Planetside

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Planetside (Planetside, Book 1) by Michael Mammay

A review of military science fiction in general. 😩
(While this is not a review of Planetside, much of what I say does apply to it. I’ve been noticing this trend for years, but Planetside is where it really stood out to me.)

99% of it is boring. Deceptively boring in the fact that military sci-fi has become very formulaic, with more lore than substance.

To the point: it’s a lot of talking.
A lot of military jargon about what’s going on, who’s doing what, what they need to do, why they need to do it, what their next step is, and what will happen if they don’t.

Sounds good, right? Everything you need to make a story. Except when your entire story consists only of these facts. They spend most of the time exploring their fictional hierarchy and procedures (see my Starship Troopers review), with characters trying to navigate the corporate-like mine field in order to complete their mission. As intriguing as that is, I often find myself wanting them to just stop. Stop talking about some random attack, or the consequences thereof, or the danger of what’s to come, and let me actually see these events unfold.

It’s mostly my fault for always expecting more. I’ll admit that I like being in the action, and really experiencing the war. But it usually feels like I’m watching it from a Generals point of view (you know, kinda like those giant maps they have in war rooms with action figures they push around with sticks? It’s like watching one of those).

I think some of the better science fiction out there are the ones that are not military based. While I still love the ideas behind military sci-fi (and will likely continue to read them), I feel like they're not living up to their potential.