Emma Newman

From Emma Newman, the award-nominated author of Between Two Thorns, comes a novel of how one secret withheld to protect humanity's future might be its undoing... 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...

Planetfall

Lindy

Thematically a throwback to SF of the 1960s and 70s in some ways, Planetfall's largest strength lies in the depth of its characters.

In their search for a new and better life than the one that they had on the overpopulated Earth, Suh lead a group of 1000 people - including her partner and lover Ren - to another planet. Then Suh mysteriously vanished, and only Ren and the Ringleader know the truth behind her disappearance. Now, two decades later, a stranger who looks suspiciously like Suh wanders into the colony, flooding Ren with memories of the traumatic event she fought so hard to bury. And if she reveals the secret she has kept for so long, it could ruin everything the colonists built.

Janice Hopper

I really enjoyed most of this book.

There was a mystery. It unfolded slowly and gradually. There were characters with conflicts and problems. Bit by bit the plot unfolded to reveal what their secrets were. The pacing was good. I was hook.

Then came the ending. And I thought, WUT?? 

Some of the ending events were foreshadowed earlier in the book. And another part was... kinda the only way out of the plot for one character, I guess. 

This would have been a solid 4 stars from me. But my disappointment with an ending that seemed rushed and kinda odd bothered me. YMMV.

Didi Chanoch

This book kicked my ass so hard, y'all. The tech is spot on, but what makes this book stand out is the characterization, and particularly how it dealt with mental illness. Ren, our protagonist and storyteller, suffers from serious anxiety, and the portrayal of her illness is incredibly deft. This is a book about humanity being our own enemy, about personal history and group history. And it deals with those subjects extremely well. 

Some reviews have complained about the end of the novel, and while I understand where those complaints come from, my experience was different. It isn't a neat and tidy ending that explains and resolves everything, and I was fine with that. 

While this is a very good book, it was a book I had a hard time loving. It isn't easy, and much of the time it isn't fun. But it is engrossing and powerful,and it absolutely marks Emma Newman as an important voice in science fiction.

Elizabeth Jones

I would sell my soul in an instant to read this again for the first time. 

Sunyi Dean

Planetfall came to me well-recommended from a number of sources (two CPs, and my agent) so I was keen to give it a try. 

Overall a very enjoyable book, and one I read at a fast pace. The mix of nuanced interiority, bizarre setting, and interpersonal drama appealed to me to a lot, with a touch of New Weird. 

Structurally, though, I sometimes found myself frustrated. Reveals were erratically staggered; the narrative swung abruptly between interpersonal drama overarching plot. The effect is I feel like I'm leaning no information at all for stretches of time, then lots of information all at once. 

The ending also felt rushed, I think this is down to the same structural issues. Without wanting to get into spoilers, Ren beings the novel with a certain set of firmly-held opinions, and changes them towards the end of the story. But the reveals are staggered in such a way that there is not quite enough time to process Ren's emotional transition, so the arc feels somewhat abrupt.

Overhall, it's rather like having a meal where, just as you are starting to enjoy one dish, it's taken away with you and swapped with another; and just as you are acclimatising to eating in that fashion, you're given a bite of dessert and shoved out the door. 

If I were beta-reading this (I'm not, but you know) my feedback would be that the plot point reveals could do with smoothing out, or perhaps being better integrated with the drama in Ren's life. All the 'heavy lifting' for Ren's transition would then be done in advance and perhaps make the ending feel more like a natural conclusion, rather than a surprisingly plot twist which finishes too quickly. 


Criticisms aside, I want to stress that I did enjoy it, and would have happily read it all in one sitting had the kids allowed. I'd probably choose a 3.7 rating if I could but Goodreads doesn't allow that sort of a thing.

Ben Nathan

This was a very solid wow book. At first, the story seemed rather large and was using bits of a smaller story to tell it. Later in, it felt like a very small story using the large bits to help tell. Really, it was a story about belief, mental health, and personal interactions. Absolutely wonderful. Also, Emma Newman is a phenomenal reader. Can't recommend highly enough

Lisa Beasley

This was a really intense and unique scifi story in my opinion. I really liked Renata and felt really bad for her at some points (and admittedly really frustrated with her at others). I liked how it was a story about how one persons secret can bring down an entire community, and how easy it is to hide things even from those you love and who love you. It was a really personal story and also an interesting scifi set up.

Emma Newman herself narrated the audiobook and, for me, she brought the perfect amount of realness to Renata.

Looking forward to reading more.

Planetfall

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