This will not be to everyone's tastes. It's thought-provoking, heart-warming but also a little odd.

Satellite is the new book by Nick Lake, the book follow Leo a 15-year-old boy born on Moon 2 a Satellite orbiting space.

Moon 2 is all that Leo and twins Libra and Orion have every known, born in space to astronauts mothers. Leo has been waiting till his sixteen birthday when he is strong enough to go back home to earth. After all his dreaming of earth, will Leo have the ability to cope with all the new experiences once he is one earth. Leo thought living in space was dangerous but nothing is a dangerous as a planet full of billion of people with their own agenda. Now Leo, Libra and Orion will have to survive and defy all odds. 

Nick Lake has beautifully written this story, but my favourite parts are Leo reactions to his new experiences on earth. Things that we take for granted, I wish I could remember my first experiences of snow and sunsets. 

This book got me on a more of an emotional level, than I thought when I read the book descriptions. The book is an emotional adventure, that take an interesting take on the Young Adult Space fiction.

I give this book 4.5 out of 5. 


Thank to Netgalley for allowing me to read and advanced copy.

From the stars to the Earth... another winner from Lake

Nick Lake has already several excellent and very different Young Adult novels under his belt, winning awards, acclaim and many fans with his thrillers, exciting plots, great teenage characters.

Here is another unique story, and one I can foresee is likely to appear on award nomination lists. Teenagers born in space are preparing to see Earth for the first time, and all that that will entail - a whole bunch of 'firsts' and experiences every other teen takes for granted. Leo and his close friends Orion and Libra have spent their entire lives being raised in space, and now 16, are deemed strong enough to make the journey back 'home' to a planet they have seen but never touched.

The story takes in the space station they live on, their tense preparations down and what happens when they make contact... with mankind and the natural world that to them is anything but natural.

There's science here, but also a lot of imagination. I love the thought that's gone into how they feel about what they will experience, each of the three has particular preoccupations and loves and are looking forward to different aspects of Earth life.

It's rather beautiful at times, as Leo takes in a breeze, a fire, even the love of an animal.

This manages to include a treatise on family while making the strange situation of the teens the focus. Leo's mother is cold and scientific in everything, never offering warmth, hugs or the comfort of a parent to her son. She allows us a glimpse of the astronaut life through her devotion to duty.

There are a few moments where you must suspend disbelief, but, with the story presented, this is to be expected.

It is not hard to find yourself caught up in the emotion of the story, as the three adjust (or otherwise) to life on Earth. There are some moments you may find a tear in your eye. Family, love and the idea of 'home' are going to make this a popular read.

Some beautiful moments, a superb original concept (would be great to see this adapted for the screen) and a plot that keeps your attention and heart until the very last page.

One for older readers, ages 13-16. And adults shouldn't shy away just because it's a Young Adult title, it's excellent.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

PLOT

Can home be a place you’ve never even been? A place you can’t even truly understand or even imagine. But once you’re back there, is it really home?

Leo has lived all his life on Moon 2, a space station orbiting the earth, with his sibling-friends, twins Libra and Orion. They were born there, apparently by accident, to mothers who were working in orbit at the time, and being children, are deemed not strong enough to return home to earth until their 16th birthdays which are rapidly approaching as we enter the story.

Written from Leo’s perspective, it’s a fascinating look at being a true outcast, having very little human contact and absolutely no experience of everything that we know. We follow him on his journey from 0g to the gravity of earth, into quarantine and to his grandfather’s ranch. The struggles of him trying to understand how to physically and mentally exist in a world he doesn’t recognise as home.

MY THOUGHTS

I’ll address the obvious first; the thing that everyone’s pointing out and is meaning this book is being left unfinished by some: the text speak. “U” is used instead of “you”, “c” instead “see”, and numerical digits instead of the number written out as a word.

