“Orbital” Celebrates Nature, the Earth, and the Wonders of Spaceflight and Being Human in a Tough and Challenging Time

BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER & AUTHOR OF THE “NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND” BLOG 

The world is on fire on Earth, but it doesn’t seem so from 250 miles above in space if you’re an astronaut. At least if you’re one of the six astronauts from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan on the space station in Samantha Harvey’s lovely and powerful book, Orbital.  

As environmental degradation increases, wars and genocide crush the human spirit and lives, and the U.S. and other democracies creep toward dictatorship below on Earth, the astronauts work and dream. They conduct experiments, gaze in awe and wonder at the Earth below (during a spacewalk, one astronaut says that the Earth “doesn’t have the appearance of a solid thing, its surface is fluid and lustrous”), follow the path of a typhoon, ruminate about their lives and losses, and gradually become a family, while orbiting Earth. The astronauts find ways to connect despite differences in nationality, gender, religious background; build relationships; and do their jobs in ways that increasingly seem difficult for many people back on terra firma. Or as Harvey says about the astronauts’ growing bond:

Rotating about the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene. Sometimes they dream the same dreams—of fractals and blue spheres and familiar faces engulfed in dark, and of the bright energetic black of space that slams their senses. Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters.

I loved this novel, which barely has a plot, but briefly tells the stories of six astronauts who are orbiting the earth 16 times in a single day at 17,500 miles per hour. Orbital is a wonderful fever dream of sights, experiences, and ruminations about life, death, the challenges and rewards of being an astronaut, friendship, family, and the environment.  

The astronauts see the earth in a way that the earth-bound do not, which allows them to form a different perspective than we often have on Earth. For example, the concepts of time and borders are vastly different on the space station. In one day, the astronauts experience 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets. Or as Harvey beautifully writes, “the whip-crack of morning arrives every 90 minutes” and the sun is “up-down-up-down like a mechanical toy.”

Despite their time on the space station, the astronauts never tire of the view and their experiences. They marvel that the surface of the earth in daylight appears largely untouched by humans, but at night, the lights of civilization tell both the story of human achievement but also the dangers of overpopulation and environmental destruction. They are six people separated from the earth who marvel at life everywhere below—whether it’s the 8.2 billion people below on seven continents with all of their hopes and dreams (and occasional darkness of soul); the mountain ranges, vast plains, and winter storms that make a joke of country borders; or the magnificent flora and fauna that lives on our planet.  

Orbital is a lyrical book that will make you reexamine your place in the world and your perceptions about our planet. I hope that it will also increase your desire to protect the only place that we know where humans can easily live in the universe. It’s a hopeful book in a tough and challenging time, and I highly recommended it.

Orbital (Grove Press, 224 pages, ISBN-10: ‎0802163629, ISBN-13: 978-0802163622) recently received the Booker Prize, and it is shortlisted for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction.

Copyright (text) Andrew Morkes, except quoted material from Orbital (copyright Samantha Harvey)

Copyright (book cover photo) Samantha Harvey/Grove Press

Copyright (photos of Earth from space) NASA

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ABOUT ANDREW MORKES

I have been a writer and editor for more than 30 years. I’m the founder of College & Career Press (2002); the author and publisher of “The Morkes Report: College and Career Planning Trends” blog; and the author and publisher of Hot Health Care Careers: 30 Occupations With Fast Growth and Many New Job Openings; Nontraditional Careers for Women and Men: More Than 30 Great Jobs for Women and Men With Apprenticeships Through PhDs; They Teach That in College!?: A Resource Guide to More Than 100 Interesting College Majors, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by the library journal Voice of Youth Advocates; and other titles. They Teach That in College!? provides more information on environmental- and sustainability-related majors such as Ecotourism, Range Management, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Built Environment, Sustainability Studies, and Sustainable Agriculture/Organic Farming. I served as a member of the parent advisory board at my son’s school for five years. 

In addition to these publications, I’ve written more than 70 books about careers for other publishing and media companies including Infobase (such as the venerable Encyclopedia of Careers & Vocational Guidance, the Vault Career Guide to Accounting, and many volumes in the Careers in Focus, Discovering Careers, What Can I Do Now?!, and Career Skills Library series) and Mason Crest (including those in the Careers in the Building Trades and Cool Careers in Science series).

Here’s a list of the environmental-focused titles that I’ve written:

• Nature in Chicagoland: More Than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit
• Wind Turbine Technicians (Great Careers Without a Bachelor’s Degree series)
• Environmental Scientists (Cool Careers in Science series)
• Renewable Energy Careers (Cool Careers in Science series)
• Environment (Getting Started series)
• Solar Power Technicians (Careers in Infrastructure series)