Orbital (2024) by Samantha Harvey

Audiobook Review

Orbital (2024)

by Samantha Harvey

   The New York Times review of Orbital by Samantha Harvey was maybe the first book review I read this year.  The way it was described made me wince- it's set on the international space station and switches between the perspectives of the multi national astronauts onboard as the travel around the planet several times (each orbit is another chapter).  They think about stuff, and stuff happens on Earth- a strong tsunami in the Pacific is the major earth-bound event- and that's the book.

  In January I told myself I'd read it if it got nominated for the Booker Prize.  It did. And then I put it off again because, again, my feeling was this is an example of the uninteresting side of the coin that is combining literary fiction with elements of speculative fiction.  There is, to be sure, a "realist" non sci fi literature of near-earth travel, but I'm just saying setting a book in space is a typical element of science fiction.  In Orbital we've got that and then the thoughts of these astronauts.  I told myself, "I'll read it if it makes the Booker shortlist, and there you go.  I was able to check the five-hour audiobook out of the library the day the shortlist was announced and listened to it at the gym and running for a couple of days.

  I can see the perspective of the Booker committee.  First, it's short, 144 pages, which is an UNDENIABLE advantage in competing for the Booker Prize.  Second it's got an international perspective- the most international perspective, you could argue, which suits the favor that the Booker Prize shows to outward looking fiction.  Third, she's an English lit insider who draws comparison Virginia Woolf for her writing style and themes and her 2009 novel Wilderness was longlisted.

  Personally, I thought it was a good Audiobook because of the length and the different voices of the astronauts- Russian, American, Japanese.  There are also several "set-piece" style descriptions of the Earth itself which are distinctive and memorable. But Orbital is def an example of modernist-inspired fictions where "nothing happens."  I'm sure that statement would drive Harvey nuts, but that is my opinion.   Whatever my personal feelings there is no denying that Harvey has the literary pedigree and that Orbital has the kind of moxy the Booker Judges seem to reward every year so...who knows. Maybe the winner.