Rotating about the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene. Sometimes they dream the same dreams — of fractals and blue spheres and familiar faces engulfed in dark, and of the bright energetic black of space that slams their senses.
Orbital ~ by Samantha Harvey, 202i3, science fiction, 212 pages
This story takes us through one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts — from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan — have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communi-cations with family, their photos, and their talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate.
People are sharing library books with me that they enjoyed. First, Lois handed me one that I wrote about last week HERE. And I came home on Tuesday to see a book in the box beside my door from my neighbor across the hall. The post-it note said, "I loved this one — Betty B." Yes, it was the book I'm sharing with you today.
2 comments:
Sounds very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
The excerpt sounds awesome, i ll have to add this to my reading list.
my book beginnings are located here : https://getlostinlit.blogspot.com/2024/10/poe.html
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