Planetfall

I liked this one a lot. There's something in it that taps into the SF I loved when I was thirteen (which we all know is the real Golden Age of Science Fiction), but that's not to say it's old fashioned* or childish. It's more to do with a sense of wonder and exploration, mystery and revelation. There's a background which is filled in with little drips of information scattered throughout the book, and I wanted to keep reading to find out more about what was going on. The ending goes up and on and out like all the best ones do, leaving you on the brink of a sequel that I kind of hope is never written** (I mean, come on, who remembers any of the Heechee books after Gateway?). There's a kind of pure quality about it, where you can tell it was written by someone who really loves SF, and I can totally get behind that. A good book.


*the narrator is a) a woman and b) hmm...I don't want to say mentally ill, let's go with neurodiverse. Trust me, there was no one matching either description starring in any SF book in the St Budeaux library in the late seventies. Yes, it feels traditional, but let's remember that tradition is an evolving, changing thing. And I speak as someone who willingly listens to folk music, dig?

**yeah, I know there are other books in this universe, but as far as I know they don't directly follow this one