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A review by heathcliff
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
A beautiful meditation on what it means to be human. A story about perspectives and the contrast between the grandiosity of human life versus the smallness of the human experience. When we are stripped of all the noise that clouds our day-to-day, what are the things that matter and what do we hold true? When we are freed from the minutiae of life's daily dramas, what do we keep close and what can we easily cast aside?
The stories of the six astronauts and cosmonauts moved me the most and I found myself most engaged when the story was focused on them and how they felt about being in orbit, away from friends and family, trapped in a metal container with a bunch of (essentially) strangers.
Harvey's prose is beautiful. So many poignant lines meditating on our role on earth that I highlighted and savoured. In contrast, what I felt dragged the book down were the parts which commented more explicitly on politics. It felt a bit preachy and polemic in a way that breaks from the style of the rest of the book.
The stories of the six astronauts and cosmonauts moved me the most and I found myself most engaged when the story was focused on them and how they felt about being in orbit, away from friends and family, trapped in a metal container with a bunch of (essentially) strangers.
Harvey's prose is beautiful. So many poignant lines meditating on our role on earth that I highlighted and savoured. In contrast, what I felt dragged the book down were the parts which commented more explicitly on politics. It felt a bit preachy and polemic in a way that breaks from the style of the rest of the book.