It may be a short book, but it is dense. I think a couple of things contribute to that. There is no dialogue, for one. There is also a lot of time and effort made to describe things—the earth, as observed from space; small moments or concepts strung out and closely examined; accuracy to space travel given importance and respect. All of this has led to bigger, longer paragraphs of text with nothing to break things up.

For me the best part of the book was when it slipped into second person narrative. It seemed to happen at random, but effortlessly. Those were the moments I really felt myself getting lost in the book, and I would have easily rated this book higher if it has been written completely in second person. It is an absolutely underused and underrated point of view.

The main themes running through the book were connection and isolation. The astronauts observe the land and sea rotate below them and see it as a whole, as cohesive, as one connected thing. No borders, no division. It is with that isolated and distance they can clearly see how connected everything and everyone truly is.

A longer review can be read on my book blog: Marvel at Words.