Review – Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I have to say that Orbital is one of the most unusual books I’ve read recently. The author, Samantha Harvey (who is a creative writing instructor at Bath Spa University in the UK), has written a novel that is beautifully poetic, entrancing, and incredibly well-researched, but at the same time defies typical storytelling.

The book traces one day in the lives of six astronauts circling the Earth in the International Space Station. Each chapter traces one of the orbital loops as the space station transverses from day to night to day again, and we’ve given insight into the astronauts thoughts, hopes, fears, and dreams as they go about their daily routines. 

This isn’t a science fiction or speculative fiction novel in a traditional sense. Basically, there is no real story arc or character development. Not that it’s a bad thing, but mid-way through the book I was wondering where the story was heading. 

But the lack of story arc doesn’t detract from the overall experience. This is a short book, only 207 pages, and Harvey spends the majority of her words painting amazing views from orbit. As one reviewer said, this is a love letter to the Earth. It really is. 

Here is a piece where the astronauts view the aurora borealis:

“The airglow is dusty greenish yellow. Beneath it in the gap between atmosphere and earth is a fuzz of neon which starts to split and stir. It ripples, spills, its smoke that pours across the face of the planet; the ice is green, the underside of the spacecraft an alien pall. The light gains edges and limbs; folds and opens. Strains against the inside of the atmosphere, writhes and flexes. Sends up plumes. Fluoresces and brightens. Detonates then in towers of light. Erupts clean through the atmosphere and puts up towers two hundred miles high. A the top of the towers is a swathe of magenta that obscures the stars, and across the globe a shimmering hum of rolling light, of flickering, quavering, flooding light, and the depth of space is mapped in light.”

It really is beautifully written, like a long prose-poem, an ode to our home planet.

Granted, some readers may be put off by the lack of a traditional story, but I feel that Harvey does such a great job of illustrating these views that it makes up for what may be missing. And while there isn’t much in character development – it’s only a 24 hour period in a confined space – the astronauts are each given their fair share of page space. We learn about what inspired them to become adventurers, what they have left behind on solid ground, and how they manage their mental and emotional health while traveling at 17,000 miles per hour.

This was a fine read, a little something different, and worth the price of admission. 

RB