Planetfall grabbed me from the first paragraph where Renata mentally writes a program for the conditions which trigger a memory of her mother disparaging Renata's life's work. The arrival of a man who shouldn't exist threatens to unravel a secret she has kept for 22 years--a secret which could tear the colony apart. And is the abandoned alien city they've come to investigate, pulsing with its own life, the malignant force which sparked the deception and a lie in itself?
** spoiler alert ** The spoilers in this review will be more about character revelations than plot (although, of course, it's hard to completely divorce one from the other).
Newman's primary achievement in this very readable novel is to create, in Ren Ghali, a most unreliable of unreliable narrators, who has us fooled for easily two-thirds of the novel. Yes, she is clearly socially awkward, anxious and a bit obsessive/compulsive -- but we can still trust her account of the quasi-religious colony established by followers of her friend and former lover Lee Suh Mi. Right? And yes, she's a bit untidy, well, living in total chaos, ok, a full-blown hoarder, and yes, there are the liesshe's been telling her fellow colonist sof the last twenty years ... but she's not lying to us. Is she?
It's to Newman's credit that, even as Ren's faults and failings are revealed, and we learn the full, terrible reality of the lies she has enabled to a community of people who think of her as their friend, it's hard to condemn her entirely, and to feel anything less than heart-broken for her when the whole pack of cards come tumbling down.
"Planetfall" is not only an enjoyable read, but for any serious student of the evolution of Science Fiction, it represents a fascinating addition to two (yes, two!) niche sub-genres of SF: religion/faith in SF, and the depiction of disability in SF. As she discloses in the acknowledgments, Newman herself "suffers from an anxiety disorder," and the way she renders Ren's view of the world, and her justifications of her behaviour, rings very real and true.
One thoughtful and well-reasoned 2-star review makes the point that the plot isn't exactly original, that (SPOILER!) it's a reworking of the plot of the movie "Prometheus." I'd say that's true, but it doesn't really matter: what Newman does is to take the very poorly developed concept from the movie ("We've come looking for God, and we find monsters!!!" Oh, and "Yes, performing a self-caesarean is a real thing!!") and ask what would happen if, twenty years after they arrived, the Seekers for God had developed a flawed but working colony. "God's city" (the equivalent here for the alien spacecraft in "Prometheus") is a McGuffin -- what's really interesting is the community that springs up from the myth, but can't survive the lies that the myth required.
Like some other 3-and 4-star reviews, "Planetfall" lost a star from me for the ending. I felt that, in the final pages, Newman lost control of her material, stretching out the "drama" to make what could have been a neat, shocking close into the quasi-religious codswallop that she had so cleverly avoided throughout the rest of the novel.
But don't take my word for it -- read it for yourself. It's well worth it.
Newman's primary achievement in this very readable novel is to create, in Ren Ghali, a most unreliable of unreliable narrators, who has us fooled for easily two-thirds of the novel. Yes, she is clearly socially awkward, anxious and a bit obsessive/compulsive -- but we can still trust her account of the quasi-religious colony established by followers of her friend and former lover Lee Suh Mi. Right? And yes, she's a bit untidy, well, living in total chaos, ok, a full-blown hoarder, and yes, there are the liesshe's been telling her fellow colonist sof the last twenty years ... but she's not lying to us. Is she?
It's to Newman's credit that, even as Ren's faults and failings are revealed, and we learn the full, terrible reality of the lies she has enabled to a community of people who think of her as their friend, it's hard to condemn her entirely, and to feel anything less than heart-broken for her when the whole pack of cards come tumbling down.
"Planetfall" is not only an enjoyable read, but for any serious student of the evolution of Science Fiction, it represents a fascinating addition to two (yes, two!) niche sub-genres of SF: religion/faith in SF, and the depiction of disability in SF. As she discloses in the acknowledgments, Newman herself "suffers from an anxiety disorder," and the way she renders Ren's view of the world, and her justifications of her behaviour, rings very real and true.
One thoughtful and well-reasoned 2-star review makes the point that the plot isn't exactly original, that (SPOILER!) it's a reworking of the plot of the movie "Prometheus." I'd say that's true, but it doesn't really matter: what Newman does is to take the very poorly developed concept from the movie ("We've come looking for God, and we find monsters!!!" Oh, and "Yes, performing a self-caesarean is a real thing!!") and ask what would happen if, twenty years after they arrived, the Seekers for God had developed a flawed but working colony. "God's city" (the equivalent here for the alien spacecraft in "Prometheus") is a McGuffin -- what's really interesting is the community that springs up from the myth, but can't survive the lies that the myth required.
Like some other 3-and 4-star reviews, "Planetfall" lost a star from me for the ending. I felt that, in the final pages, Newman lost control of her material, stretching out the "drama" to make what could have been a neat, shocking close into the quasi-religious codswallop that she had so cleverly avoided throughout the rest of the novel.
But don't take my word for it -- read it for yourself. It's well worth it.
