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Orbital

By: Samantha Harvey
Narrated by: Sarah Naudi
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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
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What listeners say about Orbital

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding!

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

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The details about daily life in space felt realistic.

The story takes place in a single day for six astronauts orbiting the earth in a space station. The lives are seen through communications with family, and thoughts while observing the space around them.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exquisite!

This was a gem of a novel. Beautiful and meaningful. I will listen to this many more times! I recommend it to everyone!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

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).

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good geography lesson.

Thin sketches of half the characters.
Sounds like ship breaks up in 7 yrs. The crack.
Roman , likely has lymphoma. Too much radiation- time in space.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not much plot. Not engaging characters. Just moments in time and space.

I liked the lyrical language but grew weary of the author’s landry lists of things versus complete sentences or a coherent story line.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Somehow makes space dull

Less of a novel than a description of a moving picture that is the earth orbiting below a group of astronauts. There is no plot. No character development. Not really even characters - just snippets of people that inhabit the space station and are used to describe to the reader what’s passing below them on earth. We get it. Literally watching the world go by gives you a different perspective, but that’s not really captivating enough to hold the reader’s attention for more than an orbit or 2. Really disappointing.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Dull

Very little happens and there is zero character development. This was an atmospheric sketch more than anything. It might have made a mediocre short story, but at book length it felt flat. Don’t purchase this title. It’s a waste of money.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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Why not Write a Nonfiction Book?

I assume that the way Orbital was constructed was that the novelist researched several people’s experience in space and then invented experiences based on what they learned. On reading the book, one wonders if the original, factual research might have made a better read.

Imagine I interviewed 10 famous football players and then wrote a fictional narrative about a game. I made up names and cities and scrambled the game experiences so the storyline was my own. This would make a realistic football narrative, but what value have I added?

I would understand Orbital better if something extraordinary happened (other than living in space, that is). The crew had an orgy, or the space station broke out of orbit, or they all lost their eyesight.

That would be fiction.

It seems to me that the real history of space travel is far more exciting than this version of fictional space travel. Just like an oral history of last year’s Super Bowl would be a more interesting read than the story of my made up Super Bowl.

Unless Godzilla attacked the stadium—that would be fiction.

Orbital is missing its Godzilla moment. The events are so mundane, it made me wonder why I wasn’t reading about actual astronauts.

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