi wiped their memories and recreated/restarted events to Anna's initial arrival. Meanwhile, Earth is half destroyed by nuclear bombs hurled between America and Noropean. The team spends 2 years building a spaceship to follow the other spaceship, and Dr Arnolfi stays behind in atonement, so their journey will have a chance to be more successful.
It is well written, intricately plotted, peopled by real humans, and is a beautiful story. This is definitely a case of wrong book for the wrong reader.
Turns out there is a second Martian base nearby, where Gabor was building a spaceship to follow the first space ship, which left earth forty years ago on a mission to seek God. When Anna (and the other 3 members of the Outpost) found the second base, Dr. Arnolfi wiped their memories and recreated/restarted events to Anna's initial arrival. Meanwhile, Earth is half destroyed by nuclear bombs hurled between America and Noropean. The team spends 2 years building a spaceship to follow the other spaceship, and Dr Arnolfi stays behind in atonement, so their journey will have a chance to be more successful.
great stuff. would be a 5 star if book 2 hadn't been such an epic
Another very enjoyable Planetfall follow-up. I like how the books are in the same world but different places and times. And again, I totally sympathized with the main character except for a thing or two (you'll have to figure it out, too lazy to mark the spoilers) and really enjoyed this story. I would definitely read more, I hope there will be more!
Anna Kubrin is newly arrived on Mars, ready to join the team as a geologist. She has been travelling in a spaceship on her own for 6 months, spending most of her lonely time in mersives - VR memories that are recorded by the chip in a person's brain, that they can go back and relive any time they want.
When Anna gets to Mars though, things aren't what she expected them to be. She has instinctive emotions towards the other members of the team she meets on Mars that she doesn't understand. Little, odd things seem out of place and she starts to think that the base's AI is lying to her, that it is trying to keep her away from one specific location on the Mars surface.
Anna knows that something is wrong but sometimes she doubts her own sanity, not helped by the base's resident psychiatrist telling her that she is suffering from too much time spent in mersives.
Anna never wanted children, she feels her husband forced the decision on her and now she appears to be suffering from postnatal depression. Unable to form a connection with her daughter she took the opportunity to travel to Mars as a geologist and artist. Now, she feels guilty for her decision at the same time as feeling glad that she has left the claustrophobic atmosphere of her family.
It's good to have a main character who is a mother struggling with motherhood. Anna is a flawed, struggling woman who is often hard to like but compelling to read about. Her honesty to us and herself about her issues with her child and her husband are refreshing. They are much needed in a world that likes to present motherhood as a mythical state of enlightenment, something that is inbuilt into a woman's psyche, as though it's not difficult and as much a trial and error experience as everything else in this world. We need more women characters like this in fiction.
It's a very clever, twisty plot, is Anna right or is she imagining things? Should she trust the other team members or is she right to be suspicious of them? It took me back and forth between believing Anna and thinking that she is wrong about it all. It kept me guessing as it built up the suspense.
I loved the tech in the book, it takes what we have now and pushes it and expands on it making the setting fell very realistic. It mixes in a mystery, which I also love, and throws in a fair bit of a thriller atmosphere and then mixes it all perfectly. This has to be one of my favourite sci-fi books of the last few years.
Emma Newman is a very versatile author. I never would have imagined after reading the Split Worlds fantasy series that she could be such a good sci-fi author. Each book in this series focuses on different events in the same universe and has different themes and a different feel to them. It's all very cleverly done, I wish more series were built up like this. For me, she is up there with China Mieville in her refusal to being categorised as an author of a specific genre.
Before Mars follows quite closely the second book in the series, the two tales intertwine at points but I don't think you will need to have read that to read this. I recommend that you do read that though, and the first one as they are both brilliant and will add a lot to the backstory of this one. Like I said though, no specific need to, if you think this sounds like one you really want to read then you won't have much of an issue if you start here.
I all around enjoyed this one, I sped through it in a few days and I've already started on After Atlas, the next book in the series. I highly recommend this series if you like sci-fi.
When Anna gets to Mars though, things aren't what she expected them to be. She has instinctive emotions towards the other members of the team she meets on Mars that she doesn't understand. Little, odd things seem out of place and she starts to think that the base's AI is lying to her, that it is trying to keep her away from one specific location on the Mars surface.
Anna knows that something is wrong but sometimes she doubts her own sanity, not helped by the base's resident psychiatrist telling her that she is suffering from too much time spent in mersives.
Anna never wanted children, she feels her husband forced the decision on her and now she appears to be suffering from postnatal depression. Unable to form a connection with her daughter she took the opportunity to travel to Mars as a geologist and artist. Now, she feels guilty for her decision at the same time as feeling glad that she has left the claustrophobic atmosphere of her family.
It's good to have a main character who is a mother struggling with motherhood. Anna is a flawed, struggling woman who is often hard to like but compelling to read about. Her honesty to us and herself about her issues with her child and her husband are refreshing. They are much needed in a world that likes to present motherhood as a mythical state of enlightenment, something that is inbuilt into a woman's psyche, as though it's not difficult and as much a trial and error experience as everything else in this world. We need more women characters like this in fiction.
It's a very clever, twisty plot, is Anna right or is she imagining things? Should she trust the other team members or is she right to be suspicious of them? It took me back and forth between believing Anna and thinking that she is wrong about it all. It kept me guessing as it built up the suspense.
I loved the tech in the book, it takes what we have now and pushes it and expands on it making the setting fell very realistic. It mixes in a mystery, which I also love, and throws in a fair bit of a thriller atmosphere and then mixes it all perfectly. This has to be one of my favourite sci-fi books of the last few years.
Emma Newman is a very versatile author. I never would have imagined after reading the Split Worlds fantasy series that she could be such a good sci-fi author. Each book in this series focuses on different events in the same universe and has different themes and a different feel to them. It's all very cleverly done, I wish more series were built up like this. For me, she is up there with China Mieville in her refusal to being categorised as an author of a specific genre.
Before Mars follows quite closely the second book in the series, the two tales intertwine at points but I don't think you will need to have read that to read this. I recommend that you do read that though, and the first one as they are both brilliant and will add a lot to the backstory of this one. Like I said though, no specific need to, if you think this sounds like one you really want to read then you won't have much of an issue if you start here.
I all around enjoyed this one, I sped through it in a few days and I've already started on After Atlas, the next book in the series. I highly recommend this series if you like sci-fi.