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Orbiter Kindle & comiXology
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVertigo
- Publication dateJune 1, 2004
- File size297489 KB
- Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product details
- ASIN : B00J4ZTA3A
- Publisher : Vertigo (June 1, 2004)
- Publication date : June 1, 2004
- Language : English
- File size : 297489 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Not enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Not Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : Not Enabled
- Print length : 105 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,267,560 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,499 in Science Fiction Graphic Novels (Kindle Store)
- #8,619 in Science Fiction Graphic Novels (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Warren Ellis is the author of the Amazon Top 100 2016 book NORMAL and the New York Times- bestselling GUN MACHINE, the writer of award-winning graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, PLANETARY and FELL, and is the creator and writer of global top ten streaming hit show CASTLEVANIA on Netflix.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. His GRAVEL books are in development for film at Legendary Pictures. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He's also written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters.
Read and subscribe to his free weekly newsletter with updates on work and likes at https://buttondown.email/orbitaloperations and orbitaloperations.com.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
Colleen Doran is a New York Times bestselling cartoonist whose professional career began when she was a young teen. She illustrated work for the Eisner Award winning The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, as well as their graphic novel adaptations of his novels and short stories American Gods, Troll Bridge, and Norse Mythology. She also illustrated Stan Lee's New York Times bestselling autobiography Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible Stan Lee.
For Neil Gaiman’s Snow Glass Apples, which she adapted and illustrated, she won the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation, the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel from the Horror Writers Association, and the Ringo Award for Best Graphic Novel. Snow, Glass, Apples was also nominated for the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for Best Graphic Novel, The Tripwire Award, and received an Honorable Mention at the Rondo Hattan Classic Horror Awards for Best Graphic Novel, as well as Eisner and Ringo Award nominations for Best Penciler/Inker and Best Artist.
She was inducted into the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2007, and the Wizard World Hall of Legends in 2017.
Other books she has illustrated have won Eisner and Harvey Awards, and the International Horror Guild Award. Her essays appeared in the Hugo nominated Chicks Dig Comics. Art from the Troll Bridge graphic novel was selected for the Spectrum annual collection featuring the best science fiction and fantasy art of the year. She was Artist in Residence at the Smithsonian Institute and has lectured at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design and the Australian Writers Association. Her work has been featured in numerous galleries and museum exhibits worldwide, including a solo exhibit this year at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco featuring the original art from Neil Gaiman's Chivalry.
Doran’s A Distant Soil, which she created and published as a teenager, is now published by Image Comic’s Shadowline imprint. Vector: The Journal of the British Science Fiction Association declared it “groundbreaking science fiction comics…ahead of its time.”
She worked with Alan Moore on an experimental animated webcomic Big Nemo based on the classic Winsor McCay comic strip. On The Vampire Diaries she contributed as writer and artist for the comic based on the hit television show. She wrote and/or drew stories for various Wonder Woman titles from DC Comics. She’s also illustrated the works of Margaret Atwood, Anne Rice, J Michael Straczynski, Clive Barker, and official graphic novel works for legendary rock band The Doors, as well as Blondie, Melissa Etheridge, and Tori Amos.
Other credits include Amazing Spider-Man, The Teen Titans, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Jessica Jones for Netflix, Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and various Star Wars and Lord of the Rings projects.
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And then, the Venture returns. No one knows where it’s been or why it took so long to come back. Only one member of the Venture’s crew is aboard, and he’s insane. There’s dust from Mars in the shuttle’s landing gear.
And the entire ship is covered in a layer of… skin.
So the government calls in some experts to investigate the mystery. There’s Michelle Robeson, a former astronaut assigned to study the shuttle itself and try to figure out where the Venture has been. There’s Terry Marx, a hotshot young physicist who has to figure out what sort of changes were made to the shuttle while it was gone. And there’s Anna Bracken, a psychiatrist who needs to analyze the Venture’s sole remaining crewman to try to make him less violently insane.
And that’s the bulk of the story. It’s a locked-room mystery, except the locked room is a 184-foot-long dual-stage space vehicle, the clues involve things like Alcubierre fields, microgravity damage, exotic matter, and bias drives, and the culprits may already be a few dozen light-years outside of Earth’s jurisdiction.
I had a little trouble with parts of the story, though I still liked it a lot. I think my enjoyment was somewhat hampered because I kept trying to understand all the theoretical science that Ellis included in the story. I have a tough time really understanding serious, hard science, especially physics. Heck, I have trouble doing long division. If you’re as science-dim as I am, just replace any of the hard physics discussions with the words “Then a miracle occurs.”
And once you get past the physics, it’s an excellent story. The characters have excellent backstories and motivations that blend into the needs of the story very well. The mystery alone makes the book a page-turner — a space shuttle with skin? A space shuttle that apparently landed on Mars? What the heck? Makes you want to read the book just to find out what on earth is going on.
Colleen Doran‘s artwork is great, too. If you’re used to her art on comics like “A Distant Soil,” her work here is a bit different, but still really beautiful and vivid. She does some really jaw-dropping landscapes of distant planets and stars.
This is very much a valentine to space flight — the technology, the experiences of astronauts, the mystery and romance of putting people in a metal box and lighting explosives under them until they’re pushed up out of Earth’s atmosphere. If you love reading about space flight, if you love watching new launches and new landings and find yourself frustrated that we don't even try to go to other planets anymore, this book was made just for you.
If you love space travel the way Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran do, you’ll love this. If you like hard science fiction or physics, you’ll probably like this. If you love mysteries, you’ll probably like this. If you’re a fan of Ellis or Doran, you should definitely have this on your shelf. In other words, go pick it up.
And if you don't think that's important, this isn't the book or world for you.
Great concept, mystery, world building, and pay off. A quick read, but one you want to indulge in again and again. This really set my imagination on fire.
Ten years after the Space Shuttle Venture vanished from orbit, the space program is dead and buried. But, when the Venture mysteriously reappears and comes in for a landing, there is a scramble to determine what happened to it and where it has been. A team is assembled of flawed experts, all with some connection or another with the failed space program and a stake in determining what has happened and what it means for mankind - they expect for the positive of course.
With the orbiter returning covered in skin and the inside stuffed with living tissue, and evidence of the Venture having landed on Mars, and only one of its crew returning - near catatonic - the team constructs a myriad of scenarios to explain the unexplainable. But, alas, the ending is pat and full of hope, but without any real payoff.
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A Guide to my Book Rating System:
1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.