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A review by billymac1962
Planetfall by Emma Newman
4.0
Back in my 20s and 30s Science Fiction was my thing. And when it was good, wow, was it ever.
Giants like Arthur C. Clarke, Orson Scott Card, Dan Simmons, and John Varley gave me the escapism I was looking for: that sense of wonder and mystery. Other worlds.
Unfortunately, the genre has changed over the past twenty years or so. Nowadays the new stuff coming out seem to be focused more on cautionary tales, allegories to the world as we know it and how things will evolve socially and politically.
Phooey, I say. It's escapism I have always sought with this genre (all fiction in general, really), so if there isn't a sense of wonder and mystery and good characters, I will look elsewhere.
But even amid the drought for what I like, still there is hope that something will come out that harkens back to those wonderous older books.
And it did. Planetfall.
Finally, an engaging read about humankind's first visit to an alien world, rife with mystery, and as a bonus some mild mental illness to contend with.
I was racing to the end of this one to see what was going to happen. Emma Newman does a great job of luring the reader along, disclosing revelations along the way. The narrative doesn't get bogged down with over-descriptiveness, and yet I could totally picture and feel what our main protagonist was going through.
This is part of a series, but having said that, there is a lot revealed by the end of the book. Yet, there is enough unknown to entice me to read the next one really soon.
If I was to nitpick on one thing, it might be the repetitiveness of what was going through Ren's mind at times. But, even though this may be a nuisance for the reader, this stream of consciousness is totally viable given her predicaments.
A strong 4.5 stars for this very fast read, and I'm very much looking forward to book 2.
Giants like Arthur C. Clarke, Orson Scott Card, Dan Simmons, and John Varley gave me the escapism I was looking for: that sense of wonder and mystery. Other worlds.
Unfortunately, the genre has changed over the past twenty years or so. Nowadays the new stuff coming out seem to be focused more on cautionary tales, allegories to the world as we know it and how things will evolve socially and politically.
Phooey, I say. It's escapism I have always sought with this genre (all fiction in general, really), so if there isn't a sense of wonder and mystery and good characters, I will look elsewhere.
But even amid the drought for what I like, still there is hope that something will come out that harkens back to those wonderous older books.
And it did. Planetfall.
Finally, an engaging read about humankind's first visit to an alien world, rife with mystery, and as a bonus some mild mental illness to contend with.
I was racing to the end of this one to see what was going to happen. Emma Newman does a great job of luring the reader along, disclosing revelations along the way. The narrative doesn't get bogged down with over-descriptiveness, and yet I could totally picture and feel what our main protagonist was going through.
This is part of a series, but having said that, there is a lot revealed by the end of the book. Yet, there is enough unknown to entice me to read the next one really soon.
If I was to nitpick on one thing, it might be the repetitiveness of what was going through Ren's mind at times. But, even though this may be a nuisance for the reader, this stream of consciousness is totally viable given her predicaments.
A strong 4.5 stars for this very fast read, and I'm very much looking forward to book 2.