The year is 2009. For Kip Dawson, winning a passenger seat on American Space Adventure's first commercial spaceflight is a dream come true. One grand shot of insanity and he can return to earth fulfilled. It's a bittersweet moment of triumph, however, muted by his wife's terror over his accepting the prize. The day of the launch, Kip tries to reconcile his wife's and daughters' fears and even tries calling his estranged son, to no avail. He sets off, vowing to make amends upon his return. But a successful launch quickly morphs into chaos when a micrometeor punches through the wall of the spacecraft, leaving the radios as dead as the pilot.
In the blink of an eye, Kip Dawson is truly alone and has no way of navigating the ship home. With nothing to do but wait for his fate, Kip writes his epitaph on the ship's laptop computer, unaware that an audience of millions has discovered it and is tracking his every word on the Internet. As a massive struggle gets under way to rescue him, Kip has no idea that the world can hear his cries - or that his heroism in the face of death may sabotage his best chance of survival.
Author/narrator John J. Nance strikes a good balance in ORBIT, his book about a space tourist marooned in low-Earth orbit. This is good news because the book is largely an extended soliloquy by the tourist, as he writes about his life and experiences in space on a laptop connected to the Internet. Nance is somewhat weak when it comes to differentiating characters, but, as these are only a small part of the book, that's not a problem. The publishers use special effects to simulate radio transmissions from the spacecraft, which adds to the realism. The book's pace is good, and tension builds as the tourist struggles to bring the craft back to Earth himself. R.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
About the Author
John J. Nance, aviation analyst for ABC News and a familiar face on Good Morning America, is the author of several bestselling novels including Fire Flight, Skyhook, Turbulence, and Orbit. Two of his novels, Pandora's Clock and Medusa's Child, have been made into highly successful television miniseries. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Nance is a decorated pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield. He lives in Washington State.
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