Orbital; a review

"Orbital," written by Samantha Harvey, feels like a short novel inspired by Carl Sagan's quote in Pale Blue Dot.^[1] Much like the six characters aboard the International Space Station (ISS), it exudes a floating, ethereal quality.

Unfortunately, some of the astronauts' lives feel a bit one-dimensional, as Harvey struggles to empathise with the cultures and experiences of her non-Anglophone colleagues. The British and American astronauts are described with far greater depth and emotional resonance compared to those from more "exotic" locales. Additionally, the characters tend to blend into one another, their voices too same-y for individuals hailing from vastly different backgrounds.

Luckily, the astronauts' lives serve primarily as a framework for the story—the toast on which the butter is spread. They provide a touch of texture to the vivid descriptions and the overwhelming sublimity of the magical view the ISS offers of everything we have ever hated and loved: Earth.^[2]

It is a short but sweet read, akin to flipping through the pages of a beautiful coffee table book.

The quote from Sagan mentioned earlier:

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.