Johnny asked L.E. Howel:

In your book Planetfall it is stated that Birch heard is leg crack after the fall from tree, where upon no further mention? how did his leg recover so fast?

L.E. Howel Hi Johnny,

Thanks for your question. I’ve been asked that before and I can understand how there could be some confusion over it. The answer lies in a couple of later passages-

-At the end of chapter seven Birch walked through a door that mysteriously appeared in the jungle. Then, at the beginning of chapter eight, he has a strange out-of-body experience and saw himself on an operating table while doctors worked on him. This was an indication that what he had experienced in the previous chapter wasn’t real. When he walked through the door at the end of chapter seven he had passed from an illusion into reality.

-All of this was confirmed in chapter nine when Area Commander Gibbs explained to Birch that he and his crew had been placed in envirodomes during the first stage of their quarantine, but because of his adverse reaction to it they had all been removed. “Some of you… aren’t ready for paradise,” Gibbs commented, pointing out a subtle theme that Birch can’t even enjoy a good thing when he has it. He always saw the worst, and in the free environment of the envirodome those fears became reality and turned his paradise into a nightmare.

Nothing in the envirodome was real. It was supposed to be a beautiful illusion that gave you everything you wanted but really gave you nothing at all. It was an empty existence where nothing really happened. In Birch’s mind that world darkened to match his thoughts, but the horrors there were just as unreal as the pleasures would have been. Thus physical things, such as a broken leg, would never transfer into the real world. They were part of a false reality created in the envirodome. The only danger Birch really faced there was from his own mental breakdown as he imagined ever greater horrors. This danger was why the door was opened and he was permitted to leave. As Gibbs said, “we saved you from yourself”.

I hope that clears it up for you. There are a few other hints to the same theme much later in the book again, but I don’t really want to go into that here. I wouldn’t want to give out too many spoilers!

L.E. Howel

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