Orbital

By: Samantha Harvey

Narrated by: Sarah Naudi

Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space—not towards the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate. So are the marks of civilization far below, encrusted on the planet on which we live.

Profound, contemplative, and gorgeous, Orbital is an eloquent meditation on space and a moving elegy to our humanity, environment, and planet.

©2023 Samantha Harvey (P)2023 Penguin Audio

A short delight

Harvey uses the trajectory of an orbiting space station experiencing an unearthly sixteen sunrises in a single day as it traverses around the planet to trace out the apparent plotlessness of human life on spaceship earth as we float in space.

Within this framework she focuses the lenses wide and long as we take in the whole world, micro to macro, the progress of humankind, the evolution of life and the universe and the oneness we should feel being in this rather lonely universe.

This was a short delight.

Well written but repetitious

The writing is marvelous and that is usually all I need but it turns out that a plot is nice too. Yes we have characters but in truth nothing happens that would constitute a beginning middle and end, unless you count the numbering of orbits.
If space travel is your thing then you’ll probably love it. It does transcend the everyday human experience while still paying homage to it.

Poor narration.

Dropping of consonants at the end of words very irritating. Distracted from the elegance of the prose.

Unusual.

A collection of words, a descriptive atlas, a long list. Unfortunately the reader has an initially bothersome and ultimately irritating and distracting lisp, dropping “s”es at the end of words or replacing the with “th”s. Unlike so many books I have read, I was so glad when it was finished.

beautiful prose, mediocre performance

Orbital is a beautiful well written novel, devoid of plot, but crammed full of fascinating imagery of the place we all call home. In my opinion the performance left much to be desired.

Otherworldly Poem

This was beautifully written - more of a poem than a novel -- though there was some character development and back stories to fill it out. I bought the book after listening to better focus on the language. I did NOT like either the narrator or editor who cut off the "s" sounds at the end of sentences. Very distracting!

Outstanding!

The prose were exquisite! Visually descriptive and engaging! Wished it was longer!! Couldn’t put it down!

spellbinding

The presentation of life in space was outstanding. It was hard to stop listening when I had to stop. The details, which could have been dry and boring, were presented in a spellbinding way.

The beauty could be seen and felt from the scenes written, and I felt like I was there with them.

I loved the way the author painted pictures with her words, and saw things from the perspective of each individual aboard the spacecraft as they orbited their way around the Earth and onward to the moon.
Unfortunately the story ends before their arrival, so we can’t know what that might be like at this point in our timeline. Perhaps we we get to the rest of the story if our planet and our species survive.
Samantha shows how politics has played a role in shaping our planet, but that when people have to survive together in a small space don’t engage in political maneuvering. It’s a perspective more of us could use, that would promote more cooperation once we understood how very small and insignificant we are in the universe.

Still Waiting for Something to Happen

I know the poet Christian Wiman said that a lack of resolution may be one of the hallmarks of contemporary literature, but I feel like I’m still waiting for an inciting incident here. I very much like the idea of a belletristic/poetic/philosophical meditation upon the earth, moon, space, and stars, but this fell short of Rachel Carson meditating upon the ocean or Jean Baudrillard meditating upon America. There was a great deal of exposition, but that’s not really a substitute for asking (and attempting to answer) philosophical questions. Occasionally, there was some striking, surprising imagery, but more often than not, it wasn’t very surprising. But I do agree with the sentiments of the book (as I would with the stated objectives of a politician who wants to reverse global warming and set the world on a course toward peace and technological collaboration).