Orbital
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Orbital
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Narrated by:
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Sarah Naudi
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By:
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Samantha Harvey
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**
Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.
The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
'Beautiful in every aspect'
SARAH MOSS, author of Summerwater
'One of the most beautiful novels I have read in a very long time'
MARK HADDON, author of The Porpoise
'One of the UK's most exquisite stylists'
GUARDIAN
‘Awe-inspiring’
Max Porter
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What listeners say about Orbital
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 04-12-24
Original and surprisingly entertaining
I don’t usually like books that don’t have a strong central narrative, but Orbital kept me engaged throughout. There were characters and thoughts on top of amazing language and description. The narration was good. Just right.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Vicki
- 28-11-24
Beautifully written
I found the narration let this down. The prose itself is lyrical, imaginative and in places profound. She brilliantly creates the astronaut’s world for us. I’m not surprised it won the Booker (though I much prefer James myself) but I think the audio version is a disappointment.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kevin
- 22-12-24
Good prose but is it sci-fi
I listened because it won the Booker prize. It’s a deep human/geological meandering through thoughts and observations that take place on the ISS. No story as such to care about and characters were incidental to the documentary presentation of what can be seen.
Nice prose in places, but only a few very tenuous links to science. As it’s won a prize maybe there’s more to it and it’s just not for me.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Reviewing Things Hey
- 20-06-24
poetic style, hard sci-fi, good background for work, clear narration
ignore other negative reviews above average in every stake, listen to the sample, it's a good story for work, detailed, but no important story elements are missed if you get distracted for a minute, I could listen to this many times over
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Giselle
- 23-11-24
Beautiful Writing
I purchased the audiobook after the winner was announced. Not really knowing what to expect….I was captivated by the writing. I don’t know how a narrator is chosen for an audiobook but Sarah Naudi was perfect…for me it was an unputdownable listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Eve
- 21-10-24
Simply magnificent
This is so different to everything else out there, it’s beautiful and awe inspiring. I will read this over and over.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 08-10-24
Redundant
From the start to the end, the author recycles the same mantra over and over. The Earth and it's problems seems big when you're on it and insignificant when you're not. This isn't as impactful or as enlightening as what I think the author was trying to convey. It's a simple message told simply.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- chris
- 22-09-24
A PROFOUND NOVEL.
A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space—not towards the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. 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.
This is a rich, beautiful and lyrical novel. I listened to it over a two day period and I am about to listen to it again. This is not a conventional novel as regards to plot, it is more of a profound meditation on our place in the expanse of the universe. That is not to say that it is preachy or dull, on the contrary it is a work that will stay in your imagination for a long time after you have listened. Sarah Naudi's performance is faultless and the subtle accent led characterisations are captured well. I cannot praise this novel enough.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- lewis prosser
- 11-12-24
Dull
Either too big or too small the book just never hits the scale at which you care. it's timely, sure, but is that all? BE prepared for a lot of placenames listed and an over romantic ideal of the world which misses all the messy realness. it's all a bit too polished, where is all the space junk.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Marc
- 13-09-24
A Beautiful Meditation on Life.
This was a beautifully narrated meditation on life seen from the vantage point of space, looking back at our small fragile planet.
I found myself swept away in my own reverie, sometimes missing the details whilst being conveyed on something that was greater than the sum of it's parts.
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