Planetside (Planetside, #1) by Michael Mammay

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Mystery, Space Opera
Content: Strong language

 

A seasoned military officer uncovers a deadly conspiracy on a distant, war-torn planet…

War heroes aren't usually called out of semi-retirement and sent to the far reaches of the galaxy for a routine investigation. So when Colonel Carl Butler answers the call from an old and powerful friend, he knows it's something big—and he's not being told the whole story. A high councilor's son has gone MIA out of Cappa Base, the space station orbiting a battle-ravaged planet. The young lieutenant had been wounded and evacuated—but there's no record of him having ever arrived at hospital command. 

The colonel quickly finds Cappa Base to be a labyrinth of dead ends and sabotage: the hospital commander stonewalls him, the Special Ops leader won't come off the planet, witnesses go missing, radar data disappears, and that’s before he encounters the alien enemy. Butler has no choice but to drop down onto a hostile planet—because someone is using the war zone as a cover. The answers are there—Butler just has to make it back alive…

 

I found this book through a friend's YouTube channel, Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller which I'm really enjoying. I was really looking forward to trying this book, and I've added several others to my to-read list as well after watching her videos.

Military sci-fi can be hit or miss with me, but Planetside was one that I ended up really liking. It felt rather like a space opera at times, so maybe that's why. I loved the mystery in this book. It really kept me guessing as I tried to figure out what in the world was going on! I thought the characters were very well done. The author is a retired Army officer, and I think that made his characters more convincing as military personnel.

One of the things I liked the most about this book, was that the main character is an older retired guy, instead of the usual younger character. He's also married, which can be rare for a main character in books like this. My friend said his personality reminded her a bit of Avasarala, from The Expanse series, and I can see that. She was one of my favorite characters in that series, so maybe that's one reason I liked him so much. I like his no-nonsense personality. He just does what needs to be done with no apologies. It was great!

There are three books and I'm looking forward to reading more.