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Blindside
Colonel Carl Butler charges back into the world of military crisis, corporate malfeasance, and intergalactic mystery in the action-packed fifth Planetside novel from science fiction master Michael Mammay.
Carl Butler has returned to his home planet from the moon Taug and is looking forward to some rest and relaxation. But following two mysterious deaths connected with the Taug mission, he realizes that the intruders that recently set off his home’s security system might be looking to add him to the death toll.
Having been Butler’s muscle on numerous missions, Mac is no stranger to getting involved with mysteries that should be none of his business. So when the daughter of one of his gym members goes missing, he offers to help. Mac assumes she’s a simple runaway, but the case turns out not to be so clear-cut. Wondering if these strange occurrences are somehow related, Butler—along with Mac, Ganos, and the rest of his small crew—once again finds himself neck deep in intrigue.
As the clues for the various cases begin to intertwine, Butler sees the hand of an old enemy at work, and…well…he’s never been one to sit back and wait for something to happen. Gathering the team, he heads off across the galaxy to confront his suspects head-on.
But this time, they’re waiting for him.
Carl Butler has returned to his home planet from the moon Taug and is looking forward to some rest and relaxation. But following two mysterious deaths connected with the Taug mission, he realizes that the intruders that recently set off his home’s security system might be looking to add him to the death toll.
Having been Butler’s muscle on numerous missions, Mac is no stranger to getting involved with mysteries that should be none of his business. So when the daughter of one of his gym members goes missing, he offers to help. Mac assumes she’s a simple runaway, but the case turns out not to be so clear-cut. Wondering if these strange occurrences are somehow related, Butler—along with Mac, Ganos, and the rest of his small crew—once again finds himself neck deep in intrigue.
As the clues for the various cases begin to intertwine, Butler sees the hand of an old enemy at work, and…well…he’s never been one to sit back and wait for something to happen. Gathering the team, he heads off across the galaxy to confront his suspects head-on.
But this time, they’re waiting for him.
- GenresScience Fiction
384 pages, Paperback
Expected publication March 24, 2026
1 person is currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Michael Mammay
8 books604 followersMichael 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 more wars than he cares to remember. His first novel, PLANETSIDE, was a Library Journal 'Best books of 2018' pick and the sequels, SPACESIDE and COLONYSIDE, received starred reviews. GENERATION SHIP is his first foray out of the military SF sub-genre and comes out in October of 2023. He lives with his family in Georgia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 11, 2025
This is the 5th book in a series and therefore this review might/will have spoilers from previous books. At the least read the 4th book before this one if you don't want to start at book one. However I highly recommend the entire series. Each book is a story that comes to a conclusion but the next book shows the results, bad and good, of the events in the previous book.
Told 1st person through two POVs/swearing, including the F-word (these are military guys after all).
Our main character Colonel Butler is retired from the military and settled down on a quiet planet but trouble finds him anyway. Butler's right hand man Mac comes to him with a case of a runaway teenage girl and Butler, being a softie, gives in and decides to help find her in The Big City (Butler and Mac live out in a small town and rural area). Little do they known that this seemingly simple case will become more and more complicated and end up related to the events from book 4.
Butler calls in Ganos, hacker extraordinaire, and Mac finds a few heavies to join the crew and they leave planet to investigate things. Of course things go sideways and there's a battle. Butler thinks of a way to save his hide and that of his friends because these bad guys have it in for them. It all ends in a big showdown battle.
The story is mostly told from Butler's POV but there are also some chapters from Mac's POV. The writing is excellent, as is the pacing and plot. I sure hope the author can write a happy ending for Butler and friends.
I received an advanced reader copy from Netgally and this did not influence my opinion in any way.
Told 1st person through two POVs/swearing, including the F-word (these are military guys after all).
