Forgetting the pull of retirement, Butler confronts one obstacle after another in the quest to stop the Cappa problem from affecting the rest of the galaxy. Soon, the mystery of one soldier's disappearance becomes a question of just how bad things are on the planet below. Several seem to know what happened to the High Councilor's son, but they aren't talking. The colonels who should be Butler's colleagues fight amongst themselves. Someone who might talk with Butler is shipped away to a psychiatric ward. Records about the High Councilor's son disappear. Small mysteries become large ones and branch in a dozen directions. The whiskey he smuggled into Cappa System can do only so much to ease his mind and the aches in his robotic foot. The station commander is actively lying to the colonel.īefore long, Butler and a squad have descended to Cappa, a planet that smells like 'stale laundry with a hint of sulfur.' They are being fired upon despite traveling in an 'MT-488 hover vehicle, affectionately known as the Goat because it went anywhere and did anything.' Soldiers around Butler are dying.

Special Operations down on the planet won't talk with him. Medical Command bans him from their part of the station. The colonel is an outsider, the 'bigwig coming from headquarters to check out the brigade.'Įvery path Butler tries to take is blocked. All eyes are on Butler any time he enters a room. Alendra and Hardy aren't the only potential spies. Each new team member is suspect, even the extremely competent station intelligence officer, Major Lex Alendra, and General Serata's aide, the untested Lieutenant Hardy.īutler assumes both staff were assigned to him so they could report back to their commanders. The size of Colonel Butler's team expands as soon as he reaches Cappa Base, the space station orbiting the warzone planet, Cappa. I had no problem telling the one that helped the team.' Butler is joined by Staff Sergeant 'Mac' McCann and the Bitch, a Bikoski 71 projectile rifle, guaranteed not to go 'to shit' when it gets wet. 'I wouldn't falsify a report.But you could find a dozen truths in any situation. The colonel understands the power of interpretation. General Serata knows Butler is right for the job. Planetside blends the finest in military science fiction tradition with humanity, personal perspective, and a compelling plot infused with mystery.īutler's mission is to find out what happened to a High Councilor's son, a soldier who went missing in the only alien warzone where the local population is fighting human colonization efforts. So is protagonist Carl Butler, a semi-retired colonel called back into full military service by an old friend offering a sweet deal. Planetside, the debut novel by Michael Mammay, is an easy book to love. When the first sentence of a novel contains a curse word, the author is issuing a challenge: Love this book or hate it.

Planetside by Michael Mammay