God Is In The Details: Emma Newman’s Planetfall

I cannot stop thinking about Planetfall. It’s been a few weeks since I finished it, and I’m reading another book by now, but my thoughts keep returning to Emma Newman’s novel. I have an enormous book hangover, which means you get a book review! Yay for you!

Planetfall (2015)
Written by: Emma Newman
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 328 (Kindle)
Series: Book One of Planetfall
Publisher: Ace

Why I Chose It: I genuinely don’t remember why I bought this in the first place. It’s likely due to somebody talking about it on social media. Why I read it just now is thanks to a new game that I’m playing to conquer Mount TBR: Kindle Roulette.

The premise:

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…

Some mild spoilers, mostly character related, because it’s impossible to avoid. Nothing plot related is truly ruined.

One benefit to the way in which I chose to read this novel is that I went in blind. Since it was a book randomly chosen via electronic means, there was no back cover copy for me to read before I started. I had zero knowledge about what I was getting myself into. Going blindly into a book is an interesting experience. You have to have a certain faith in both your past judgement in acquiring the book, and in the novel itself.

Speaking of faith, that’s a huge part of this book. The premise skirts the issue nicely, but the real reason that these characters left Earth and set out for an unknown planet was to search for God. What we have, essentially, is a cult on a religious mission. Things don’t go as planned, because of course they don’t.

Where this novel shines is in the characters. I’m going to go ahead and tell you that Ren’s an entirely unreliable narrator. Newman does an excellent job of keeping Ren’s dark secrets buried. You genuinely have no idea what she’s hiding until the novel’s climax. As the story unfolds, there are hints that Ren isn’t well. She’s in charge of keeping the colony’s 3d printers in line, which means that she has access to the recycling area, where every bit of trash and refuse is supposed to go. When Ren visits the Masher early in the novel, we watch as she decides that a lot of this trash is, in her eyes, a treasure that she can fix. As things unfold, we discover that Ren’s a hoarder. Further actions hint that she’s dealing with this because of psychological trauma. Newman handles this situation with a deft hand, weaving Ren’s illness into the story in bits and pieces, never revealing just how bad things are for her. Newman never treats the illness as anything graphic or gratuitous. Ren’s condition is never the centerpiece of the story or a driving force of the plot; it simply exists as a part of who she is.

Mack, the leader of the colony, is both a masterful showman and a genuinely compassionate individual. I say this even knowing what he was responsible for. I believe that he was a man trapped in a corner, who made hard decisions that he thought would be the most beneficial for the colony as a whole. His kindness shows in small ways. During a flashback, while Ren is trying to figure out what to bring with her to this new planet, she’s having trouble deciding which of her precious possessions are worth taking up space in her small storage locker. Mack offers to bring a few of her things in his own locker, because he can see that she is struggling. He does his best to welcome a stranger into the colony. He is not a bad man. Honestly? I can’t say that I entirely disagree with his past actions that are revealed in the latter part of the novel. If you’re facing several hundred people who have left their old lives behind on the faith of one person’s vision, you cannot afford to let things fall apart. You must put the good of the many before the good of the few, as harsh as that looks sometimes. Mack did what he had to do.

When the shit hits the fan, Ren flees into God’s City, the “alien structure” mentioned in the premise. What transpires next must be read for itself. The novel takes a sharp turn, and the events that chased Ren away from the colony fall neatly into the background. Everything is written in a dreamlike, ethereal style that is most certainly by design. As I mentioned earlier, Ren is unreliable. What she experiences may be a hallucination — she mentions that she goes without food and water for a day or so before she enters the City — but who can say for certain? Whether Ren is actually experiencing this or not, it’s a beautifully written chapter. Newman is a skilled writer, to be able to take a fairly straightforward science fiction story and turn it into something more transcendent.

In conclusion: I’m almost afraid to read any of the other novels set in this universe. I’m not sure if any of them will live up to the experience that I had with Planetfall. If you’re looking for a thoughtful piece of character-driven science fiction, this is worth your time.