Our main character Colonel Butler is retired from the military and settled down on a quiet planet but trouble finds him anyway. Butler's right hand man Mac comes to him with a case of a runaway teenage girl and Butler, being a softie, gives in and decides to help find her in The Big City (Butler and Mac live out in a small town and rural area). Little do they known that this seemingly simple case will become more and more complicated and end up related to the events from book 4.
Butler calls in Ganos, hacker extraordinaire, and Mac finds a few heavies to join the crew and they leave planet to investigate things. Of course things go sideways and there's a battle. Butler thinks of a way to save his hide and that of his friends because these bad guys have it in for them. It all ends in a big showdown battle.
The story is mostly told from Butler's POV but there are also some chapters from Mac's POV. The writing is excellent, as is the pacing and plot. I sure hope the author can write a happy ending for Butler and friends.
I received an advanced reader copy from Netgally and this did not influence my opinion in any way.
December 2, 2025
as always, the latest entry in the planetside series hits. watching carl butler attempt /not/ to exercise his maverick gene is very funny, honestly, and a cast of memorable returning characters helps round the story out.
i do think this one was a bit weaker in the bones than the previous entries in the series, however. the switch from the small-time mystery (missing girl) to the larger threat (Lore Implications) was a bit jarring, and the resolution happened once again in a rapid firefight that, while extremely well written, did feel out of left field.
i am also not quite sure how i felt about the sudden switch to a dual pov in the last entry of this series. butler's strong voice always carried the previous books very well, and i don't know that mac was different enough to really make an impact in having his own pov.
all that being said i did very much enjoy this series and am sad to see that it's over, although i will definitely look forward for anything and everything else michael mammay puts out!
thanks to netgalley and harper voyager for the e-arc!
i do think this one was a bit weaker in the bones than the previous entries in the series, however. the switch from the small-time mystery (missing girl) to the larger threat (Lore Implications) was a bit jarring, and the resolution happened once again in a rapid firefight that, while extremely well written, did feel out of left field.
i am also not quite sure how i felt about the sudden switch to a dual pov in the last entry of this series. butler's strong voice always carried the previous books very well, and i don't know that mac was different enough to really make an impact in having his own pov.
all that being said i did very much enjoy this series and am sad to see that it's over, although i will definitely look forward for anything and everything else michael mammay puts out!
thanks to netgalley and harper voyager for the e-arc!
March 9, 2026
Who ya gonna call when someone needs help? You are gonna call Carl Butler and his posse. Thank you Mr. Mammay for another fun and action packed science fiction mystery/thriller in the Planetside series. The newest installment is fifth in the group, titled Blindside, and requires some homework of reading the fourth in the series to get total background. I did not mind that because it just reinforced what I have found in all of Mr. Mammay’s writing, which is entertainment mixed with tech and a lot of action. This novel involves one of Butler’s enemies stalking him in addition to a missing person. The group has to roll out to do what they can to rectify the situation. I so enjoy the writing style in this series, which includes a found family with each having top of the line talents that connect with the needs of each situation in which this retired colonel falls. With the writing in first person, we have no extra paragraphs of extreme detail, only what Butler sees which sets the scene. The military portion of his books is quite easy to understand, even for those of us with no knowledge of that world. Butler seems to push for the truth and his strong morals provide that someone has to pay, and not always in money. I would love for there to be even more novels in the Planetside series. However I am now a fan of anything Michael Mammay writes, and will be reading/listening to it all. Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for a chance to read this book for my honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
After five books, my feelings about Carl Butler have not changed a bit. I STILL want to buy the man a drink. The only thing that has changed is that now I’d try to include Mac in the drinking, in the hopes that one of them would spill something about their escapades. Just what gets put on the page is one hell of a story. I can only imagine just how hair-raising the shenanigans they leave out must be.
That may not be possible, but I still have THIS story – and it’s a doozy. Then again, it’s a Carl Butler operation. Those are ALWAYS doozies because Butler is a chaos magnet of the first order and can’t seem to resist getting in over his head if only so he can have the excitement of getting himself and his team out.
