Orbital

This book guides us through a a day in the life of a team of astronauts orbiting earth. But to it's a "day" is a bit misleading given how often the sun "rises" and "falls" on these characters. The book proceeds through 16 orbits, and it offers a map of those orbits at the beginning. But the book itself provides a map as well, constantly reminding the reader what part of the globe is passing underneath the international space station.

Beautifully written, and there are too many great moments to not them all here. But my favorite moment is this passage about Michael Collins famous photo of the lunar module leaving the earth's surface.

"In the photograph Collins took, there's the lunar module carrying Armstrong and Aldrin, just behind them the moon, and some 250,000 miles beyond that the Earth, a blue half sphere hanging in all blackness and bearing mankind. Michael Collins is the only human being not in that photograph, it is said, and this has always been a source of great enchantment. Every single other person currently in existence, to mankind knowledge, is contained in that image; only one is missing, he who made the image.

Anton has never really understood that claim, or at least the enchantment of it. What of all the people on the other side of the earth that the camera can't see, and everybody in the southern hemisphere, which is in night and gulped up by the darkness of space? Are they in the photograph? In truth, nobody is in the photograph, nobody can be seen. Everybody is invisible – Armstrong and Aldrin inside the lunar model, humankind, unseen, on a planet that could easily, from this view, be uninhabited. The strongest, most deducible proof of life in the photograph is the photographer himself – his eye at the viewfinder, the warm press of his finger on the shutter release. In that sense, the more enchanting thing about Collins's image is that, in the moment of taking the photograph, he is really the only human presence it contains." (63-64)

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.