As a self-proclaimed grammar stickler (I’ve even got the T shirt), this bothered me at first. A lot. I thought it was because it was YA and written that way to try to fit in with that genre, even though I’m not entirely sure teens even use text speak any more (why bother when we no longer have to use the multi-tap method of typing?). Then I discovered it was because Leo is in space and astronauts write that way in order to convey a message more quickly – every second counts in space – and it made sense. From then on, it still bothered me a little but I eventually stopped seeing it. It seemed to bother me most in dialogue though as it made statements seem more casual and abrupt when that character actually wasn’t really that way, but that’s really the only issue I had with it in the later parts of the book.

Moving past that though, the rest of the writing was wonderful. Descriptions that can only be described as luxurious; perceptions of earth, of “home”, as being a completely new experience. The only experiences Leo and his friends have of earth is those in books, films, TV shows and what the Company chooses for them to see.

After finishing the book, I found myself actually thinking hard about the sensations described that I normally take for granted: gravity dragging me down to the ground; the feeling of a mattress pushing back up against me, the duvet weighing me down; scents in the moving air; the sound of birds wings; and tastes. All the tastes. The way that all of these things and more became so real for me that I was appreciating things I never would have thought twice about before.

The wider world the book is set in is fantastic. We’re in the near future, on a struggling earth, which is only made apparent through dropped hints and accidentally let-on secrets. NASA has been privatised, the Company (as they’re unsettlingly referred to) alone holds the monopoly on space. But the world is a different place to the one we know. Men are casually referred to as wearing mascara and nail polish. It’s stated as part of character-building occasionally, and as it’s all from Leo’s perspective, we see that this is not a big deal. Masculinity is being worn down. This is even more apparent thanks to Leo’s attraction to men rather than women, and the way that it’s so fleetingly referred to, like the make up, as if it’s the most natural thing, rather than being made a big deal of as so many YA novels might do. This was brilliant and I’d love to see more of it.

To be completely honest, I went into this book not really expecting not to like it all that much. Yes, it’s YA and it fits one of my favourite genres of isolated landscapes, but I thought it was going to be childish and stereotypical YA-y based – I have to stop thinking this because apparently I like that stereotype! There wasn’t an overload of romance like I was expecting (in fact, there was barely any aside from the occasional attraction) and it went much deeper than I expected. I honestly loved it. It was described as The Martian for teens in the description which drew me (as I loved The Martian) so I should have believed that!

The only thing that could have made the book better was if we got to see more of the world that’s been created around the story, but I understand that seeing it through Leo’s eyes, there’s only so much we could be shown. I’d be happy to read more books set in this landscape.

I really hope this book gets the attention it deserves. I can honestly see it being made into a film – it has space, it has adventure, it has emotion, and it has a really good story line. In fact, it felt like watching a film while reading it. I hope that happens!

I wanted to like this book, but it was such a let down. The idea held a lot of promise and I was hoping for a plot that explored the life of these kids back on earth - perhaps interspersed with newspaper article or press releases - something that gave us a window onto a wider plot without requiring a voice apart from Leo's (the main character).

However, I really lost interest in the plot in the second half, I thought it was weak and unbelievable. And the very worst thing was the language - I just couldn't get into it. Instead of 'see' it's 'c', & instead of 'and', u, ur and u're - but apparently these kids have been having remote school lessons all their life, including literature. If this kid can spell susurrus, he can spell 'you' properly. But we need to know it's the future, so he has to talk slightly weird. The 'text-speak' language made it impossible to sink into the story - you don't buy into someone's emotional plight or take their career expertise seriously when it's a struggle to read it. Equally the gimmicky 'fashions', where women can have genetically modified beards and everyone wears mascara and nail polish. I'm pretty sure cattle ranch-hands wouldn't be wearing nail polish, even in the future. And most of the scientist and the ranch hands are men, but the astronauts who acted as 'babysitters' were women of course! Instead of men wearing nail polish, why don't you just have a future free of gender-stereotyped roles. And these things were just shoe-horned in and basically forgotten about later in the book.

