Book Review: ‘Planetfall’ by Emma Newman

Planetfall by Emma Newman is a science fiction novel that promises the building of a new civilisation, an alien world, and plenty of mysteries and secrets.

The story follows Renata across two different periods of her life.

In the past timeline we learn that Renata’s best friend Suh-Mi received a signal which she believes to be an invitation to a habitable world. With Suh-Mi as leader, an expedition of colonists is launched to see if she is right. Unfortunately for the group, planetfall does not go as smoothly as they hope.

The majority of the novel is set twenty years later when a surprise new arrival to the colony threatens to expose the secrets and lies this new society has been built on.

As far as my reading experience went, I really enjoyed Planetfall. This relatively short novel manages to be fast paced without feeling rushed, which helps the book to be both entertaining and engaging. Newman also does a really good job at spacing out the mysteries and reveals which helped with the pacing too.

At the centre of the story is one fundamental mystery which the rest of the plot is built around – why did Suh-Mi disappear after planetfall? In its most basic form, I thought the mystery was actually quite easy to guess. The entertaining part comes from the many secrets that branch off from this main thread. The result is an interwoven web of mysteries and deceit. This web is far more difficult to untangle and I really enjoyed how each reveal brought us closer to the truth.

An important topic of the book, and one I had not expected when I started this novel, is hoarding; including the mental health reasons that lead to and are caused by it. Hoarding is not a topic I believe I have encountered in literature before beyond it being a throw-away characteristic of an eccentric elderly character.

Newman is very effective in the way she slowly reveals Renata’s hoarding condition. At first we think that searching the recycling centre for potentially valuable or useful items is simply part of her job. When she saves someone’s misshapen attempts at making a vase or a half-knitted doll, with the intention of finishing it herself, we see this as nothing more than a sentimental and endearing aspect of her personality. And then we begin to realise the truth about her living conditions.

Why I feel this topic works so well within the story is that Renata’s hoarding is always portrayed as a serious subject and never as the punchline to a joke. The most emotional moments in the story came, not from anything science fiction related, but from Renata’s deep distress when her secret is discovered and she has to watch her life be literally dismantled in front of her eyes piece by piece.

Despite its alien world setting, Planetfall manages to tell a story that is full of humanity. It shows that actions have consequences and that sometimes there are no good choices. The novel was full of great moments however the ending left me with a lot of questions about: ‘what happens next’. From the brief descriptions I’ve read of the sequels each book seems to follow a completely new group of characters so I am unsure if continuing this series will provide the answers. Nevertheless I still found Planetfall an entirely entertaining novel which I would recommend.

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