The Planet by Robby Charters (Book Review #2345)

Robby Charters’ The Planet: Blessed Are the Poor, for Theirs Is the Lift to Space as the Planet Dies is a bold, unsettling, and deeply human science-fiction novel that flips the familiar survival narrative on its head. When a comet is on a direct course to annihilate all life, Captain Steinberg is tasked with evacuating the wealthy elite. A communications failure changes everything. With no time to correct course, Steinberg lands in the first city he sees and fills his ship with society’s forgotten: the poor, the marginalized, the unwanted.

What follows is not a clean escape into space, but a tense moral experiment carried out under extreme pressure. The ship becomes a microcosm of humanity itself — housing orphaned street kids, an autistic savant, a disgraced scientist, a defiant priest, victims and abusers, idealists and extremists. Violence, power struggles, and grief do not disappear once Earth is gone; they follow the survivors into the stars.

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Charters excels at writing flawed, believable characters whose motivations clash in uncomfortable ways. Even side characters feel fully realized, which makes every loss and betrayal land with emotional weight. The children in particular stand out — forming fragile alliances and protecting one another in ways that feel painfully real. Their resilience provides some of the novel’s most powerful moments.

The story grows even more complex upon arrival at the destination planet, where a small population lives sustainably, inspired by indigenous philosophies of balance and sufficiency. The sudden arrival of another thousand people — many shaped by consumerism and exploitation — forces an inevitable reckoning. Will humanity repeat its old mistakes, or can it learn to live differently when given a second chance?

Dark, provocative, and surprisingly tender, The Planet is a character-driven sci-fi novel that asks difficult questions about class, morality, survival, and who truly deserves a future. Fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky and Frank Herbert will find much to admire here.

Written by Jeyran Main

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