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Poster for Orbital61Poster © amazon.com · 320×467, fair use, to show which film it is. Why.

61 they argued 3 critics · 40 to 80

Orbital

Read by Marlow, First Reader · what that means · what he keeps

How they landed
they argued3 critics, 40 to 80
The kindest
The astronauts' introspection and meditation on humanity was the strength of the novel.Alexandra Harris, The Guardian · we gave it 80
The harshest
It's barely a novel because it barely tells a plotted set of human stories, and the stories it does tell barely interact with one another.James Wood, The New Yorker · we gave it 40
Book
Samantha Harvey · 2023 · United Kingdom · 136 pages

The guide0 of 7 came up · the board’s own five-step scale

Violence
Sex and nudity
Swearing
Drink and drugs
Upsetting
Offensive
Hard to sit through

Nobody classifies books. There is no board that reads every novel and writes down what is in it the way one does for films, so this guide has no spine for a book and we are not going to invent one out of adjectives. What the critics said is on this page in full.

All 4 reviews

Contains the world but fails to reflect it. Harvey lavishes the planet with her considerable rhetorical gifts, but the recklessness and miseries we know at pavement level have been scrubbed from her observation deck.

Joshua Ferris, The New York Times · quoted in Wikipedia, original not read by us · FP000145
62we gave it

The astronauts' introspection and meditation on humanity was the strength of the novel.

Alexandra Harris, The Guardian · quoted in Wikipedia, original not read by us · FP000146
80we gave it

It's barely a novel because it barely tells a plotted set of human stories, and the stories it does tell barely interact with one another.

James Wood, The New Yorker · quoted in Wikipedia, original not read by us · FP000147
40we gave it

In featuring the six characters in such close proximity to one another, the work seeks to promote humans' mutual dependence.

Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times · quoted in Wikipedia, original not read by us · FP000148
—not scored

Who wrote about this filmgo read them

Joshua FerrisThe New York TimesWhere we read it
Alexandra HarrisThe GuardianWhere we read it
James WoodThe New YorkerWhere we read it
Bethanne PatrickLos Angeles TimesWhere we read it

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Referencesa number is issued once and never reused

  1. FP000145Joshua Ferris. The New York Times. Orbital (2023). Quoted in Wikipedia, Orbital (novel). Read 2026-08-21. We scored it 62.Source
  2. FP000146Alexandra Harris. The Guardian. Orbital (2023). Quoted in Wikipedia, Orbital (novel). Read 2026-08-21. We scored it 80.Source
  3. FP000147James Wood. The New Yorker. Orbital (2023). Quoted in Wikipedia, Orbital (novel). Read 2026-08-21. We scored it 40.Source
  4. FP000148Bethanne Patrick. Los Angeles Times. Orbital (2023). Quoted in Wikipedia, Orbital (novel). Read 2026-08-21. Too little of it in our source to score.Source