Other readers have commented on the positivity of a POC main character group (agreed!), and that Leo is gay without it being a big deal (also great) - but on the latter point there was a part that really grated with me. When asked if he wants kids, Leo replies that he can't have that, not in the 'conventional manner' so it doesn't matter if he spends his whole life in space. Why oh why do you have a normalised LGBTQ character and then ruin it with stupid comments like this?!

I could say a lot more because I was really disappointed by this book. It's like The Martian crossed with The Hunger Games - with less science and more bad grammar. Give this one a miss.

The voice in this book is going to be the main factor that effect whether people enjoy this book, I think - it's distinctly unusual, imitating the situation of the main character, who grew up on the ISS, and so learnt to speak from shortened NASA communications. It is annoying at first, but I found I didn't notice it after I'd been reading for a long time. I read this in one sitting - I imagine it's more noticeable if you dip in and out of it.

I found the reasons for the characters' births on the ISS a little contrived - NASA will have a better medical team than this fictional one, more likely to catch pregnant crew members!

However I loved the characters - Leo is struggling with his sexuality when he only knows two people his own age, who feel like siblings to him - and I'd happily read another book set in this world.

When I started this I didn't expect it to elicit so many emotions from me. It made my heart pound, it made me sob and laugh, it warmed my soul and had me on the edge of my seat - and for that I take my hat off to Nick Lake.

Satellite is a refreshing read and although the writing is a little jarring and not really necessary (it's written in text speak throughout: u, c, u're - etc), it doesn't take you away from the story. It was beautifully written and could almost be classed as a contemporary - if it wasn't for the fact it deals with a lot of science, space and set in the future where the Earth is dealing with worsening global warming.
I loved that there was diversity in this book - there were numerous people of colour represented, sexuality was explored, males wore makeup & nail varnish and no-one cared. It was wonderful and unexpected and the fact that even though Leo is gay there was no big romance leading up to it, it was just woven naturally and casually into the story which I loved!

This was definitely a lot darker than I was anticipating and I liked seeing how Leo, Orion and Libra handled being on Earth for the first time (even if it did take the first 30% of the story for it to happen). It was gripping and interesting to see how they were adjusting - or rather, not adjusting - to the drastic changes their lives had taken and towards the end I was sobbing, which was completely unexpected.

The only issues I had with this was the fact it was written in text speak - it didn't particularly add anything to the story and it irked me at the beginning - and I found the pacing to be a little slow in terms of getting to Earth and things actually happening. But other than that I thought this was a great read!

"spinning around the earth, endlessly. an orbit of devotion. nothing in the universe loves like the moon loves the earth."

* * * * *
5 / 5

I don't really watch space films and I don't really read space books. But something about Satellite just said read me, read me and so, naturally, I obliged and I'm so glad that I did. This book was so raw and emotional and sort of made me want to go into space (although I'm sure it would make me puke my guts up, so maybe just one of those 0g chambers...), and Leo was just such a perfect character.

"space is the wrong word, because this is something that goes on forever & is full of worlds, billions of them, pinpricks sparkling in the endless darkness."

Leo and Orion and Libra were born in space. More specifically, aboard Moon 2, a space station owned and maintained by the vaguely and a little ominously named corporation, The Company. Space is all these three children have ever known, but now it's almost time for them to voyage to earth. The scientists that monitor them reckon that sixteen is old enough for the force of re-entry not to harm Leo and the twins, for their delicate space-born bones not to shatter on impact, and these children cannot wait to finally walk, to sleep without being strapped down, but they are also a little wary of leaving the only place they have ever known: the infinite, cold, dark entity that is space.

The plot is unlike anything I have ever read but what really makes this novel is the characters. Our three central characters are all distinct: Orion is a music-lover, a devourer of poetry; Libra is green-fingered, an aspiring botanist and a thoughtful girl; Leo is a dreamer, a thinker, a boy whose mother, an astronaut, barely speaks to him, and who wants nothing more than to go and live on the ranch of his grandfather, an ex-astronaut and a wonderful character in his own right. Leo is our sole narrator, concerned with mathematics and engineering and all things to do with space, he's got an unvoiced crush on Leo and a desire to see mountains and to breathe fresh air and to know what it is like to live with gravity weighing you down.