His team thinks he has a death wish. He thinks that it’s just that he’d rather go out getting the job done than sitting on his ass in retirement. He’s clearly not much good at just not doing much, so when he gets bored with that, stuff happens.
Which is exactly what happens in Blindside. In fact, it’s exactly what one of Carl’s entirely too numerous enemies is counting on happening. Because even though Carl thought he had wrapped up the SNAFU on Taug with a nice neat bow just a few months ago (that story is in Darkside), that doesn’t mean that Taug, or the SNAFU, or the people he caught in said SNAFU, are through with him.
Carl really should have known better. Whenever you mess with and mess up an intergalactic corporation run by a psychopathic megalomanic, someone is bound to carry a grudge – right to your doorstep.
But Carl’s not the one who gets sucked in this time. Instead, it’s his Security Chief, Mac, who gets caught up in a sob story that’s rather similar to the one that kicked off Darkside – at least looking at things in hindsight. Mac REALLY should have known better. After all, it’s his JOB to know better.
But there’s plenty of chagrin to go around on Carl’s, and everyone else’s, blindside as the whole team ends up on a wild goose chase where the goose turns out to be them. Carl may be the one in the mysterious crosshairs, but since the team’s job is to protect him they’re all along for the ride. And in the line of fire.
A firing line that sends them straight back to Taug, where this particular misadventure really began, doing what they do best. Doing their damndest to keep Carl Butler alive so that he can figure out what’s been hidden in this particular crowd of shadows so that he can pull all of their nuts out of the fire he’s gotten them into.
Hopefully, as usual hopefully but not certainly, in the same number of pieces that they each came with. If they’re a bit dinged up, well, that’s the cost of cleaning up someone else’s mess. Again.
Escape Rating A: I love this series. I think that’s pretty clear at this point. I’ve read the whole thing and enjoyed every single book, and Blindside was absolutely no exception. The whole Planetside series is pretty much SF mystery in a military SF or at least quasi-military SF setting and I’m just so there for the whole thing. I actually think it’s better now that things have shifted a bit out of being strictly military SF because instead of Carl having orders to obey or get around, he’s a more-or-less free agent but has all his military experience to fall back on. Or get tripped up by. Or both.
This fifth entry in the series is a direct follow-up to Darkside, and does have some important callbacks to the events in the first book, Planetside. I would say that means that this is not a good place to start. Howsomever, if this is where you start, or especially if it’s been a while since you’ve read the series (Planetside came out in 2019) there’s a terrific summary of the events of the previous books at the front of this one. For which this reader is very grateful.
What makes Carl such a fascinating character is that he’s really smart about getting himself out of the soup once he’s boiling in the pot, but kind of dumb about how he gets dumped there in the first place. He misses the action, he’s easily bored and therefore easily convinced to do something dangerous to stop being bored, but at the same time recognizes that he’s not as young as he used to be.
This particular story sits right at the intersection between “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME” and “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action”. Carl is the fool in this story, but the set up is SO thorough, elaborate and expensive that it takes way more than three happenstances for the situation to add up to enemy action – and by that point he’s in the thick of it.
It’s been a wild goose chase from the very start, with Carl as the goose. But because Carl wants it to be real a bit more than he should he doesn’t put the pieces together until it’s too late. Once he’s in, he can’t get out and doesn’t even want to, because he can’t bear to leave a job undone and this whole mess is about a job that he thought was done but no longer is.
And it’s just damn fun to watch him shove aside the smoke and break all the mirrors to figure out what’s really going on, what’s been hidden, who is doing the hiding, and why those forces have expended so much time, energy and money in obfuscating so damn much. Because the coverup, as usual and in real life as well, is considerably more interesting, and more damaging all around, than the original bad act ever was.
Meaning that I had an absolute blast with this book, even as I watched Carl and Company nearly get blasted to smithereens. And still manage to not merely survive, but to save as much of the day as is possible.
