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Michael Mammay

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Planetside (Planetside, 1) Kindle Edition

by Michael Mammay (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 1,277 ratings

Book 1 of 4: Planetside

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“Planetside is a smart and fast-paced blend of mystery and boots-in-the-dirt military SF that reads like a high-speed collision between Courage Under Fire and Heart of Darkness.” – Marko Kloos, bestselling author of the Frontline series

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…

“Not just for military SF fans—although military SF fans will love it—Planetside is an amazing debut novel, and I’m looking forward to what Mammay writes next.” – Tanya Huff, author of the Confederation and Peacekeeper series

From the Publisher


	The Misfit Soldier	Spaceside	Colonyside	Generation Ship

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“This was a brisk, entertaining novel. [...] I was reminded a bit of some of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War novels.” — SFFWorld

“A tough, authentic-feeling story that starts out fast and accelerates from there.”

— Jack Campbell, author of Ascendant

“Not just for military SF fans—although military SF fans will love it—Planetside is an amazing debut novel, and I’m looking forward to what Mammay writes next.” — Tanya Huff, author of the Confederation and Peacekeeper series

“PLANETSIDE is a smart and fast-paced blend of mystery and boots-in-the-dirt military SF that reads like a high-speed collision between Courage Under Fire and Heart of Darkness.” — Marko Kloos, bestselling author of the Frontline series

“The book was an enjoyable read and would likely sit well with any fan of military SF looking for an action-thriller to browse while lying in the sun at the beach.” — Chris Kluwe for Lightspeed Magazine

“If Cold Welcome and Old Man’s War had a love child you might get something like PLANETSIDE. And it would be, and is, pretty damn awesome. I would say it’s awesome for a debut novel, but that isn’t nearly praise enough. It’s just plain awesome.” — Reading Reality

“In Planetside Mammay mixes a brevity of prose with feeling of authenticity that would be remarkable in many experienced authors, let alone in a debut novel. Definitely the best military sci-fi debut I’ve come across in a while.” — Gavin Smith, author of Bastard Legion and Age of Scorpio

“A fast-paced tale of military investigation that reads like a blend of Jerry Pournelle and NCIS. Michael Mammay brings an exciting and authentic voice of experience to military science fiction.”

— Peter McLean, author of Priest of Bones

“Mammay capably writes Butler’s gritty, old-school soldier’s voice, and the story delivers enough intrigue and action for fans of military SF.” — Publishers Weekly

“Planetside, the debut novel by Michael Mammay, is an easy book to love. [...] a page-turner and an extremely satisfying read.” — Washington Independent Review of Books

“If you like military SF you’ll love this or if you like SF mysteries or probably just SF in general. It’s a highly impressive first novel that left a real impact.” — SFCrowsnest

From the Back Cover

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…

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B073TVCGBG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager (July 31, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 31, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2237 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 265 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #100,325 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #401 in Space Exploration Science Fiction eBooks
- #756 in Space Marine Science Fiction eBooks
- #797 in Military Thrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 1,277 ratings

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Michael Mammay

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Michael Mammay is a retired army officer and a graduate of the United States Military Academy. He has a masters degree in military history, and he is a veteran of Desert Storm, Somalia, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He lives with his family in Georgia.

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Drema D

Excellent read!

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2018

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When the son of a powerful politician goes missing on the front lines at Cappa Three, General Serata calls Colonel Carl Butler to investigate. Butler protests; he’s semi-retired, done years in cryo already, and besides, he’s got ugly history with that planet. But Serata is a good friend, and he makes an offer Butler can’t refuse. He accepts it against his better judgment figuring that at most, it will be five months out, a week to investigate and file a report, five months back, and he can finally retire.

But things aren’t as cut and dried as the general implied. Butler smells trouble from the moment he arrives at Cappa base. Lies and blatant obstruction by base personnel tell him something is very wrong. What’s worse, his digging stirs up a hornet’s nest. And when people start dying around him, both on base and planetside, Colonel Butler knows there’s far more to this mystery than anyone let on.

This is Michael Mammay’s debut novel and a damn fine read. Characters were all fully fleshed out and believable. Dialogue sounded realistic, like something you’d really hear in the given situation. Colonel Butler, in particular, felt true to what I would expect. A decorated war hero about whom books have been written and courses in the military academy are taught, he is savvy, smart as hell, and experienced at thinking on his feet. Walking through the mystery with him, seeing how his thought process pieced it all together, and cheering at his occasional lucky breaks, I was completely invested in his success. When things went very wrong, I was biting my nails beside him, breathless to see whether/how he would scrape out of this mess.

