Orbital

They focus on the quietest, most mundane moments of existence.

And this brings us to Samantha Harvey's novel, Orbital.

This book won the Booker Prize, which is a massive achievement in the literary world, and its placement on this Read Harder list is a striking contrast to everything we've discussed so far.

It is essential to define what we mean by literary fiction in this context.

While genres like thrillers or space operas prioritize plot, action, and high concept mechanics, literary fiction prioritizes character introspection, prose style, and thematic depth.

Book Riot actually named Orbital one of the best sci-fi books of the century precisely because it refuses to engage with traditional sci-fi tropes.

There are no ancient prophecies here.

There are no mind libraries where consciousness is stored in glass jars.

And it's a slim novel.

It's not a big, long epic by any means, but it reminds me a little bit of Samantha Harvey's Orbital.

Yeah, I read it.

You know, I didn't read it while I was writing the book.

So they were talking about this book as if it was a little bit biblical, I suppose.

But yeah, it's a book called Orbital.

And I understand that it is a bit of a philosophical piece more than it is like a story.

It's just a thinking piece.

Around that same time, many of us flocked to the movie theaters to see Ryan Gosling in the blockbuster movie Project Hail Mary, a science fiction adventure about an ordinary teacher turned astronaut who uses science, courage, and an unlikely friendship with an alien to save Earth and another civilization from an extinction level threat.

But for me, the most profound encounter with outer space this past year came not with a spacecraft or in a movie theater, but in a novel, Orbital, winner of the 2024 Booker Prize by Samantha Harvey.

Sometimes described as a space pastoral, Orbital follows six astronauts, four men and two women, from five different countries aboard a space station over the course of a single day.

Through 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets, they bear witness to the Earth spinning beneath them, continents passing, weather systems forming, seasons changing.

The novel is a meditation on the natural world and the beauty and fragility of the planet we call home.

we should talk about that sometime too.

And in 2024, Samantha Harvey won the prize for her novella Orbital, which was quite a different type of book as well.

So each year, a five-person panel consisting of authors, publishers and journalists, as well as politicians, actors, artists and musicians are appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation and they choose the winning book.

So quite sort of controversially, I think Sarah Jessica Parker was among the judges this year, actress of Sex and the City fame.