Orbital: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner)

This novel is based on the lives of 6 astronauts on board a space station orbiting the Earth. Samantha has researched this extensively before writing. The result is that the reader can feel as though they are sharing these extraordinary experiences with the crew - from the arduous training regimen, preparing for takeoff and all the impact that being in a microgravity environment has once there. The prose is beautiful. The story covers a 24-hour period, which covered 16 orbits for the space station. This book may be a mere 136 pages long, but it took me a lot longer to finish than one would expect! It needs to be savoured. For those who like a story with a clear evolving storyline and plot, then this is probably not for you. It is a wonderful literary meditation, and I can see why it has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024. Thank you for such a wonderful book.

I can see why so many people are enchanted with this book - it's lyrical and beautiful and both grand and intimate in scope. But ultimately I guess I just need a little more plot in my novels!

I respected Orbital for what it set out to do—capturing the fluidity of time and experience in space in a way that reflects the number of orbits in a day. The writing mirrors the disorienting, almost dreamlike quality of existing in microgravity, which, once I allowed myself to embrace, gave me a deeper, more personal understanding of what being in space might actually feel like. It’s not a book driven by plot or even traditional structure, but rather an immersive, meditative experience. That said, if you go in expecting a conventional novel, you may struggle with it. The narrative drifts, much like its setting, and while that’s intentional, it won’t be for everyone. It’s been described as “barely a novel,” and I’d have to agree—it reads more like an extended reflection or poetic meditation on existence, time, and space. Overall, I appreciated the artistry behind it, even if it wasn’t always the easiest read. If you’re open to something unconventional and atmospheric, Orbital is a fascinating experience. But if you’re looking for a structured story, this might not be the book for you.

Very poetic…but pointless

“One doesn’t journey in order to arrive, but in order to journey.” Johann Wolfgang Goethe Orbital doesn’t fit neatly into your typical science fiction box. It’s almost too grounded in its science, even lacking any major reveals or breakthroughs, more like a day at the lab, far removed from Hollywood spectacle or fast-paced space operas. Though it’s set aboard the International Space Station, this is less a story about space and more an inward-looking meditation on a single day orbiting around Earth, on what happens in a person’s mind when they’re disoriented by pretend routines, stripped of noise and constant distraction. The book is undeniably beautiful in its imagery, and that beauty does almost all of the heavy lifting. It’s quiet, reflective, melancholic, and aggressively philosophical. It hardly matters which character sparks your thinking, because over time, they begin to blur into one shared consciousness. You stop caring about who is who or whose memory belongs to whom. If you’re lucky enough to read this book in a quiet moment yourself, you’ll likely be pulled so deeply into your own thoughts, into the questions the book raises, that the individual backstories fade into the background. So, if you’re planning to read Orbital, here are a few reasons you might not want to. If you like your science fiction packed with action, high stakes, bold speculation, alien encounters, or last-minute saves from extinction-level events, this probably isn’t your book. But if you’re in the mood to spend a day, or longer, lost in philosophical reflection, thinking about human smallness, insignificance, and ego, this is worth your time. Orbital offers a quiet, contemplative experience through a single day in the lives of four astronauts and two cosmonauts aboard the ISS, inviting you to drift alongside them and, for a while, step outside yourself. Accept the invitation if that’s what you need.