Planetside is a military sci-fi novel, and you feel it from page one. Every scene takes place on a military base or in a combat situation. There’s no mistaking the martial objective in Butler’s mission. Even the pacing felt clipped and crisp, which added to the realism of the story for me, especially given the plot. Military jargon—and a good share of swearing—filters into the dialogue and into Butler’s internal thoughts, but not so much that it’s unintelligible or hard to follow. Hell, it wouldn’t feel like a military novel without the F word, but Mammay doesn’t overdo it. Still, you don’t have to be a military sci-fi fan to enjoy the book. There’s a damn good mystery here, too, one you can sink your teeth into.

As for the science, we’re talking hard sci-fi that addresses actual hurdles of space flight. Ships travel for months at a time, sometimes more than a year, through multiple jump points between bases. Communications between bases are relayed through the jump points—not instantaneously, but delayed in a realistic fashion. Passengers and crew travel in stasis pods, and thus age differently from their stationary family members. Details outside the travel aspect also fit this standard. Weaponry, planetside transports, and base tech all feel futuristic enough to be engaging for a military with bases on far-flung planets, yet totally plausible. Soldiers who lose an appendage are outfitted with robotic replacements (to a point). The reader gets the solid impression that all this is old news because the officers and crew take it in stride, so it seems as real for us as it is for them.

I will say that I figured out a crucial piece of the plot twist early on in the book. I don’t know why; it isn’t like Mammay gives it away. He’s quite good at weaving the mystery in such a way that the reader doesn’t really know for sure what the hell is going on, or who’s a good guy, and who’s a bad guy. In fact, none of the characters are all one or the other. Still, I wasn’t certain of my conclusion, and the suspicion definitely did not detract from my enjoyment of the novel at all. In fact, isn’t that what one does when reading a mystery? Try and figure it out before the end?

With its fast pace, tight focus, and relatable characters and settings, Planetside drew me in completely. I started reading it on a Saturday afternoon and finished it Sunday night. I would have finished it sooner if I could have shirked all my duties. I didn’t want to put it down and I certainly didn’t want it to be over.

Good news—there’s word on the wind that Mammay got a two-book deal with this, and I hear that Colonel Carl Butler isn’t done with us yet. If you love Planetside as much as I did, that might be the best news you’ll hear all day.

35 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer in VB

Book 1 in a trilogy

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2023

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I don't know if there will be more than three, but three is the official count so far.

This was an enjoyable read! It's kind of hard to pin down into one genre. I thought it was military sci-fi, and it is to some extent, but a large portion has more of a mystery/procedural feel.

Humanity has tried taking over the planet known as Cappa because it is extremely rich in silver, humans being their usual greedy selves. The current species on Cappa strenuously objects. When the story begins this war has already been raging for some time.

Carl, the main character, is a colonel on the verge of retirement. I really liked him! He was older, was dealing with habitual physical pain and flashbacks, and had a terrific caustic sense of humor. He is sent back to this volatile planet in order to locate a powerful politician's son who is MIA. What follows is a mystery full of twists and turns with plenty of shady characters. Neither Carl nor the reader knows exactly who's trustworthy.

This was similar to Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series in that it tends to be lighter on action and focuses more on the characterization. Actually, the MC in that series had to solve some mysteries as well. Although light on the fighting, there certainly were some conflicts! Once the MC is on the ground the action sequences were very well done. I guess that's not surprising since the author is a retired army officer and war veteran. I had a hard time putting this down during those scenes.

The writing is very well done. I've read and enjoyed this author's work in the past so I knew that he could tell a good tale in snazzy style. I don't know why this was gathering dust in my TBR pile for so long, but I'm glad that I've finally read it. Good stuff. I'm planning to read the rest of the series.

One person found this helpful

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M. Phillips

Detective Fiction in the Far Future... oh, and Military SF too

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2020

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“Planetside” is characterized as military SF, a genre I’m not very familiar with, and I assume it does have many elements of that genre including two well-written forays into military combat. Writer Michael Mammay can no doubt write them better than perhaps anyone else, given that he served in pretty much every American conflict in the last 30 years, rising to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army. But it occurs to me that this is first and foremost a detective novel. In fact, Mammay’s prose is so concise, straightforward, and no-nonsense in its quality that I have no doubt that if he’d been writing in the first half of the 20th century it would have been hardboiled detective fiction in the style of Dashiell Hammett. (I suspect I’m one of a few that has not only seen the classic 1941 version of “The Maltese Falcon” with Humphrey Bogart but has also read the novel, so I feel qualified to make this statement.)

This throwback style is witnessed in the fact that Mammay occasionally relies on the tropes of such fiction while giving them suitably modern twists that deftly maneuver them into the context of science fiction. For example, whenever a witness comes forward with potentially revelatory information but says they cannot meet until the following day, you can be assured that, for them, that day will never come. In 20th century detective fiction, they would end up dead in a back alley, whereas in the 21st century SF version, they unexpectedly end up in hibernation—a kind of temporary death.

