A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.
The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from …
Life on our planet as you've never seen it before
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.
The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
This is more a meditation and character study than a narrative. In that respect, it's quite beautiful, especially if one doesn't know much about space and space flight.
But since I am already in awe of human tech in space, the book was monotonous to me.
This is more a meditation and character study than a narrative. In that respect, it's quite beautiful, especially if one doesn't know much about space and space flight.
But since I am already in awe of human tech in space, the book was monotonous to me.
Una dichiarazione d'amore per questo meraviglioso pianete
4 stars
Questo libro è per chi trasformava bottiglie in magiche astronavi, per chi vede le pennellate di William Turner nei paesaggi trafitti di luce, per chi fluttua e volteggia nel profondo di un sogno, e per chi ha capito che esistiamo in un’effimera fioritura di vita e sapere, un’esplosione estiva, fugace come uno schiocco di dita.
Orbital describes the cyclical journey of six astronauts, with plenty of tasks but no real destination. They are tethered to the earth, just as human behaviour is tethered to its animal roots. And while the astronauts, much like humanity itself, have professed aspirations, they are ultimately moving parts in the interconnected whole of the cosmos.
Samantha Harvey offers beautiful prose, composed of distinct but interconnected strands of thought. It might sometimes feel that style trumps substance, but I don't think that is the case -- I think form and content are entirely congruent in a set of reflections that sometimes conflict and sometimes align.
Orbital describes the cyclical journey of six astronauts, with plenty of tasks but no real destination. They are tethered to the earth, just as human behaviour is tethered to its animal roots. And while the astronauts, much like humanity itself, have professed aspirations, they are ultimately moving parts in the interconnected whole of the cosmos.
Samantha Harvey offers beautiful prose, composed of distinct but interconnected strands of thought. It might sometimes feel that style trumps substance, but I don't think that is the case -- I think form and content are entirely congruent in a set of reflections that sometimes conflict and sometimes align.
I picked this up having not seen it before, from the combination of the blurb and the reviews on the cover, promising a beautiful book about astronauts on the International Space Station.
It is precisely that. Delicious, evocative, and poetic prose in a sweeping flow that both captures the disorienting combination of the banal and extraordinary of life in space. Astronauts in (or "on") orbit are inevitably some of the most capable and amazing people alive, but their lives are finely regimented and filled with finicky, highly structured work and lots and lots of housekeeping. The juxtaposition of that caretaking work with the fact they are in space, looking down on the world beneath from a god's-eye view, is central to the narrative here. It is less a story, and more an exploration of the humanity in the extraordinariness of the astronauts, and the extraordinary in the ordinariness of …
I picked this up having not seen it before, from the combination of the blurb and the reviews on the cover, promising a beautiful book about astronauts on the International Space Station.
It is precisely that. Delicious, evocative, and poetic prose in a sweeping flow that both captures the disorienting combination of the banal and extraordinary of life in space. Astronauts in (or "on") orbit are inevitably some of the most capable and amazing people alive, but their lives are finely regimented and filled with finicky, highly structured work and lots and lots of housekeeping. The juxtaposition of that caretaking work with the fact they are in space, looking down on the world beneath from a god's-eye view, is central to the narrative here. It is less a story, and more an exploration of the humanity in the extraordinariness of the astronauts, and the extraordinary in the ordinariness of the Earth that they so eagerly and passionately leave behind.
Except they are tethered to it, psychologically, and spend huge amounts of their days ensuring the ISS is kept as close to Earth-like as it can be, because that's what makes space at all liveable.
There was some ebb and flow to the reading of this, for me, times when I lost it a little bit, though that was likely to do with me and the way I was reading it as much as anything to do with the writing.
I found this book beautiful, for its humanity, and its invigoration of our relationship to the Earth. It's short, and well worth your time.
Poetic, with a fascinating rhythm that made this book feel like it was made for reading aloud. A short amount of time passes for the astronauts on the international space station but it feels like the book takes place over years and years as you learn about each of them. Loved it.
A beautiful written book, and clearly a lot of research has gone into making it science based. I just found a little bit hard to wade through given that there is no real story, aside the intimate portrait of the astronauts - this is probably more a reflection of my reader skills instead of the author!
Orbital is a novel that seems to go nowhere except round and round, and yet it grows into a cacophony of story during its brief and deceptive simplicity.
On the surface, it is a well researched, character-driven fiction about four astronauts and two cosmonauts orbiting the earth in a vessel for scientific observation. However, this container becomes a device for Samantha Harvey to collapse progress, poverty, climate change, ambition, grief and hope into a tiny vessel. All too often we are reminded that only a few inches of metal protect [us?] from complete doom, such is the fragility of life. Beautifully written and concise, this book was a terrific surprise.
Thanks so much to the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy for me to review.
Firstly, this book contains the exact recipe for a book that I would love. To Be Taught If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers, Providence by Max Barry, The Freeze Frame Revolution and Blindsight by Peter Watts... if it involves a few people on a spaceship together with no space and no choice but to become deeply invested in each other's lives, I'm very likely going to love it.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey was no exception. We follow one "day" cycle of 6 astronauts from different backgrounds orbiting the earth in the present day, 16 orbits total. However briefly in this quick ~200 page book, we get to spend an intimate amount of time with these astronauts: their thoughts, their duties, and their relationships, almost as if we are the seventh astronaut sharing the claustrophobic space …
Thanks so much to the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy for me to review.
Firstly, this book contains the exact recipe for a book that I would love. To Be Taught If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers, Providence by Max Barry, The Freeze Frame Revolution and Blindsight by Peter Watts... if it involves a few people on a spaceship together with no space and no choice but to become deeply invested in each other's lives, I'm very likely going to love it.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey was no exception. We follow one "day" cycle of 6 astronauts from different backgrounds orbiting the earth in the present day, 16 orbits total. However briefly in this quick ~200 page book, we get to spend an intimate amount of time with these astronauts: their thoughts, their duties, and their relationships, almost as if we are the seventh astronaut sharing the claustrophobic space of the research space station they call home. While there is little story that drives the narrative, I didn't think this setting called for that kind of structure. This was a deeply introspective examination of the human condition, aspirations, emotion, and loss. It did not need a strong story progression to be compelling and beautiful.
Also, the amount of research that went into this was extremely commendable. There are so many small details about life in orbit that was clearly informed by actual experts. The acknowledgements thank NASA and the ESA for their insights, so I have to commend the author for being diligent in creating a stunning and authentic story.
While some of the routine activities interrupted with descriptions of the orbital path and philosophizing might read as tedious to some, I found it to be necessary to flesh out the otherwise indescribable experience of an astronaut's relationship with their own humanity while being at the forefront of the terrifying precipice of human achievement. The structure did take some getting used to however, with frequent jumps from one character to another, then to no character at all between paragraphs, but it wasn't too disruptive. Regarding the overall story, I do think I would have appreciated a bit more relationship development between the characters. What was there was done so well, it had me really yearning for more, but otherwise this was an excellent read and I very much recommend it.
