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A review by bookmeanderings
Planetside by Michael Mammay
2.0
2.5 stars.
This is a really well written Sci Fi Thriller that centers around a military investigation into the disappearance of one of its captains. Carl Butler is the investigating officer and he has a strong voice for most of the story. We know who he is, what he is about, and whats important to him. The world is sufficiently built to understand the story, though I would have liked to see more. The action, though sparse, is well done and high stakes. The investigation is really well done and I never felt bored or bogged down. However, there was one thing that just utterly ruined this book for me and made it so I unfortunately won't be continuing this series.
MAJOR MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
The ending. Now, I usually give a pretty good amount of leeway to the author when it comes to sticking to a character is in every decision, but this was just way over the line.
Carl Butler is not necessarily always a kind person throughout the book. Especially during the investigation he makes life hard for people who won't cooperate with him. However, he is always kind, respectful, and pretty humble (apologizes a few times when he's done something wrong) throughout most of the story to those he cares about. He seems like a genuinely nice guy that you can really root for.
Take that, and spin it 180 in the last 10-15 pages. Carl, with barely any explanation, commits genocide on an entire alien civilization, men, women, and children. The only reason given being that the aliens stole the tech from the occupying humans to escape their homeworld and to create basically planet busters. Now they haven't confirmed that the aliens have plans for attacking human worlds or anything like that, except a few vague utterances of "they won't stop until they kill you all" from a dude that was half mad at the time.
So what does Carl do. He thinks, "this is why the general sent me, because he knew i would do what hit takes to protect humanity" and then dude just non chalantly blows up an entire race. No moral quandary at all.
I think it really really disappoints most of all because there was an opportunity for a big moment where the protagonist comes up with an incredible plan to fix their situation. It could have even been a deep exploration into the moral quandary of "the greater good" where the protagonist, clearly, on page, goes through all of the different scenarios that they could try to stop the aliens and then comes to the realization that they can only stop them one way. But in the end it really felt off the cuff and cheapened by the lack of page time and thought that went into making the decision.
I'm honestly just sad at this point. I really enjoyed this book up until that point. I probably would have given it 4 or 4.25 stars and been excited for the sequel. But alas, I won't be continuing.
This is a really well written Sci Fi Thriller that centers around a military investigation into the disappearance of one of its captains. Carl Butler is the investigating officer and he has a strong voice for most of the story. We know who he is, what he is about, and whats important to him. The world is sufficiently built to understand the story, though I would have liked to see more. The action, though sparse, is well done and high stakes. The investigation is really well done and I never felt bored or bogged down. However, there was one thing that just utterly ruined this book for me and made it so I unfortunately won't be continuing this series.
MAJOR MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
The ending. Now, I usually give a pretty good amount of leeway to the author when it comes to sticking to a character is in every decision, but this was just way over the line.
Carl Butler is not necessarily always a kind person throughout the book. Especially during the investigation he makes life hard for people who won't cooperate with him. However, he is always kind, respectful, and pretty humble (apologizes a few times when he's done something wrong) throughout most of the story to those he cares about. He seems like a genuinely nice guy that you can really root for.
Take that, and spin it 180 in the last 10-15 pages. Carl, with barely any explanation, commits genocide on an entire alien civilization, men, women, and children. The only reason given being that the aliens stole the tech from the occupying humans to escape their homeworld and to create basically planet busters. Now they haven't confirmed that the aliens have plans for attacking human worlds or anything like that, except a few vague utterances of "they won't stop until they kill you all" from a dude that was half mad at the time.
So what does Carl do. He thinks, "this is why the general sent me, because he knew i would do what hit takes to protect humanity" and then dude just non chalantly blows up an entire race. No moral quandary at all.
I think it really really disappoints most of all because there was an opportunity for a big moment where the protagonist comes up with an incredible plan to fix their situation. It could have even been a deep exploration into the moral quandary of "the greater good" where the protagonist, clearly, on page, goes through all of the different scenarios that they could try to stop the aliens and then comes to the realization that they can only stop them one way. But in the end it really felt off the cuff and cheapened by the lack of page time and thought that went into making the decision.
I'm honestly just sad at this point. I really enjoyed this book up until that point. I probably would have given it 4 or 4.25 stars and been excited for the sequel. But alas, I won't be continuing.