• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics/Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Coming of Age
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Historical Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Guest Posts
    • Lists
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Why You Should Read…
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • Fear For All
    • Demons
    • Ghosts
    • Gothic
    • Lovecraftian
    • Monsters
    • Occult
    • Psychological
    • Slasher
    • Vampires
    • Werewolves
    • Witches
    • Zombies
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Review: Orbital by Samantha Harvey

January 20, 2025 by Will Swardstrom Leave a Comment

Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis

A slender novel of epic power and the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate.

Profound and contemplative, Orbital is a moving elegy to our environment and planet.

Review

I can’t say I know much about literary fiction. But that’s what led me to read Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Let me back up a bit — I read James by Percival Everett (a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the slave Jim) last summer. As soon as I read it, I suspected it would be the best book I would read throughout the entire year and I was proven correct. Now, when you’ve read an amazing book, it’s logical to start looking for like-minded people as yourself and I soon fell down the literary fiction rabbit-hole. I don’t think I’ve ever willingly read a book that is short-listed for the Pulitzer or the Booker Prize, but I found myself rooting for James during literary awards season. 

But then James didn’t win the Booker Prize (the top award for an English-language novel), and Orbital did. I was intrigued because on its surface Orbital is a science fiction book and just like in TV and movies, science fiction doesn’t win serious awards for books. So if James wasn’t better than a sci-fi novel, I should read this book, right? 

So…

Is Orbital a well-written book? Yes. 

Is Orbital a good science fiction book? No. 

I don’t know. Maybe I’m being harsh, but Orbital is probably not a book that most fantasy and sci-fi readers would readily enjoy. In fact, I believe Harvey doesn’t even want to classify the book as science fiction. I can see why the book won awards, but it feels like the bizarre ramblings of someone who sat outside one night looking at the moon and stars and just thought, “What’s the point of it all?”

There are some interesting existential musings about life, the planet, religion, culture, and the significance of it all. It’s a short book, but between all of it, there is barely a plot. The characters all seem British, even though they are all supposedly from different countries. In some ways, it feels like the internal monologue of each character is of a 45-year-old man going through a crisis, wondering about what life even means. 

I didn’t hate it — but definitely left the book feeling unsatisfied at the end. If you enjoy meandering prose about the frailty of humanity and the unrelenting tide of nature and the universe, check it out — maybe this book is for you.  

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction, Soft SciFi Tagged With: Book Review, Booker Prize, literary fiction, Novella, Space

About Will Swardstrom

Will S. loves books of all varieties, but thrives on Fantasy and Sci Fi. He spends his days in Southern Illinois teaching middle school history and learning all the latest Internet trends from pre-teens. He enjoys spending time with his wife and kids and watching British detective shows. In previous lives, he's dabbled in radio, newspaper, writing his own speculative fiction, and making Frosties at Wendy's.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Review: The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt

Review: The Vengeance (The Vampires of Dumas #1) by Emma Newman

Review: Overgrowth by Mira Grant

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In