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in honour of this book's writing style, i am going to write in all lowercase for this review. satellite isn't your typical sci-fi. it's slow and very character-focused, and a lot more scientific than i was expecting; a lot of the actual science stuff went over my head. but it was good. it reminded me of a sort of reverse gravity, in fact.
satellite focuses on three teenagers - libra, orion, and the narrator leo, who were born in space and their quest to go back down to earth. as far as i could tell it was set in the near future, which was really interesting, but since it was so character-focused there really wasn't too much worldbuilding - just enough to get you situated, but it kept you fully focused on the characters. the characterization was really wonderful for almost everyone, especially leo. i really liked his character, and his personality, and he had a really strong voice - though that may be in part the writing style.
lake did a really good job of setting the tone, too - it was so wistful and nostalgic and soft, and there's a lot of waiting around but it really goes with the book. it might have been slow, but it wasn't boring.
now: the writing style. i know that a lot of people hated it, and it does take a bit to get into. my critique isn't that it was written in lowercase and text-speak, it's that it wasn't cohesive enough to sound authentic. proper nouns like names were capitalized, but "i" wasn't; abbreviations like "c" and "u're" felt clunky, because they're just ... not used. for me, who spends a lot of the time writing in lowercase, thinking in lowercase and internet vernacular - it just felt weird. and i couldn't figure out why it was written like that - though it did set the tone for the book from the start as one that was going to be softer than most sci-fi we think of.
satellite is a beautiful book. even if you're not a fan of sci-fi you might like this because it's so character driven that the sci-fi aspect isnt overwhelming.
satellite focuses on three teenagers - libra, orion, and the narrator leo, who were born in space and their quest to go back down to earth. as far as i could tell it was set in the near future, which was really interesting, but since it was so character-focused there really wasn't too much worldbuilding - just enough to get you situated, but it kept you fully focused on the characters. the characterization was really wonderful for almost everyone, especially leo. i really liked his character, and his personality, and he had a really strong voice - though that may be in part the writing style.
lake did a really good job of setting the tone, too - it was so wistful and nostalgic and soft, and there's a lot of waiting around but it really goes with the book. it might have been slow, but it wasn't boring.
now: the writing style. i know that a lot of people hated it, and it does take a bit to get into. my critique isn't that it was written in lowercase and text-speak, it's that it wasn't cohesive enough to sound authentic. proper nouns like names were capitalized, but "i" wasn't; abbreviations like "c" and "u're" felt clunky, because they're just ... not used. for me, who spends a lot of the time writing in lowercase, thinking in lowercase and internet vernacular - it just felt weird. and i couldn't figure out why it was written like that - though it did set the tone for the book from the start as one that was going to be softer than most sci-fi we think of.
satellite is a beautiful book. even if you're not a fan of sci-fi you might like this because it's so character driven that the sci-fi aspect isnt overwhelming.