Tournament of Books discussion

Space to discuss the 2025 TOB contender Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

This was a solid "meh" of a book for me. One day I was reading it, the next it was over and I moved on. Short enough that I barely noticed. Years from now I suspect I could pick this up and read it again and have no memory of having read it before.

No idea how it won the Booker.

Tristan wrote: "No idea how it won the Booker...."

I think it was designed specifically to win the Booker.

I feel the same as Tristan, except I forgot what it was about a few days after I read it. beautifully written, yes. Award-worthy, no.

I appreciated some parts of it, but definitely did not love it. It taught me some things, and had some nice descriptions, but the repetitive nature of the "story" seemed designed more to wax poetic than to capture a reader or propel a storyline.

I loved this book when I read it in February, then promptly forgot about it, so when it was shortlisted for the Booker I read it again (on audio this time) and remembered why I had found it so enchanting - I thought it was a love song to the planet - but I agree that there isn't a lot that is memorable about the characters or the "plot."

The only thing I remember from this book is the fact that the space station is actually in a constant state of falling and not actually floating. It’s just falling at the same rate the earth is traveling around the sun. Does that sound right? Am I remembering that correctly?

I read this one back in the summer of 2023 as an arc and also found it forgettable. I keep thinking, though, about how the format of book prizes can yield different reading experiences. The Booker is famous for all the judges rereading the books at each successive stage. Which means the winner (and other shortlisted books) gets read three times in succession. That's a process that probably inures to Orbital's benefit.

If the test, instead, were to award a prize based on books the judges read once, more than a year ago, I don't think this would have won.

Interesting point. Could be very accurate.

Bob wrote: "The only thing I remember from this book is the fact that the space station is actually in a constant state of falling and not actually floating. It’s just falling at the same rate the earth is tra..."

Yes, Bob, that is how I understood the "always falling" section.

It's falling at the same rate that the surface of the earth is curved - I don't believe it has to do with the Earth's trip around the sun.

Succeeds greatly as a piece of writing but for me it failed miserably as a novel.

Tristan wrote: "This was a solid "meh" of a book for me."

I was going to essentially come in here to post this about the book. When I finished and realized it was getting so much praise I just kind of assumed I miss something. It was never going to be a DNF for me but indeed, "meh."

Going against the crowd here. I loved it. I think it's a context thing though. In Aug/Sept, I spent 9 days backing packing the Wonderland Trail around Mt Rainier. Every night I'd get in my tent and read this little book and it's was just perfect. I think about it a lot.
I did a similiar thing almost 20 years ago when I was on a solo bike tour and read Life Of Pi every night.

I just finished this and enjoyed it's meditative quality... I think I still want History of Sound to win over it in the first round, but I liked the experience of this read.

I gave this novel a solid 4 star review and made some slight noises about the beautiful prose, but the truth is it bored me and one goal I have for 2025 is to own up to this feeling and not feel ashamed when my brain doesn’t hold still long enough to love something even if I feel I SHOULD love it.

Audra! I can imagine loving this book so much more if I was somewhere far from light pollution as I read it while being awed each night at the intense beauty of the stars above. Even without nature to help me love a book it has happened that I’ve been traveling in a foreign country with just one book in English within reach and those books always become favorite books for me.

Yes sometimes the circumstance elevates a book.

Well, there always has to be at least one plotless book, right? At least it was short.

Totally of no interest to me.

i was traveling for the weekend and had timed everything so I could listen to the last hour of this on my drive home today but it turns out i did NOT time it correctly and Libby had already taken it back and I think i'll probably dnf by default. Nothing against it but other things are grabbing me more and I feel like I Get the Idea