"flight: the noun for flying & the noun for fleeing

we flee the earth & my heart pounds with the joy of it. what's wrong with me? all i ever wanted was this place. the ranch. the feeling of the ground beneath my feet.

but when we take off, into the sky, my body sings with it"

This story in uniquely Leo's, the world and it's conspiracies seen only through his eyes (perhaps sometimes to the frustration of the reader who might like to know more about what dwells in the shadows of The Company), so it makes sense that the style of the book is different. It's all in text speak. This surprised me and was a bit offputting when I first started reading Satellite; I don't think there's a single capitalised "i", and it's always "c" instead of "see" and "u" for "you". It was a touch odd and I suppose it was meant to reflect the modernity, the youth of the narrator, his strangeness from Earth and yet his connection to it. But once I got into the book, I felt that what the writing really did was ground you in Leo's experience, immerse you in his world. But if you well and truly hate text-speak, I would probably recommend that you avoid this particular book!

I adored Satellite. I thought the writing itself was beautiful, philosophical, and deliciously quotable, the main characters and particularly Leo were delightful and felt like real people, and that the plot had the right mix of action, space-related things, wonder, suspense, conspiracies, and drama. All in all, an excellent novel.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of Satellite.

This book was unexpected in so many ways. I struggled with the text/chat speak in the first few chapters and almost gave up, but the whole concept of kids growing up in space and coming to Earth for the first time grabbed me so much I persevered and I'm so glad I did. Leo's story is pure sci-fi, but his experiences were so well written and the prose so lovely it somehow felt very real.

I loved Leo's relationship with twins Libra and Orion, but most of all I loved Leo's interaction with his grandpa. It was so refreshing to read a YA book which not only didn't cut out out all of the adults, but actively included them along with all of their positive and negative traits. The ending left a real lump in my throat and I can only hope Nick Lake decides one date to write sequel. I will be first in the queue to buy it! A total 5 star read. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

As a fan of hard sci-fi I enjoyed this book a lot. The plot is fast paced and just about plausible - as it is us for young adults then the points of melodrama are bearable. This really is the Martian for a younger audience (less bad language) but I think that fans of Andy Weir will also enjoy it.

I read 100 pages of this loooonngg YA book and I simply couldn't make myself continue. There was no enjoyment in reading it; the pacing was so slow that it was hard to see what we were reading for. I have enjoyed Nick Lake's books in the past and I really loved Weir's The Martian, but where The Martian's scientific mumbo jumbo was countered by a lot of humour and warmth, I didn't feel that came across here. It was a rather cold novel to me. Maybe warmth creeps in later but I worry that many readers, like myself, won't stick around long enough to find out.

There's a film like this isn't there? A young boy born in space goes to earth? I remember watching a trailer and not being particularly interested because it all centred on a romance plot. This book is everything that film could have been.

We have Leo, a male protagonist which is unusual for me, a boy born in space and waiting sixteen years to be allowed back to earth with his two friends, siblings who were also born in space. This book often feels like it's doing two things, firstly it's a powerful and incredibly moving story about home and about survival, secondly it's an interesting thought experiment into how people born in space might feel if suddenly brought back to earth. It feels very well researched and considered, down to the smallest details and I imagine it could inspire a lot of young people into being astronauts themselves which is no bad thing.

But this isn't a scientific tome. It's more of a novel about people with some science as an added bonus. There were times when I was beaming from ear to ear (there was a dog) and there were times when I was wiping away copious amounts of tears (not because of the dog I hasten to add). It's an engaging and powerful story that is...sort of well written?

What do I mean by that? Why haven't I given this supposedly amazing book five stars?

Well...

