The International Space Station orbits the Earth 16 times every day. This is a poetic vision of a day when a super-typhoon passes over the Philippines, and a manned mission flies to the moon. A companion to Artemis II. Beautiful poetry, but not much plot.
The ISS crew is divided between two Russians (Anton and Roman) and four non-Russians (Chie, Japan; Nell, GB; Pietro, Italy; and Shaun, US). The ISS circles the Earth in an oblique orbit between 52° north and 52° south latitude every 90 minutes. Meanwhile, the Earth rotates once a day. This means that the view under the ISS constantly changes, and it visits all points within its latitude range. Cambridge, UK, Saskatoon, Canada, and Mongolia to the north. Southern Chile, south of New Zealand and way south of the Cape of Good Hope. Much of the book repeats this geography 16 times.
The Booker Prize frequently rewards "bold voices" that challenge traditional storytelling. This book won the Booker Prize, possibly for its unique style. Orbital has been called a space exploration meditation. This style may be pioneering and unique, but I wouldn’t give it the subtitle, “A Novel.”
Quotes
She finds she often struggles for things to tell people at home, because the small things are too mundane and the rest is too astounding and there seems to be nothing in between.
Why would you do this? Trying to live where you can never thrive? Trying to go where the universe doesn’t want you when there’s a perfectly good earth just there that does. He’s never sure if man’s lust for space is curiosity or ingratitude. If this weird hot longing makes him a hero or an idiot. Undoubtedly something just short of either.
Artemis: It’s about those four astronauts on their way now to the moon, and the next men and women, the men and women who will one day be going to live on a new lunar station, those who will go into deeper space, the decades of men and women who’ll come after them. Except it’s not even about that, it’s just about the future and the siren song of other worlds, some grand abstract dream of interplanetary life, of humanity uncoupled from its hobbled earth and set free; the conquest of the void.
The book has many lists: They see someone’s dog washed down the street in two metres of soupy thing-thronged water, and the dog’s someone following promptly after it, and a parasol, a pram, a book, a cupboard, dead birds, tarpaulin, a van, many shoes, coconut trees, a gate, a woman’s body, a chair, roof timbers, Christ on his cross, a flag, countless bottles, a steering wheel, clothing, cats, door frames, bowls, road signs, you name it.
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