Taufiq Yves's Reviews > Orbital

The winner of the 2024 Booker Prize has been announced, and it is Orbital by the female writer Samantha Harvey. From the title and cover, it's easy to guess that this is a book about space, the universe, or astronauts.

Let's start with the reading difficulty. The book is quite thin because the main plot revolves around a single day in the life of 6 astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). Throughout this day, the ISS orbits the Earth 16 times, and each chapter of the book details these 16 orbits. Since the book contains a lot of aerospace - related technical terms, and we know astronauts conduct various experiments in space - biology, chemistry, medicine, physics, and more - there are many specialized terms in these fields as well. If you have a strong vocabulary in these areas, the reading difficulty is manageable. If not, you will need to be patient.

I am very curious about the work of astronauts. I often wonder about their state of being in space, what they talk about, what they do, and whether their worldviews differ significantly from those on Earth since they have the "God's eye view." This book perfectly satisfies my curiosity about space travel. Its subject matter and perspective are highly intriguing to me. What I appreciate most is that the book’s plot does not include typical science fiction or other novel elements, such as encounters with aliens or significant accidents.

The plot of this novel is very routine, without dramatic twists and turns or mind - bending settings. It mainly details the daily lives of the 6 astronauts in space, including their meals, living conditions, and individual psychological activities. This is exactly what I wanted to see. The most fluctuating part of the book is the psychological activities of each astronaut. Although the degree and details of their psychological activities differ, they mainly reflect on their lives on Earth and reconsider those memories while in space. Those of us who have flown internationally may have experienced this to some extent. At higher altitudes, the people and buildings on the ground disappear, and even the invisible borders between countries vanish from our minds, leaving only a complete world, a unified Earth. All emotions experienced in life, work, friendships, family, and conflicts tend to calm down. It’s like how, after the water flows out of a gold panner's pan, the sand and gold grains clearly reveal themselves. This feeling is even more pronounced over 400 kilometers above Earth in outer space. This is the greatest resonance I felt with the plot of the book.

The New York Times review of this book, as well as reports from various media about its award, used similar descriptions: Harvey writes in a poetic or lyrical language. This is very accurate. Her proficiency in using the English language is high, allowing me to appreciate her linguistic talent. As this book is about the astronauts' daily lives, Harvey’s ability to write mundane daily life in such poetic and lyrical language is impressive. While reading, I found many great quotes. I won't quote them here, but if you are interested, you can read the book yourself. Orbital is still relatively new, and the points that resonate and touch each reader's soul might differ. I don't want my personal preferences to influence anyone who are initially interested in this book.

The astronauts in this book are on the International Space Station, so there are no astronauts from China, as they are on their own space station. Often watching news about Chinese astronauts and their space station, I felt a strange sense of familiarity while reading this book. When the book describes the astronauts' living environments and the various experiments they conduct, I can accurately imagine the environment and objects on the space station. This feeling is quite magical.

4 / 5 stars