Equally, the military colonel gone native is a well-established trope, particularly in British literature and media where the scenario was common in mid-century colonial India, though not necessarily in detective fiction. Typically, he has malaria, and because of the chills the disease brings he chooses to stay in India’s hot climate sipping gin and tonic—the real tonic, that is, with actual quinine, not the watered-down kind you’ll find in bars today. But, here, “Planetside,” he is literally a ‘native,’ having acquired the DNA of the planet’s inhabitants, the alien oval-eyed Cappans. And his inability to leave is as much to do with his condition as being a captive. Despite this twist, the parallels were not lost on me. If deliberate, I find it clever, almost cheeky, threatening to break the fourth wall and spoil the hardboiled detective style in a pleasing way, as if written especially for me.

What Mammay does best of all, however, is deep dive into the mind of his main character, Carl Butler, who is also a colonel but is acting as a sort of military detective in an interstellar space force, and it’s easy to see why Mammay would choose such an outlet for his expression; he is astoundingly adept at dialogue and the beats between the lines, which reveal so much about what both Butler and his compatriots are thinking and feeling.

I suspect that this is more about dissecting the military mindset in general, which may do more to justify the appellation of military SF than anything else about this series. Intriguingly, the cooperation between characters seemingly on the same side is not necessarily guaranteed. There is far more quid pro quo going on within the hierarchy than an outsider might imagine, and loyalty to superior rank is not necessarily a given, especially when there is a vast conspiracy at play. There is much more to disseminate about this than there is room in this review. The material is rich on this level.

So how is he doing at maintaining a mystery? Pretty well. I’d consider myself fairly adept at the mystery genre and I’m well-acquainted with its various clichés and tropes, and I at best found myself only a step or two ahead of the characters, and then only occasionally. For example, the attack on the ‘goats’ immediately triggered suspicion on my part that was subsequently guessed by the characters only a few pages later. I also suspected the connection between robotics and the aliens a little ahead of time, but I didn’t quite pick up on the track of the genetically enhanced humans and their purpose. This is probably within the genre’s sweet spot. People like to think of themselves as smart and a little bit ahead of the characters, but not so much that they have the whole plot worked out before they’ve finished the book.

I did find myself slightly confused however by Elliott’s suicide. She seemed so hardnosed and determined that I found it a bit surprising that she would immediately off herself when her role in the conspiracy was revealed. She just seemed to me like the sort of tough character that would choose instead to face the music.

Aside from that, I found “Planetside” to be a taut mystery that hit all the right notes. The book ended in perhaps the only rational way it could have ended and left me fully satisfied at its conclusion. Not every SF book requires an action-packed finale.

Likely, this novel will be equally entertaining to military SF fans and mystery fans, or to SF fans in general.

13 people found this helpful

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Simon Tanner

Brilliant book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2021

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Great page turning military SF. Fascinating scenario, well drawn characters, pitch perfect action, and an engaging 1st person narrative. Highly recommended.

Rodolfo Spindler

Baita sci-fi militar!

Reviewed in Brazil on July 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

Porém, como sou um ávido leitor de hard sci-fi, achei que faltou ciência de fato. Só por esse fato não dei 5 estrelas.
Fora isso é um livro muito fácil de ler, sem embromação. Bem no estilo do John Scalzi.

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Leather DeBoeuf

Big Holes

Reviewed in France on May 16, 2020

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C'est du bon space opéra militaire : pas de fioritures, écriture simple et efficace, du rythme et de l'action. Le début m'a beaucoup plu, mais j'ai ensuite été très déçu par les failles logiques du récit, la médiocrité du personnage principal et une fin beaucoup trop prévisible.

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Ryan K McLeod

Something very, very special

Reviewed in Canada on September 25, 2018

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This book is phenomenal - it grabs at you from the opening and its grip only gets tighter as it goes. The pacing is expertly done and Mammay is clearly a master of voice. Everything is so well done and I struggle to come up with a single fault - everything from the plot to the setting to the characters to the interactions between the characters is so superbly executed. This book will change the face of military sci fi.

I CANNOT wait for the sequel!!

One person found this helpful

Giorgio Bellini

Letto in una notte.

Reviewed in Italy on February 24, 2020

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Pochi libri mi hanno preso così tanto, da iniziare nel tardo pomeriggio e finire a notte fonda.
Storia avvincente, protagonista credibile, azione al punto giusto, intrighi e politica.
Sono stato anche ben impressionato dal seguito, Spaceside.
Vediamo se l'autore avrà la capacità di ripetersi ancora.

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Planetside (Planetside, 1) Kindle Edition

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