A good time was had by all. Except the villains. And even they will live to set a new trap for Carl Butler another day, just a whole lot lighter in the wallet. It’s too bad that they don’t suffer a bit more punishment, but it’s righteous enough to satisfy both Butler and the reader.
About that drink I want to offer both Butler and Mac. If I could include John Perry from Old Man’s War in that, so I could just sit and listen to these old soldiers swap stories, I’d be one very happy camper. I’d also do my damndest to have a recording device so that I wouldn’t miss a single word. It would be awesome.
In the meantime, I’m happy to have more of Carl and Mac’s adventures, at least a couple more years. However (and dammit) the author has announced that this series will wrap up with the seventh – still untitled – book. The sixth book, tentatively titled Otherside, is planned for this time in 2027, with the wrap in 2028. I’m already at the stage of not being sure whether to cry because it’s over or smile because it happened. I don’t want this series to end but recognize that it has to. After all, Carl has already been through more lives than a cat. His luck has to run out sometime. But damn, I’m going to miss him. Thankfully, though, not yet.
Originally published at Reading Reality
That may not be possible, but I still have THIS story – and it’s a doozy. Then again, it’s a Carl Butler operation. Those are ALWAYS doozies because Butler is a chaos magnet of the first order and can’t seem to resist getting in over his head if only so he can have the excitement of getting himself and his team out.
His team thinks he has a death wish. He thinks that it’s just that he’d rather go out getting the job done than sitting on his ass in retirement. He’s clearly not much good at just not doing much, so when he gets bored with that, stuff happens.
Which is exactly what happens in Blindside. In fact, it’s exactly what one of Carl’s entirely too numerous enemies is counting on happening. Because even though Carl thought he had wrapped up the SNAFU on Taug with a nice neat bow just a few months ago (that story is in Darkside), that doesn’t mean that Taug, or the SNAFU, or the people he caught in said SNAFU, are through with him.
Carl really should have known better. Whenever you mess with and mess up an intergalactic corporation run by a psychopathic megalomanic, someone is bound to carry a grudge – right to your doorstep.
But Carl’s not the one who gets sucked in this time. Instead, it’s his Security Chief, Mac, who gets caught up in a sob story that’s rather similar to the one that kicked off Darkside – at least looking at things in hindsight. Mac REALLY should have known better. After all, it’s his JOB to know better.
But there’s plenty of chagrin to go around on Carl’s, and everyone else’s, blindside as the whole team ends up on a wild goose chase where the goose turns out to be them. Carl may be the one in the mysterious crosshairs, but since the team’s job is to protect him they’re all along for the ride. And in the line of fire.
A firing line that sends them straight back to Taug, where this particular misadventure really began, doing what they do best. Doing their damndest to keep Carl Butler alive so that he can figure out what’s been hidden in this particular crowd of shadows so that he can pull all of their nuts out of the fire he’s gotten them into.
Hopefully, as usual hopefully but not certainly, in the same number of pieces that they each came with. If they’re a bit dinged up, well, that’s the cost of cleaning up someone else’s mess. Again.
Escape Rating A: I love this series. I think that’s pretty clear at this point. I’ve read the whole thing and enjoyed every single book, and Blindside was absolutely no exception. The whole Planetside series is pretty much SF mystery in a military SF or at least quasi-military SF setting and I’m just so there for the whole thing. I actually think it’s better now that things have shifted a bit out of being strictly military SF because instead of Carl having orders to obey or get around, he’s a more-or-less free agent but has all his military experience to fall back on. Or get tripped up by. Or both.
This fifth entry in the series is a direct follow-up to Darkside, and does have some important callbacks to the events in the first book, Planetside. I would say that means that this is not a good place to start. Howsomever, if this is where you start, or especially if it’s been a while since you’ve read the series (Planetside came out in 2019) there’s a terrific summary of the events of the previous books at the front of this one. For which this reader is very grateful.
