A review by frasersimons
Planetfall by Emma Newman

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This went by much more fast than I thought it would. Though the scope of the plot was myopic and straight-forward, the interiority of the anxiety ridden main character did a good job of keeping and ramping up tension. The parts where it was contrived felt alright to me as well, since it’s from her perspective, which is clearly altered due to her health. As someone now medicated for their own anxiety, if you expect people to think and act rationally, or interpret, to some degree, what others are doing, rationally, that’s not how it works. It’s one of the reasons why simply pointing out solutions or the problems themselves tends to be highly ineffective. 

It was easy to feel for the MC and the world building was interesting, but not new. I probably would have liked this even more had I read it closer to release, since now the ideas behind the sustainability and in general, technologically, feel fairly old hat.  

Very curious as to where the series goes from here. Originally picked it up because the sequel is an often labelled as cyberpunk, and I have an ongoing interest and project, where I read through a lot of that subgenre. (Even if quite a few books shelved as such end up not actually being so.)