Paperback, 352 pages
Published Feb. 22, 2018 by Gollancz.
Planetfall is a gripping sci-fi with a neurodivergent protagonist who is carefully and complexly depicted. The story is heavy with mystery and trauma, and rewards attention to its layers. It's one of few books I've decided to immediately read again.
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. :)