What makes Carl such a fascinating character is that he’s really smart about getting himself out of the soup once he’s boiling in the pot, but kind of dumb about how he gets dumped there in the first place. He misses the action, he’s easily bored and therefore easily convinced to do something dangerous to stop being bored, but at the same time recognizes that he’s not as young as he used to be.
This particular story sits right at the intersection between “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME” and “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action”. Carl is the fool in this story, but the set up is SO thorough, elaborate and expensive that it takes way more than three happenstances for the situation to add up to enemy action – and by that point he’s in the thick of it.
It’s been a wild goose chase from the very start, with Carl as the goose. But because Carl wants it to be real a bit more than he should he doesn’t put the pieces together until it’s too late. Once he’s in, he can’t get out and doesn’t even want to, because he can’t bear to leave a job undone and this whole mess is about a job that he thought was done but no longer is.
And it’s just damn fun to watch him shove aside the smoke and break all the mirrors to figure out what’s really going on, what’s been hidden, who is doing the hiding, and why those forces have expended so much time, energy and money in obfuscating so damn much. Because the coverup, as usual and in real life as well, is considerably more interesting, and more damaging all around, than the original bad act ever was.
Meaning that I had an absolute blast with this book, even as I watched Carl and Company nearly get blasted to smithereens. And still manage to not merely survive, but to save as much of the day as is possible.
A good time was had by all. Except the villains. And even they will live to set a new trap for Carl Butler another day, just a whole lot lighter in the wallet. It’s too bad that they don’t suffer a bit more punishment, but it’s righteous enough to satisfy both Butler and the reader.
About that drink I want to offer both Butler and Mac. If I could include John Perry from Old Man’s War in that, so I could just sit and listen to these old soldiers swap stories, I’d be one very happy camper. I’d also do my damndest to have a recording device so that I wouldn’t miss a single word. It would be awesome.
In the meantime, I’m happy to have more of Carl and Mac’s adventures, at least a couple more years. However (and dammit) the author has announced that this series will wrap up with the seventh – still untitled – book. The sixth book, tentatively titled Otherside, is planned for this time in 2027, with the wrap in 2028. I’m already at the stage of not being sure whether to cry because it’s over or smile because it happened. I don’t want this series to end but recognize that it has to. After all, Carl has already been through more lives than a cat. His luck has to run out sometime. But damn, I’m going to miss him. Thankfully, though, not yet.
Originally published at Reading Reality
November 3, 2025
I’m a huge fan of Michael Mammay, and have read every one of his books since Planetside was first published. I was especially excited to get an ARC of his upcoming release, BLINDSIDE.
I appreciated the author’s recap of the previous four Planetside books to refresh my memory of what happened previously. BLINDSIDE follows retired Colonel Carl Butler, Mac (his security and combat specialist), and Ganos (his IT expert and hacker extraordinaire) as they search for a missing teenager who is the daughter of one of Mac’s fitness clients. The story is told through alternating chapters from both Butler’s and Mac’s viewpoints, and I enjoyed reading part of the story through Mac’s perspective.
Things get a bit dicey, and Butler and Mac realize there is more to this disappearance than a simple runaway situation. They bring in a larger team of highly skilled specialists, and the plot starts to move very quickly and in several different directions.
I’ve always liked Carl Butler, not just for his intelligence and ingenuity, but also how he takes care of his people—all the qualities of an excellent commander. His crew have many strengths as well, and they all work so well together. I love this series partly due to this continued dynamic.
BLINDSIDE’s ending was, as expected, very good. With a rich cast of characters and compelling plots, I sincerely hope this series will continue!
NOTE: While I only listen to about 10% of my books, I’ve ALWAYS listened to Mammay’s books on audio since his usual narrator, R.C. Gray, is just so good. I’ll likely buy the audiobook when it’s released.
