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A review by onlyongracexm
Satellite by Nick Lake
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Satellite used to be a book I was very uncertain about before I read it. I heard about the “text-speak” aspect of its writing and my interest in it soured a little bit. As fate would have it (and the random number generator I use to pick out my next read), I recently finished this book and I loved it.
When “text-speak” was mentioned, I was afraid it would be actual texting, consisting only of dialogue between characters to carry the story. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. It’s written in a typical story format, but most of the letters are lowercase, “you” is “u,” “see” is “c,” and numbers are typed as numerals, and so on and so forth. It takes a while to get used to and I personally got used to it pretty quickly. I read a compelling and engaging story. I was hooked on at every second so I could see and figure out the mystery at the heart of its plot. The vibes I got were a solid mix of The Space Between Us and Interstellar, plus a hint of Annihilation.
Like Interstellar, the time period is an unknown number of years into the future. It’s shown that the Earth is slowly dying, resources are becoming scarce, and crops are failing. This aspect of the setting was something that I would’ve liked to see developed more. While I did feel the desperate urgency regarding the increasing problems, it wasn’t the focus and I respect that. However, since it was a perhaps “not-so-distant future,” I would’ve liked to see the changes in society that being in the future brings. There was one detail about men wearing nail polish and eyeshadow, but that felt kinda weird to me? Not in a bad way, but it’s a little jarring because the women aren’t described this way and no other fashion trend seems to have come about. (Maybe it’s because the main character, Leo, is gay. I don’t wanna be nitpicky, but doctors shouldn’t be wearing makeup.)
Going onto characters, I loved Leo. He was a romantic. I loved the way he describes all this first-time Earth experiences, the experiences that we take for granted. Despite the growing issues of water shortages and crop failures, he still managed to see the beauty around him, the beauty we might’ve been blind to if we were in this time period.Although I would’ve loved for him to stay on Earth, I also understood his attachment to the space station. Even though Earth was the goal, Moon 2 is home to him. Regarding Libra and Orion, they weren’t in the story much, but because all three of them were going through the same things, I felt for them as much as I did Leo. And Orion’s death broke my heart to pieces.
I do understand why some people couldn’t get into it because of the text-speak writing, but I definitely recommend that people give this a first or second chance and read this book.
When “text-speak” was mentioned, I was afraid it would be actual texting, consisting only of dialogue between characters to carry the story. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. It’s written in a typical story format, but most of the letters are lowercase, “you” is “u,” “see” is “c,” and numbers are typed as numerals, and so on and so forth. It takes a while to get used to and I personally got used to it pretty quickly. I read a compelling and engaging story. I was hooked on at every second so I could see and figure out the mystery at the heart of its plot. The vibes I got were a solid mix of The Space Between Us and Interstellar, plus a hint of Annihilation.
Like Interstellar, the time period is an unknown number of years into the future. It’s shown that the Earth is slowly dying, resources are becoming scarce, and crops are failing. This aspect of the setting was something that I would’ve liked to see developed more. While I did feel the desperate urgency regarding the increasing problems, it wasn’t the focus and I respect that. However, since it was a perhaps “not-so-distant future,” I would’ve liked to see the changes in society that being in the future brings. There was one detail about men wearing nail polish and eyeshadow, but that felt kinda weird to me? Not in a bad way, but it’s a little jarring because the women aren’t described this way and no other fashion trend seems to have come about. (Maybe it’s because the main character, Leo, is gay. I don’t wanna be nitpicky, but doctors shouldn’t be wearing makeup.)
Going onto characters, I loved Leo. He was a romantic. I loved the way he describes all this first-time Earth experiences, the experiences that we take for granted. Despite the growing issues of water shortages and crop failures, he still managed to see the beauty around him, the beauty we might’ve been blind to if we were in this time period.
I do understand why some people couldn’t get into it because of the text-speak writing, but I definitely recommend that people give this a first or second chance and read this book.