Day 7: Book Haul

I got some books! There's a great library not too far from where I live that I can stock up at after getting groceries. Its almost too convenient. It smells like old book but in clean way somehow and its amazing. You'll never catch me saying a bad word about institutions that let you read for free. I wasn't looking for anything in particular this time around, though I have been keeping an eye out for authors I don't know much about. I like hearing new perspectives on old ideas, and the series I picked up fits the bill perfectly.

Full disclosure, this is probably the tiniest book haul that you'll ever read about. I got only got the one series by an author named Michal Mammay. The first book in the series is called Planetside, and it follows newly unretired SPACECOM Colonel and war hero, Carl Butler, on an investigation to find out what happened to the son of a high ranking official in the military industrial complex. This is the kind of war story that's been told a million times. A retired old dog comes back to the game because he just can't say no to his old boss. That being said, Mammay does a great job with the old formula, so far anyway.

The war feels really, really big. He leaves it shrouded in mystery so that it sits in the background like a crouching beast, but little details here and there let you know that it's a brutal war in space and on the ground. I'm seven chapters in and he's just now talking about the context of the war, who they're fighting against, and why the son of a high ranking official would be on the front lines. It really grabbed me and I'm so impressed because it is his debut novel! You should definitely check it out if you're looking for something to read that feels fresh and familiar at the same time.

I'm going to experiment with a shorter blog post today. If this one get's more likes, maybe I'll be more brief going forward.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley