Orbital

 Orbital: a novel, by Samantha Harvey, 2024, 224 pgs

As stated previously, I tend to not read fiction, so my take on these things are to be taken with a grain of salt. That said this was definitely better than Ministry of Time, (which I will knock until the end of time), but also sort of not enjoyable--just in a different way. Props to the author for winning the Booker Prize on this but the exhaustive list of high praise seems unnecessarily lengthy. For me, the best fiction has to have really great prose--which this does a majority of the time--or tell an exciting story. The prose is mostly here yes, but often long-winded and arbitrary. But hey, at least the author is trying, right? Where this book goes right are some of the human mediations on life overall, as seen through the eyes of a group of astronauts. But really, it's seen through the eyes of the author. Which I find bothersome. You get to know some of the characters through ruminations but that's pretty much it. There is no plot here. How can I put that more plainly? NOTHING HAPPENS. It's just the author's mediations on the earth, space and the loneliness of the long distance human race. At times, it does make you reflect on the earth as a whole, which is what you would do if you were an astronaut, right? It makes you feel like, we're all one species, bound by collective memory and advancement. That's a happy thought, yes? But this felt more to me like the equivalent of an author trying to sound like a TikTok poetry influencer. It feels like reading the script to a Terrence Malik movie. I'm sure he's reading this right now and putting together a story board. I probably won't like the movie either.