Book Review: Orbital by Samantha Harvey

A derelict international space station that is moving around the earth at a distance of 250 kilometres at a speed of seventeen thousand miles. Six astronauts and cosmonauts of different nationalities are living inside this metal globe. In every twenty-four hours, they see sixteen sunrises and sunsets. Their job is to observe the earth, do experiments, maintain the station, coexist with one another, and survive their tenure inside it.

Orbital, the upcoming novel by Samantha Harvey, exhibits twenty-four hours of the existence of these six inhabitants. We find them observing their mother planet for sixteen earth days. We get to know about them, their pasts, their regrets and ambitions, their loneliness up there, their relationships with others in the team, and their struggles to maintain their physical and mental balance. I received an advance copy of Orbital from its publisher, Grove Atlantic, through Netgalley in exchange for my feedback.

The author uses a very interesting narrational style in this novel. The third-person narrative never anchors on any of its characters for most of the time, and even when it does, it shifts very quickly from one member to the next. Like a relay running team, each of the characters comes into focus for a short time, and in that time we get to know them personally. We find who they left behind on earth, the messages they receive, the experiments they have to do, and how they adapt (or not) to the situation of living inside a rapidly travelling vehicle far out in space with strangers and the constant change of scenery. Even when the characters are sleeping, the narrational voice never stops or cuts to the next scene. It goes on to describe the ever-changing geographic visuals of the earth that are visible from the station, maintaining a reporting style throughout the novel.

This kind of narration worked for the novel in two ways. First, the quickly shifting focus works as a disruptive force that constantly breaks the attention of readers. As a result of this rollercoaster style, they get the feel of travelling at high speed and being in an orbit themselves. There is no plot development as such in the novel, and most of the plot deals with the loneliness and internal struggle that the astronauts have to deal with. But the narration gives the novel its pace and urgency.

The second achievement of this unique kind of storytelling is that the reader is always kept at a distance from the plot. We understand the pain and loneliness, and we empathise with the characters, but eventually we are observers. We observe the six of them going on through their routine; we observe what's inside the station; and we also see the earth through the screens of the vehicle. The astronauts are observing the earth intently and communicating with their control on the earth. The earth control, in turn, continuously monitors the progress of the travellers. We realise that, essentially, we are also becoming a part of the chain.

We find that one of the characters has brought a postcard depicting La Meninas, the famous painting by Diego Velázquez, which also connects to the relationship between the chain of observers established by the plot. The painting, which is much debated and studied, poses philosophical questions about the existence of different points of view and the relationship of the viewer with art. It shows all its characters, including the painter himself, observing each other and makes the viewer not certain what exactly is the focus of the painting.

A few other artefacts described in the novel also make the reader debate this conundrum, like the moon landing photo by Michael Collins, which makes one character of the novel wonder if Collins is the lone living man who isn't included in it as it shows moon landers with earth in its background. This reflects the astronauts of the novel observing the earth, which they see as barren from up there, the only signs of life being illuminations whenever it's night, all the while it is teeming with life, invisible to them. Another photo of a character's mother taken on the day of the moonlanding that features the moon, of course without the astronauts who were on it while the photo was being taken, is another clue that reveals the intention of the novel.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey is a slender, though profound, novel that uses the tale of six astronauts inside a claustrophobic spacecraft to explore themes like relations, perspectives, points of view, and the temporal and spatial effects that different points of view exert on a viewer.