I read Orbital last month. Like you, I was entranced by the lyrical writing style. Her descriptions of the earth’s landmass and atmosphere do the same thing as a BBC documentary: inspiring reverence for the beauty of the natural world. In particular, I appreciate her description of the neon colored auroras as seen from outer space (I was unaware of this phenomenon and had to look it up on YouTube). Overall though, I found the characters thinly written, there is very little plot, and the stakes are too low to inject tension into the story. I also found the philosophical meditations too superficial. I think the book would have worked better as a series of poems.
Interesting idea, I wonder how that would have worked. I’ll admit that poetry kind of puts me off, though I don’t dismiss it and appreciate it, but in small doses and in certain contexts. I’m not one to go “What should I read next? Oh, I know: poetry!” It’ll have to be recommended by someone or in my face somewhere.
But I appreciated the lyricism in prose form.
I didn’t mind the lack of tension. It caught me at a moment when I had enough of tension fix from real life and the news! But I’m not sure I’ll rush to read her next or previous novels… Some books find us in the right moment and this was one of them for me.
I read Orbital last month. Like you, I was entranced by the lyrical writing style. Her descriptions of the earth’s landmass and atmosphere do the same thing as a BBC documentary: inspiring reverence for the beauty of the natural world. In particular, I appreciate her description of the neon colored auroras as seen from outer space (I was unaware of this phenomenon and had to look it up on YouTube). Overall though, I found the characters thinly written, there is very little plot, and the stakes are too low to inject tension into the story. I also found the philosophical meditations too superficial. I think the book would have worked better as a series of poems.
Interesting idea, I wonder how that would have worked. I’ll admit that poetry kind of puts me off, though I don’t dismiss it and appreciate it, but in small doses and in certain contexts. I’m not one to go “What should I read next? Oh, I know: poetry!” It’ll have to be recommended by someone or in my face somewhere.
But I appreciated the lyricism in prose form.
I didn’t mind the lack of tension. It caught me at a moment when I had enough of tension fix from real life and the news! But I’m not sure I’ll rush to read her next or previous novels… Some books find us in the right moment and this was one of them for me.