Englisch language
Published March 29, 2023
Acclaimed author Emma Newman returns to her Planetfall universe with a collection of ten short stories set before, during and after the four interconnected novels of the Hugo-nominated Planetfall series.
From a shipwreck survivor struggling to appease the monster keeping him trapped on an island, to an elderly woman at risk from being declared a non-person, each story offers a new glimpse into this dark near-future setting. This collection features stories that focus on some of the characters from the novels, including Arnolfi (Before Mars), Travis and Carl (After Atlas and Atlas Alone) and Mack (Planetfall).
This book has little value if you haven't read the other books of the planetfall series. It also doesn't add much extra insights. Don't get me wrong,i hope to see a real successor for the series. I like the world she has build and the view of the current world and where it is heading.
Loved it. A nontraditional protagonist along the lines of Remnant Population.
It all started with a seed.
Planetfall reminded me in some ways of Annihilation, but less weird and more human. Ren is a 3D-printer engineer on a colony at the base of a mysterious alien structure called God's City. Twenty-two year's prior, Lee Suh-Mi led her faithful followers into space to find a new future for humanity.
Then a stranger walks up to colony, claiming to be the son of one of the survivors from planetfall. They believed all the others were dead, how could this happen?
It's a slow reveal kind of story, and bit by bit, the pieces start to come together. I did find it a little slow to get into because there were a lot of terms to get to grips with, but one I was in, I was hooked. There is a constant feeling that there's something being hidden, a secret at the heart of …
It all started with a seed.
Planetfall reminded me in some ways of Annihilation, but less weird and more human. Ren is a 3D-printer engineer on a colony at the base of a mysterious alien structure called God's City. Twenty-two year's prior, Lee Suh-Mi led her faithful followers into space to find a new future for humanity.
Then a stranger walks up to colony, claiming to be the son of one of the survivors from planetfall. They believed all the others were dead, how could this happen?
It's a slow reveal kind of story, and bit by bit, the pieces start to come together. I did find it a little slow to get into because there were a lot of terms to get to grips with, but one I was in, I was hooked. There is a constant feeling that there's something being hidden, a secret at the heart of the community, and the stranger puts that all at risk.
Suh-Mi entered God's City and never returned, believed to be living there. Once a year, she offers the alien seed to one person from the colony, so they can become enlightened. There is a cult-like feeling around the whole thing.
The story follows Ren, who knew Suh-Mi during her student days back on Earth. her past is filled in through flashbacks. In the present (future) she is suffering from anxiety and an a severe hoarding obsession. She holds onto possessions as if they hold her memories, she tells herself she will fix things. They don't need to fix things, they have 3D printers to recycle everything.
What happened to make her like this? Is it just the consequences of living on an alien planet? There is a traumatic scene for Ren, which made me so angry at the other characters. It turns out that their behaviour is incredibly relevant, but my heart breaks that Ren's illness wasn't handled carefully.
I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.
This was a hard book for me to judge during the reading, as the main character has a condition I know very little about, aside from what I've been fed by Hollywood. I'm not even sure if all the traits she displayed were part of a single condition, or if Renata had multiple illnesses, or if any or all of them were faithfully portrayed.
For a while, Sung-Soo's "treatment" of Renata's condition seemed aggressive and hurried, and I wondered if Emma Newman was showing her readers how to authentically engage with someone similarly afflicted, because I felt uncomfortable with this approach. When it's revealed near the end that he's not at all interested in Renata's wellbeing, I felt better about my initial hesitations. That WASN'T the way to talk to (and possibly help) an anxiety-prone hoarder. Good to know.
The end felt very 'deus ex' to me, and I thought …
This was a hard book for me to judge during the reading, as the main character has a condition I know very little about, aside from what I've been fed by Hollywood. I'm not even sure if all the traits she displayed were part of a single condition, or if Renata had multiple illnesses, or if any or all of them were faithfully portrayed.
For a while, Sung-Soo's "treatment" of Renata's condition seemed aggressive and hurried, and I wondered if Emma Newman was showing her readers how to authentically engage with someone similarly afflicted, because I felt uncomfortable with this approach. When it's revealed near the end that he's not at all interested in Renata's wellbeing, I felt better about my initial hesitations. That WASN'T the way to talk to (and possibly help) an anxiety-prone hoarder. Good to know.
The end felt very 'deus ex' to me, and I thought a less mystical ending would have served the very grounded story I'd just read, but whatever.
The writing was very good, and the audio book is read by the author herself, which is a nice insight into the tone the author intended for the book. :)