The book is sort of written in text speak? As in, rather than writing the word 'you' Leo writes 'U'. Similarly 'see' becomes 'c'. Given that we don't even use text speak that much since the advent of the touch screen keyboard this feels like an unusual choice. It wasn't that it was difficult to read, in fact after a page or so it's quite interesting just how quickly your brain adapts and you just read as normal. I also wouldn't have minded if there had been some explanation for the text speak. Perhaps if that was explained to be how they typed on the space station or something? I just couldn't perceive what the purpose was so it simply annoyed me and it felt like a way to get people talking about the book (which I suppose I am doing now so if that was the case well done.)

Honestly if someone can give me a decent, reasoned explanation for the text speak I will happily change my rating up to five stars because I absolutely loved reading this. I think it could become the favourite book of many young (and older) readers, I just need to understand why!

My rating: 4/5 stars

Satellite is available to preorder now and releases on the fifth of October if you want to see what all the fuss is about.

By the way, I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You know those books which are just so different, unique and refreshing? You know those books that don't even seem like books? Yeah, that's Satellite for you.

Ahh, it's wonderful. *waves hand about* *swallows* So this is a sc-fi story which isn't a genre I read often but it's done incredibly well. I don't even know...So this a boy about Leo who's like lived basically his whole life in space and he goes to Earth ("home") and experiences gravity and things and basically life. But then he starts to wonder where he really comes from and where home really is. It's the exact amount of feels, mystery, beautiful prose that just makes this story for me.

l o v e s

-Leo. He just this precious cinnamon roll but he's so different. But like you could say he's a blan MC but he's real and makes all the right and tough decisions and is just amazing and this ball of confusion and sunshine and LEO. OKAY? FREAKIN' LEO. Oh and Orion is so precious ASDFGHJKL
-The writing. Okay so apart from the textspeech, there's all this prose and Lake writes this book so differently. And it's deep and raw and emotional. It's pretty and flawed and it breaks its own rules. I love. love.
-The premise. Did I mention this is just an amazing premise! It's different and weird and just yes. ALL THE YES. It's about space and astronauts and accepting who you are and evil doctors and experiments.
-There's like 1% romance and UM why can't all YA books be like this? Rare and precious
-Comet is the best thing that has happened to me. I cried over him. He's the little dog and he's so loyal and 'yips' and YES DID I MENTION there were MANY tears over him!
-There are FOOD descriptions. Like ice cream and steak and it's a burst of flavours and i'm crying again. It's written so beautifully?! Like the way Leo describes food? A+ It made me feel like I was eating that food.

d i s l i k e s

-text speech! I got used to but it's all written in lowercase and 'c' instead of 'sea' and 'u' instead of 'you' and it's annoying. OKAY? like nooo. I don't like this. not at all. i am gramma nazi. it bugged me.
-it dragged a teeny bit and lost my attention. like sometimes i was just skimming because nothing interesting was happening? like most of it was good but it wasn't gripping and 'omg i can't put it down' i was still stressed out though,
-I wanted more development of the characters and apart from Leo and the mother, everyone else just stayed the same. Even Orion and Libra who are the cutest in existence don't change. But it's more plot-driven so I get that.

But it's still all so much fun and I even cried a little. It doesn't punch you, it slowly gives you few bruises. Not very memorable but lives in your heart. I want so much more stories like this!And I do want to read more books by Nick Lake!

Thank you very much for allowing me to read this title; I am trying to read as widely as possible ahead of the Carnegie/Greenaway nominations and awards for 2018 and your help is much appreciated.
As a Carnegie/Greenaway judge, I'm not allowed to comment about my opinions on specific titles so I can't offer an individual review on any title as I stated on my profile.
Netgalley now requires a star rating so I am giving all titles 5 stars so as not to disadvantage any title but this does not imply any recommendation of the book above any other.

Sadly, DNF at 10%, but that's entirely my own issue. I've never been good at decoding any kind of dialect, it just doesn't make sense in my brain, and this is written entirely in text speak. It's a shame because I think the story is good, it's just too much work for me to read. Thank you very much for the opportunity to read it.