Now, as a first person narrator she is technically unreliable. As Planetfall unfolds, we learn more about Ren’s poor mental health.
She maintains the colony’s 3D printers and some other equipment, but she otherwise has begun to isolate herself from relationships. In Suh’s prolonged absence, Ren has withdrawn into herself. Or they believe they will find something on this planet, some purpose they couldn’t find on Earth. Ren and the others travel through the stars (the technology, like so much else in this story, is never really discussed it’s implied humans have the capability for interstellar travel but it doesn’t seem to be commonplace) because they believe in Suh’s vision. The ending isn’t as important as the journey. I’m actually not too sure what to make of the ending, but I guess that’s all right. Towards the very end, we receive … I guess you would call it a resolution. We make very little progress towards understanding the nature of this planet, of God’s City, of the connection between the plant that Suh ingested that caused her vision and the beings that created God’s City. Probably the best thing about this book is the utter chill Newman has about the central mystery. But when Suh’s grandson shows up with a story that he is the last survivor of a group of colonists long thought to be lost, secrets old and new alike will be uncovered.
Only Ren and the mayor of the colony, Mack, know the truth. Every year, the colonists receive a message “seed” from Suh, who is inaccessible within God’s City, communing with the creator. Though most of the colonists would say they aren’t religious, many of them believed enough in Suh’s vision to leave everything they knew behind on Earth and settle on this planet outside an alien construct known as God’s City. Ren is one of many colonists who came to this planet as part of an expedition led by Lee Suh-Mi, a woman who claims to have received a vision from God. The result is a captivating read I didn’t want to put down. Emma Newman manages to construct a science fiction mystery with a mentally ill protagonist that is simultaneously about our need to believe and our desire to forget. What happens when your life is built on a lie? This is Renata Ghali’s problem in Planetfall.
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