🌟Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.🌟
I appreciated the author’s recap of the previous four Planetside books to refresh my memory of what happened previously. BLINDSIDE follows retired Colonel Carl Butler, Mac (his security and combat specialist), and Ganos (his IT expert and hacker extraordinaire) as they search for a missing teenager who is the daughter of one of Mac’s fitness clients. The story is told through alternating chapters from both Butler’s and Mac’s viewpoints, and I enjoyed reading part of the story through Mac’s perspective.
Things get a bit dicey, and Butler and Mac realize there is more to this disappearance than a simple runaway situation. They bring in a larger team of highly skilled specialists, and the plot starts to move very quickly and in several different directions.
I’ve always liked Carl Butler, not just for his intelligence and ingenuity, but also how he takes care of his people—all the qualities of an excellent commander. His crew have many strengths as well, and they all work so well together. I love this series partly due to this continued dynamic.
BLINDSIDE’s ending was, as expected, very good. With a rich cast of characters and compelling plots, I sincerely hope this series will continue!
NOTE: While I only listen to about 10% of my books, I’ve ALWAYS listened to Mammay’s books on audio since his usual narrator, R.C. Gray, is just so good. I’ll likely buy the audiobook when it’s released.
🌟Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.🌟
December 10, 2025
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.
I've been a fan of the series and so was looking forward to this. The action was well written, but I was less drawn in by the overall plot. Don't get me wrong, i enjoyed the read, but there wasn't the surprise or suspense factor as much.
Worth a read for fans of the series, but a middle book rather than a starter or a closer.
I've been a fan of the series and so was looking forward to this. The action was well written, but I was less drawn in by the overall plot. Don't get me wrong, i enjoyed the read, but there wasn't the surprise or suspense factor as much.
Worth a read for fans of the series, but a middle book rather than a starter or a closer.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I would like to thank NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC of Blindside in return for an honest review. Blindside is book 5 in Michael Mammay's Planetside series. The author is a retired army officer and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. I first came across Mammay on a panel on military science fiction at Worldcon in Chicago and previously read his standalone, The Misfit Soldier, which was an extremely good version of the small military unit, I also previously read book 4 in the series, Darkside. Blindside is book 5 in the Planetside series, Mammay recommends that prior to reading Blindside, that a reader first read Darkside. Darkside was an action-packed military sci-fi story. Colonel Carl Butler and Mac, his aide, are the recurring protagonists in this series. Dark hacker Ganos is back working her magic. Sniper Castellano and drone specialist Alanson.
The book is told from the perspective of Butler and Mac, in alternating chapters. Mac is approached a woman that belongs to his gym to find her teenage daughter, who appears to be trafficked. Butler and his team work with Mac to find this girl. But everything is not as it appears to be. In addition, there have been mysterious deaths connected to the mission on Taug [from book 4 in the series]. Mammay is excellent at writing military action and is especially strong at personal relations within a military squad. There is a mystery that keeps the action moving forward.
The story is very exciting, with great military action. While book 5 wraps up the plot line in this book, it ends with an expectation of future books. Online chatter suggests that the series has been approved for books 6 and 7 beyond Blindside. The series is recommended, but I agree with the author that if you don’t start at book 1, definitely I would start with book 4.
The book is told from the perspective of Butler and Mac, in alternating chapters. Mac is approached a woman that belongs to his gym to find her teenage daughter, who appears to be trafficked. Butler and his team work with Mac to find this girl. But everything is not as it appears to be. In addition, there have been mysterious deaths connected to the mission on Taug [from book 4 in the series]. Mammay is excellent at writing military action and is especially strong at personal relations within a military squad. There is a mystery that keeps the action moving forward.
The story is very exciting, with great military action. While book 5 wraps up the plot line in this book, it ends with an expectation of future books. Online chatter suggests that the series has been approved for books 6 and 7 beyond Blindside. The series is recommended, but I agree with the author that if you don’t start at book 1, definitely I would start with book 4.
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