Doug's Book Reviews: Genellan: Planetfall

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	Genellan: Planetfall		Rating
			B
	Scott G. Gier
	Series Info	Related Books
	#1 in series Genellan	No related books
The Tellurian Legion has been exploring nearby space for two centuries, looking for suitable colony planets. Nearly all the candidates suck. But then they find a beautiful, Earth-like planet, perfect for colonization. Only one problem. Well, two, in fact. Firstly, there's an aboriginal native intelligence already there. And second, there's another intelligence living on one of the other planets in the system, and they don't tolerate visitors. The expedition is shot down. Most escape, but one corvette must make landing on Genellan. Then they need to survive. The novel fairly effectively combines several story types into one book. There's the First Contact type, of course, and there is what might be called a survivalist story, for want of a better term, as the unprepared humans must create a shelter, find food, and determine what other dangers and opportunities await them on this untamed alien world. There's a kind of science versus politics struggle going on from the alien side of things, and there's even a dash of space opera in there as well. This stew has a bit of every spice, and they generally mix well together. If Genellan: Planetfall has one overriding flaw, it is how the challenges just keep piling up and up and up. Just getting to Genellan was problematic, thanks in large part to their ship getting damaged in battle, but then system after system malfunctioned. There were even software failures, and those couldn't possibly be accounted for by battle damage. (And what ever happened to system redundancy, anyway?) The third quarter of the book is basically one animal attack after another after another, to the extent that it at least seemed like they couldn't go a day without at least one. And there are other problems to overcome. The challenges are momentary, or at best short-term, adding some spice to the book but little else; as a result, they felt almost gratuitous. The repeated wildlife encounters did seem gratuitous, without any "almost" about it. One or two would have been plenty. None of these obstacles and encounters are unrealistic, with the possible exception of that software glitch. It's just that there are so many of them! There are plenty of challenges inherent to the actual plot — meeting two alien races, making meaningful contact, making peace, as well as making a tiny settlement on a very wild planet largely without any technology to ease the process — without adding more. Not all of it deserves to be dropped — as I said, some of it is realistic. But it just seemed too much, like they couldn't catch a break. Other than that, however, the book is pretty well done. The world and its inhabitants are described very well. I got an excellent picture in my mind for what the world looks like — something akin to the plains at the foot of the Canadian Rockies. The characters are largely believable, and most of the humans are distinctive characters. The kones, too — the technological race from the second planet — make for an interesting read. The conflicts within their ranks raise the level of tension dramatically and effectively. Will the scientists win out, and peaceful contact, even an alliance, come to pass with humanity? Or with the despotic, paranoid generals have their way, killing or capturing them in order to wring out the secrets of hyperdrive? Either would make for a good plot, so the answer is by no means sure until near the end. The Cliff Dwellers, native to the third planet, were a little more problematic. They seemed to have only one personality to share among them. This was mitigated, however, by the fact that it is a far more likable one. That, combined with how I generally enjoy depictions of First Contact between humans and less developed races — probably due to a streak of pro-human sentiment in myself — let me enjoy most scenes with the fliers. For the most part, this book was done very well. It's not entirely my type of story — survivalist tales don't usually grab me. But although I definitely had some problems with it, this one did.

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