If what grabbed you in Planetside was Colonel Carl Butler being sent to Cappa with a single directive—find the missing VIP and dig through layers of military obfuscation—then James Shelley’s relentless, boots-on-the-ground pursuits in The Red: First Light will click. The ops come fast, the orders are murky, and every mission peels back another layer of who’s really pulling the strings, much like Butler’s door-kicking interviews and hospital-sourced revelations on Cappa.

You liked how Planetside turns Butler’s missing-person op into a maze of brass politics and contractor secrets on Cappa. Leviathan Wakes does that at system scale: Holden’s crew and Detective Miller dig into the Protogen scheme behind Eros Station, uncovering how boardroom decisions fuel atrocities. The same vibe of following a trail the powerful want buried—only bigger, messier, and just as satisfying to expose.

If Butler’s willingness on Cappa to break protocol, squeeze suspects, and ultimately make a ruthless call to end the cover-up worked for you, Takeshi Kovacs will feel familiar. In Altered Carbon, Kovacs bulldozes through a high-stakes investigation with the same pragmatic brutality—doing what needs doing even when it’s ugly—while the fallout forces you to wrestle with whether the outcome justifies the cost.

Carl Butler’s first-person narration gives Planetside its bite—dry, seasoned, and unblinking as he stalks through Cappa’s mess. Old Man’s War delivers that same intimate immediacy through John Perry’s voice, from the brutal training to chaotic firefights. You’ll get the wry asides, the veteran perspective, and the sense that the narrator is leveling with you even when the brass won’t.

If Butler’s sardonic quips while grilling officers and contractors on Cappa made you grin, you’ll love Murderbot’s deadpan commentary in All Systems Red. It’s another capable operative stuck between corporate agendas and life-or-death missions, narrating with sharp humor while methodically tearing through obstacles—equal parts competence and snark as the situation goes sideways.