Planetfall by Emma Newman
(Excerpt from Goodreads) From the award-nominated author Emma Newman, 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…
My Review
3 stars
Twenty years ago, Suh-Mi and Ren we lovers when Suh-Mi starting having visions about leaving a failing Earth to start a colony in space at a location that only she knew. With the help of Mack, they put together a colony of people that shared their idea and left the Earth. There were some troubles they had upon Plantfall, like a group of the colonists not making it to the planet, and other difficulties.
Present day, Mack and Ren have lots of secrets, but no one knows about them. Until a young man, Sung-Soo arrives at the colony. Where he come from is a mystery and more troubling is he shares DNA with Suh-Mi, who went into a structure they call God’s City. This is troubling for Mack and Ren since they know that truth of what really happened on Planetfall and know that the truth will be coming out with the arrival of Sung-Soo. The question is if the colonists will be able to live with the truth.
It is obvious Ren and Mack have a lot of secrets but you don’t find out about them until closer to the end of the story, which I admit does get a little annoying. Beyond that I can’t say that I really liked Ren. She clearly had issues relating to Planetfall and mental illness. I did like how this is part of the story. You don’t really have issues like this in most books. Sung-Soo is a great character. You don’t know if he is completely innocent or if there is more going on.
I admit that I didn’t like the end of the story. It works to end everything but I’m not a fan of endings like this. I have not read other books by Emma Newman and I do feel that I will check out her other books. As for Planetfall, it is not a bad book. There are good parts in it. But I don’t know if I would read it again knowing what I know now.
To purchase Planetfall make sure to visit Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and Emma Newman’s website.
I received Planetfall for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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