I hadn’t planned to review Orbital, a 2023 science fiction novel by English writer Samantha Harvey mostly because I really didn’t like the book. But now that Samantha Harvey has won the Booker price for Orbital, I feel like a warning is due given of the praise lavished on the book: Orbital would have made a great magazine spread if accompanied by a selection of grand pictures of earth taken from space. But as a novel it is an utter disappointment.
The book follows six fictional astronauts over 24 hours on the International Space Station. As they repeatedly cycle earth (Harvey’s frame of reference are the ISS’ 16 orbits made in a day), the author fills page after page with descriptions of earth: Coastlines, mountains, repeating patterns of day and night, a developing typhoon and a lot of ocean views. In between, she sprinkles short descriptions of life on a spaceship and worn-out reflections on the beauty of our home planet, faith, and art (Harvey makes much of a Velazquez’s painting “Las Meninas”). Earthly conflicts look petty when viewed from space? Not a novel thought, and platitudes like this are everywhere in Orbital.
Her descriptions look well researched, but the book is lacking any story: There are six astronauts on board, but outside of tiny vignettes (and of course a dream sequence or two) we learn very little about them: They work, they exercise, they eat, and they sleep. That is probably an apt description of life in space – but it is terribly boring as a story. Where Harvey brings in back-stories, they do little to create any connection between the reader and the astronauts. Instead, it feels like these snippets of information (the vulnerability of poor coastal communities in the path of a typhoon, personal loss and religion) mainly serve to fill a few pages as the ISS continues to circle around earth and to break the monotony of a description of yet another orbit.
This book is not for those looking for a story. But even if all you want is to experience earth from above, I’d much recommend getting a beautiful coffee table book: Earth is prettier in pictures than in prose.
Playground, having been long-listed, would have been a much better choice for this year’s Booker prize.