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adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I knew from reading the first few pages of this that the prose deserved my fullest attention and time to savour it, and that’s why it took me so long to be able to settle into reading this book. I didn’t want to rush it for the sake of finishing the story. I’m glad I waited.
There is so much to enjoy about this novel for me: I love books that aren’t really proper narratives, that are more observations over a certain period of time. I loved the musing and the reflections of the characters. I liked how the narrative fluidly moved between what the astronauts were doing and gave us glimpses into their personal stories and the lives they left back on Earth. I loved how we got brief POV interludes from people outside of the space station:the fisherman Pietro met in the Philippines (shout out to the Santo Niño mention; I finished this two days after Sinulog!) and the astronauts on their way to the moon that tied back to what was happening on this particular day in the space station.
I do have quite a bit of space anxiety though (thanks Apollo 13 and Gravity)—I picked up the novel because I heard it was introspective!—and I think, overall, space is just really hard for a typical person to comprehend. Harvey spends a lot of time talking about how the crew see multiple sunrises and sunsets, and multiple days and nights in 24 hours, but I couldn’t really picture what they were seeing. I’m also shocking with geography, so while there was a sense of wonder in how fast they were travelling, I couldn’t really picture where they were going in my head, even if a map was provided.
There’s also a lot of repetition, especially about how Earth looks and what space feels like. Again, the space anxiety makes it hard to connect, and as another reviewer said, it’s the core of the novel. I also think that there are so many times you can describe what is seen out of a window before it gets boring. I would’ve much preferred more time with our cast of characters to get into the nitty gritty of their lives, and their reflections and their emotions. I would’ve dealt with more of the existential dread reading about their philosophical musings than reading about how night turned into day into night again.
There is so much to enjoy about this novel for me: I love books that aren’t really proper narratives, that are more observations over a certain period of time. I loved the musing and the reflections of the characters. I liked how the narrative fluidly moved between what the astronauts were doing and gave us glimpses into their personal stories and the lives they left back on Earth. I loved how we got brief POV interludes from people outside of the space station:
I do have quite a bit of space anxiety though (thanks Apollo 13 and Gravity)—I picked up the novel because I heard it was introspective!—and I think, overall, space is just really hard for a typical person to comprehend. Harvey spends a lot of time talking about how the crew see multiple sunrises and sunsets, and multiple days and nights in 24 hours, but I couldn’t really picture what they were seeing. I’m also shocking with geography, so while there was a sense of wonder in how fast they were travelling, I couldn’t really picture where they were going in my head, even if a map was provided.
There’s also a lot of repetition, especially about how Earth looks and what space feels like. Again, the space anxiety makes it hard to connect, and as another reviewer said, it’s the core of the novel. I also think that there are so many times you can describe what is seen out of a window before it gets boring. I would’ve much preferred more time with our cast of characters to get into the nitty gritty of their lives, and their reflections and their emotions. I would’ve dealt with more of the existential dread reading about their philosophical musings than reading about how night turned into day into night again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement
Minor: Animal death, Xenophobia, Vomit, Medical content