Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by louisa_meg
Satellite by Nick Lake
4.0
Before you buy or read this book, YOU NEED TO KNOW - This book is written entirely in text speak
Now despite the fact that it's kind of atrocious how much text speak is in this book... I still really enjoyed it. Let me explain.
There are NO capital letters in this book except for in people and place names. Every 'and' is replaced with '&'. There are also lots of text-like acronyms. For example:
"sketches of towns. u don't c them so well in the daytime,"
"i just say over the ocean & usually i'm right."
"he says when the soil is warm from the sun & u hold it in ur hands, let it run thru ur fingers,"
These are just of few of the many examples that can be found on page one alone. If this annoys you, you will not enjoy reading this book. It will be painful.
However, I decided to power through a couple pages to see if I could get used to it and, surprisingly, I did. The author's writing style is actually quite beautiful and wonderfully introspective. I believe the text-speak is a vehicle for his writing to illustrate how disconnected Leo is from the rest of society and how he grew up surrounded by technology and had little access to conventional writings and speakers. I also got sucked into the story pretty quickly being the space/sci-fi loving book nerd that I am. I ended up really enjoying the story and all the space elements, although there were a couple 'facts' in there that I questioned a lot. I've also read (and re-read) [b: The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg|21825181] by Andy Weir which is infamous for its real science (read a story about that here: http://www.businessinsider.com/andy-weir-the-martian-science-crowdsourcing-2015-10). There were some situations that, even in passing, felt off compared to what (admittedly little) I've learned from reading The Martian.
Putting these small things aside, I also loved the story itself. We follow Leo as he finally gets to travel to Earth after having lived on a space station for his entire, 16-year life. Of course, many complications ensue both with physically adapting to life with gravity and with the emotional wreckage that comes with extreme life changes and distant parents. There is also a lot of commentary on things like climate change and large corporations/governments. The book is set somewhere between 50-60 years into the future - there aren't any apparent amazing new machines (except for "screens" which are basically a cross between holograms and smartphones) but there is a large conglomarate, "The Company", which seems to run most everything in one way or another and fresh water is scarce. The Company's plan is to figure out how to send people out into space and learn what happens to people when they live there in order to escape the dying planet.
And through all of this comes Leo, he may have been born in space but he's still trying to figure the world out just like everyone else. This is still a story about burgeoning adulthood like every great YA novel but in this case, the coming-of-age is echoed by Leo's journey to learn how to do simple things like walk or even sleep, just like a baby. The story was focused on Leo's journey as a person dealing with all this crazy stuff instead of just being a cool space tale.
TL;DR: This book is full of annonying text-speak but if you can get past that it is a wonderful, contemporary-style coming-of-age story that just happens to be set in space. Beautiful writing and ideas combine with the fun of space to create a story that draws you in and has you deeply caring about all the characters by the end.
Now despite the fact that it's kind of atrocious how much text speak is in this book... I still really enjoyed it. Let me explain.
There are NO capital letters in this book except for in people and place names. Every 'and' is replaced with '&'. There are also lots of text-like acronyms. For example:
"sketches of towns. u don't c them so well in the daytime,"
"i just say over the ocean & usually i'm right."
"he says when the soil is warm from the sun & u hold it in ur hands, let it run thru ur fingers,"
These are just of few of the many examples that can be found on page one alone. If this annoys you, you will not enjoy reading this book. It will be painful.
However, I decided to power through a couple pages to see if I could get used to it and, surprisingly, I did. The author's writing style is actually quite beautiful and wonderfully introspective. I believe the text-speak is a vehicle for his writing to illustrate how disconnected Leo is from the rest of society and how he grew up surrounded by technology and had little access to conventional writings and speakers. I also got sucked into the story pretty quickly being the space/sci-fi loving book nerd that I am. I ended up really enjoying the story and all the space elements, although there were a couple 'facts' in there that I questioned a lot. I've also read (and re-read) [b: The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg|21825181] by Andy Weir which is infamous for its real science (read a story about that here: http://www.businessinsider.com/andy-weir-the-martian-science-crowdsourcing-2015-10). There were some situations that, even in passing, felt off compared to what (admittedly little) I've learned from reading The Martian.
Putting these small things aside, I also loved the story itself. We follow Leo as he finally gets to travel to Earth after having lived on a space station for his entire, 16-year life. Of course, many complications ensue both with physically adapting to life with gravity and with the emotional wreckage that comes with extreme life changes and distant parents. There is also a lot of commentary on things like climate change and large corporations/governments. The book is set somewhere between 50-60 years into the future - there aren't any apparent amazing new machines (except for "screens" which are basically a cross between holograms and smartphones) but there is a large conglomarate, "The Company", which seems to run most everything in one way or another and fresh water is scarce. The Company's plan is to figure out how to send people out into space and learn what happens to people when they live there in order to escape the dying planet.
And through all of this comes Leo, he may have been born in space but he's still trying to figure the world out just like everyone else. This is still a story about burgeoning adulthood like every great YA novel but in this case, the coming-of-age is echoed by Leo's journey to learn how to do simple things like walk or even sleep, just like a baby. The story was focused on Leo's journey as a person dealing with all this crazy stuff instead of just being a cool space tale.
TL;DR: This book is full of annonying text-speak but if you can get past that it is a wonderful, contemporary-style coming-of-age story that just happens to be set in space. Beautiful writing and ideas combine with the fun of space to create a story that draws you in and has you deeply caring about all the characters by the end.