I’ve had Planetfall by Emma Newman on my shelf for a few years and kept meaning to start it (the story of my reading life, but that’s a separate topic). It is the first book of four in the Planetfall series, which was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2020 (paid links). Read on below to see what I thought.
Here is the blurb:
Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi’s vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown.
More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony’s 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.
Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi.
The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart…
While this book is part of a series, it looks like the other books are only set in the same universe and do not involve any characters from this volume, so it could be read as a stand-alone. Planetfall set up a mystery involving a religious-like calling, a troubled colony, and an alien city but then failed to give me enough of an explanation or resolution at the end. Even so, most of the book was great and other readers may enjoy the ending.
Renata is one of those guilty characters who has been hiding a secret for so long that by this point it is impossible to think of revealing it to others. The stable life of the colony on this alien world is uprooted when a descendant of another group of colonists thought to be long-lost arrives on scene. This visitor causes some colonists to rethink an annual tradition tied to one of Ren’s secrets, propelling the main plot of the novel. Ren’s other secret is that she never lets anyone see her home because she is a hoarder. This created a situation that was unique in the science fiction that I’ve read, and ultimately ties together with the rest of the conflict as the book progresses.
The action and stakes increased toward the conclusion of the book, and while I don’t want to give any spoilers here, the ending was one in which I had expected a greater reveal and explanation and was left sort of scratching my head.
Have you read any of the Planetfall books? Have you read any of Emma Newman’s other books? Let me know in the comments (above).
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