Michelle Herbert reviews Planetfall by Emma Newman…
Planetfall is one of those books that when you begin you have no idea what to expect. Planetfall is set in the future, where a small colony, who left Earth in search of God, now live in relative harmony isolated from the rest of humanity. In this futuristic setting where everyone is connected to each other, the question that is continually asked during the course of the novel is whether the truth or lies they are told to keep them safe is better for the group? Of course, the larger question is, what secret is being withheld from them in the first place and is it really bad enough to destroy the entire colony? Switching between the present and Ren’s flashbacks to life on Earth, as well as the journey to the planet, this storytelling device really draws you in and keeps you captivated.
The book begins with Ren being called to the edge of the colony by Mack, the colony’s appointed leader, who has spotted the unthinkable, a stranger heading towards them from the inhospitable land. When they rescue the stranger, they realise that he is the child of the lost colonists whose pod was thought to be lost on arrival to the planet. How they announce his arrival to the rest of the community is the start of many decisions made to prevent turmoil in the colony. This leads to more questions including: Is the stranger actually who he says he is? and if that is true: How did anyone survive outside the colony to be able to raise a child?
Planetfall is Ren’s story, she is the colony’s 3-D printer engineer and has been designing useful items for the colony since they landed over twenty years ago. If this was any other sci-fi novel, Ren wouldn’t make it on to the ship. Ren has the kind of anxiety issues, that would lead a qualified psychiatrist to say it would be better for the mission and her own mental health if she didn’t go. With Ren’s close friendship to the Pathfinder (Lee Suh Mi), she is ensured her place on the ship. Ren also suffers from OCD and has lots of rituals to help her manage this. Ren is also blessed with an inquisitive mind and due to the upgrades in humanity’s memory storage and connectedness to the mainframe, is able to focus on more than one task at a time, so even in times of stress, she is able to function. For all of her faults, Ren is an engaging character, who it is easy to feel a great deal of empathy for, especially when we learn more about the events that lead up to the present.
There are a lot of half-truths in this story, some that Ren tells herself and some that the colony are told, and some that the reader will have to wait to see unfold. Ren is an interesting character as she is haunted by her past, showing us how she left her relationships when she departed from Earth, as well as why Ren was motivated to follow Lee Suh Mi’s vision to find god. Planetfall is not a book about religion as we know it, instead, it is a book that explores an idea of evolution. Religion in Planetfall is a human construct and especially within the colony, it seems that humans will believe in anything if the story is good enough. Ren no longer believes in their quest to find god and has set herself apart from the community, content to be seen as slightly odd, as she withdraws behind a mantle of privacy.
Planetfall is an engaging story, with lots of twists and reveals that keeps you racing through. There are heartbreaking moments, but Ren is such a raw and believable character, that you have to hope that something good will happen to her, as she confronts the truths she has long hidden from. After finishing the book I feel like it should come with the tagline: How far would you go to bury a secret? I hadn’t read anything by Emma Newman before, but I am glad to hear that there are other stories already written in the Planetfall series which I will be reading as soon as I can.
Michelle Herbert
