Orbit by John Nance
I started reading John Nance a few years ago when I was desperate for a new book and Anne McCaffrey hadn’t come out with the next installment of her Ship or Dragonrider series in a while. I saw Pandora’s Clock on the shelf at my local Border’s and since Richard Preston didn’t have anything else out at the time either I took a chance on a new author to me. Boy, am I glad I did. Pandora’s Clock and Medusa’s Child are two of the best non science fiction (although he dances on that line) novels I’ve read.
Despite some technical issues with his writing, Orbit may actually be better than any of the other novels of his that I’ve read. I took a writing class last winter and now I seem to be more aware of the difference between just writing something and word crafting. Mr. Nance has some amazing ideas and writes well but I feel his novels can benefit from some word crafting. Just going back through and looking at each sentence for what words are used and what might work better. I admit that this seems a bit arrogant seeing as how I’m speaking of a published author. The only thing I can say in my defense is that if an amateur like myself can spot things, someone who is good at writing, someone who understands the nuts and bolts of how to craft words should really be able to see what I’m seeing.
Orbit would benefit from a full editing pass by the author, just to polish it a bit. It’s almost like he didn’t quite get to a final draft. What with the pressures of keeping to a contract with his publisher (which I presume he has) I can understand how he might have rushed to submit the novel.
All that being said, Orbit is an exciting, entertaining, amazing read. The protagonist, one Kip Dawson, is smack in the middle of a mid-life crisis. His wife is not helping, in fact it would be fair to say that what she’s doing is the opposite of helping. His kids don’t understand him and I honestly couldn’t be certain whether or not the wife was turning them against him or not. I don’t believe, at the end of the novel, that she was, Nance seems to have too much compassion for that kind of sordidness, but the potential was there.
Kip wins a contest to be a passenger on a commercial tourist space flight. Through a series of unfortunate events the other passengers end up canceling and Kip gets to go alone with the pilot/astronaut on this small space plane with a commercial cargo. Delighted to be living out a boyhood dream Kip is glad to go despite the (psychic?) predictions of doom by his wife.
Once in orbit, a trip that’s supposed to last four hours before a pretty much routine return to Earth, the unthinkable happens. A small bit of space garbage shoots through the little craft, including the head of the poor pilot/astronaut, Bill, and out the back end, cutting all communication and control of the ship. Poor Kip is stranded 300 miles above the Earth in an orbit that we've been informed could last for the next 50-60 years. Alas, there is only 5 days worth of breathable air stranded with him.
Faced with his own certain death, Kip finds a small laptop onboard and begins to chronicle his life, thinking that someone will find it interesting 50 or 60 years after he’s been dead. He is brutally honest about his experiences, his feelings and thoughts and, unbeknownst to him, is transmitting real time to the internet. Alas the laptop is not capable of receiving communication, only transmitting.
Eventually most of the world is following his transmissions, captivated by the humanity, the resonance of another human being just like them, trapped in extraordinary circumstances. This is the core of the book and it’s incredible. What captivates the fictional world in this novel is exactly the same thing that captivates the reader. That there is someone out there who has felt the way we’ve felt, who faces the same things we face and who will die, just like we will, only Kip knows what his deadline is and we don’t.
Nance hangs a lot of fun stuff around this tale, governmental intrigue, international politics, interpersonal relationships and of course technical and scientific explication where needed to emphasize the dangers and ingenuity of the heros. Still it’s the very fact that this ‘Average Joe’ is the main character that makes Orbit stand out from even books like Pandora’s Clock.
Definitely worth the read. In fact I’ll likely read it again very soon.
