Planet Fall

A writers workshop

I’ve been a fan of the series since before it was a series. I loved the more gritty aspect of combat along with the use of actual tactics. Without any spoilers i would say that this book tries to continue those trends but at the same time attempts to scale them up to an extent that makes it impossible. I would still recommend the book to fans of the series or lovers of military sci fi in general.

Now for the spoilers.

While this book in particular doesn’t feature any of the cast from the Verdun it still continues the plot lines established in the second novel. Which is fine, i actually enjoy the Star Trek style approach to universe building and I’ve employed it in some of my own projects. However since there are almost no recurring characters in the novel it is difficult for the reader to get themselves situated.

The reader needs to learn how each character relates to the other characters, their backstory, beliefs, and personalities while also learning about the actual plot of the book and how that is progressing. This is do able but requires a lot of space to work. This series tends to have shorter novels, which i like since i am often tight on time, but it makes it very difficult to really dig into the characters.

At the same time almost every character fits into the stereotype of “big, swearing marine”. Having a character or two swear a lot is fine, it might even help differentiate them and add to their development. But when every character is swearing all the time it starts to muddle together. Especially when it is coming from higher ranking professionals who would be expected to behave better in a real military.

I liked the addition of land vehicles to the universe but they needed a little more description and lore. I often found myself getting confused on what each vehicle was supposed to do or look like. Several are referred to as tanks but it is made clear that they are very different models of tanks. What makes them different? Why are there different models? They seem to be deployed interchangeably so is it really that big of a deal?
There were also several named tanks, which were named by the fans and one of them was actually my suggestion, that are said to be big and powerful but it isn’t clear if they are the same model as other tanks that aren’t named or if they are specialized tanks?

The combat scenes were well done but i found myself becoming skeptical of the casualty rates these units suffered. At times it looked like platoons were taking dozens of casualties every few minutes, only to enter the next fight at roughly half strength. I know the legions who thing is to the human swarm approach to warfare, which makes sense due to their poorly trained masses. So it doesn’t take the reader out of the experience as much but even a slight hint of tactical or even self awareness from the legion units would be a breath of fresh air.

A slightly less important thing was the lack of scenery. The Verdun came alive because it was drawn out on the paper. This setting is much larger than a single space ship so some detail is expected to be lost but it was much more challenging putting together a cohesive picture of what the area around the characters looked like.

All in all, i think that this book was originally supposed to be much longer than it is and a lot of things had to be condensed. Taking things a little slower and not being afraid to add a few pages if need be could go a long way. It isn’t bad in it’s current state but the previous entries into the series show that Brothers is of a caliber far past simply alright books. It is still worth a read if anyone is intrigued by science fiction in the vein of Mass Effect or Halo.