Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Orbit
    Orbit
    Orbit
    Audiobook8 hours

    Orbit

    Written by John J Nance

    Narrated by John J Nance

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In this “heart-pounding” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) aviation thriller, New York Times bestselling author John J. Nance takes readers on a riveting journey of life or death.

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMar 7, 2006
    ISBN9781597109147
    Orbit
    Author

    John J Nance

    A decorated pilot of Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm, John J. Nance is aviation consultant for the ABC television network, and airline correspondent for Good Morning America, having logged over 10,000 hours of flight time in his commercial-airline and Air Force careers. He lives in Washington State.

    More audiobooks from John J Nance

    Related to Orbit

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      On Nighttime

      May 15, 2019

      On Nighttime
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Fantasy

      Nov 20, 2021

      Sweet Fantasy
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hot Right Now!

      Aug 10, 2023

      Do you want a page-turner to grip you this season? Well, we might just have the one for you… If you could go back, knowing what happens after you die, everything that spirals after that one moment, would you change the course of history? Or would you

      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘I’ve Never Forgotten It’: The Very Best (and Very Worst) TV Endings Of All Time

      Feb 7, 2023

      Warning: contains spoilers. Blackadder Goes ForthThe final three minutes of Blackadder is so exquisitely played, so at odds with the extreme silliness of the rest of the series – and so very sad. There they stand – Blackadder, Baldrick, George and po

      11 min read

    • Article

      Follow The Arrow To The End

      Dec 5, 2020

      A GREAT, albeit lesser known, but excellent musician-cum-poet whom I got to know during my time in England was a guy called Martin Newell. He spent time in the Brighton area close to Hassocks, the Sussex village where I lived, just inland from the so

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Leftovers: A Nicer Story

      Jun 4, 2017

      The Leftovers: A Nicer Story
      11 min read

    • Article

      More Than A Teenage Dream

      Oct 28, 2023

      More Than A Teenage Dream
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Tim Lane

      Dec 8, 2021

      We stopped at the Topaz Internment Camp, where my wife’s family was held during World War II, near the tiny town of Delta, Utah. We found the apocalyptic remnants of one of our country’s great shames. The post A Year in Reading: Tim Lane appeared fi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Push

      Aug 4, 2022

      Push
      5 min read

    • Article

      Echos

      Jan 10, 2019

      Before Corrine’s husband abandoned her in Berlin, he liked to say that her name reminded him of the word “corrupt.” But ending in a twist rather than a split. Her last name was the French word for “swimsuit” but he never mentioned that. This seemed s

      17 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      He threw the pale pink envelopes into the trashand smashed the Mickey Mouse phone hanging up. And when his wife asked you okay? he said okay,then took a twistoff to the back, screaming FUCK so loud he spooked the treefrogs and cicadas.He’d got canned

      2 min read

    • Article

      St Vincent: ‘At A Certain Point, We Are All Culpable. Just Don’t Be A S***ty Person’

      May 12, 2021

      I’m good,” says St Vincent brightly. “I’m better than last time when I was a royal dick. So apologies for that, again.” “Royal dick” is pushing it, but my last encounter with Annie Clark was definitely frosty. In 2017, off the back of no sleep, too m

      10 min read

    • Article

      Ezra Furman

      Apr 3, 2018

      Ezra Furman
      2 min read

    • Article

      Excerpt

      Dec 12, 2019

      He was an angry man, and he was an ugly man, and he was tall, and he was pacing. Not much space for it in the new home, just a few rooms lined up in a row, underneath a series of slow-moving ceiling fans, an array of antique clocks ticking on one wal

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      Are you ready? I nodded. She slid the needle inand the sick cat, who only a moment before had tried toleap to the floor closed his eyes and exhaled. Andthat’s it, she said a little too brightly, pulling the needle out.That’s it? I asked. That’s all t

      3 min read

    • Article

      It's Crying Time

      Nov 15, 2023

      I was about 13, on a sofa in front of the television on a wet Saturday afternoon. I was carelessly able to do that once – sigh. I was watching a black-and-white film. Or maybe the TV was black-and-white – probably. It was a story about a nanny caring

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Waeve

      Jan 12, 2023

      The Waeve
      4 min read

    • Article

      Competition

      Dec 15, 2021

      IN COMPETITION No 274, you were invited to write a poem called The Phone. Your entries were all the better for the unease, at the least, you felt for the machine. ‘Man home to wife, he barely greets her/ But dials the shop to order pizza,’ observed D

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Waeve

      Jan 12, 2023

      The Waeve
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Orbit

    4/5

    84 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This i the best book I think I've ever read. I've read a lot of John Nance's books but this one was wonderful I have not last so hard in it but it's a lot of serious writing and a very long time this book really made my day thank you!!!
    • 1/5
      I have loved ever other one of John Nance's books that I have read but not this one. The narrator is a whiny 'innocent' victim of his wife and the description of their relationship was so offensive, I knew that when he got up into space and was in danger of losing his life, I was going to hope he did. I put it down. I hope John does better next time.
    • 5/5
      Having previously enjoyed the Kat Bronsky books by Nance my interest was piqued when I saw Orbit, although the proposed idea gives a somewhat Martian vibe, it is a different setting with different challenges and I can't say I have bothered to see which was written first. Regardless it sounded like an interesting idea, a guy trapped in space with one way communication to earth, typing out his rawest thoughts on a laptop in the spaceship under the idea no one will read them for decades yet a huge portion of the earth is hanging on his every word.I found it to be quite an enthralling book, the slow unfolding marital troubles, the shifting family dynamics, the idea of a regular everyday guy getting trapped in space after a once in a lifetime competition win goes astray with a space accident. Then the unfolding narrative as he comes to terms with his impending dead 4-5 days away, all the while a huge rescue mission is being organised beneath him completely unbeknownst to him. The subplot of sabotage within said NASA rescue mission was also well done and dovetailed neatly with the other aspects of the story, all of which lead to quite a climactic ending which resolved the story line very nicely.
    • 5/5
      How would things be different, if we knew how things would end? If we knew that the end of our life would require a recounting of our days, to be read by the population of the world, would we live a thoughtful life? If we knew the time, method, and manner of our deaths, would we think before we act? Give mercy instead of contempt? Patience and thoughtfulness instead of intolerance and selfishness? Would we stop on the street to offer a hand to a lonely man? Would so much of our lives be wrapped up in petty angers, in jealousy and rage? Would envy rule our lives, or the tedium of jobs and chores and routine so blind our eye to life?

      How would things be different, if we could think clearly, in our true knowledge of the fleeting quality of our lives? Would we war among ourselves, devote ourselves to hating 'the other' for the way they live their lives? For their religion, their beliefs, the colour of their skins? Would we open our eyes to how small we truly are, and how much we need one another, how very alike we really are?

      What would it take, to really stop the world, if only for a time? To make us see and understand just how fragile and precious this thing called life really is?

      Mr. Nance has written a book that gives you the opportunity to think of all these things and more. To place yourself in the place of the main character, and realize in just how many ways our day-to-day lives are wasted on the petty nuances of life - to wish with him, with all our hearts, that we could have led a fuller, richer, purer life.

      I never really thought of Mr. Nance as a sociologist, but rather as a terrific technical writer. I have read his books for the 'techie' aspects. He knows avionics exceptionally well, and writes in a clear and riveting manner about the technical sides, in an edge-of-the-seat manner that often keeps me awake well into the night. But with "Orbit", it is almost as if I never quite saw the depth of Mr. Nance's character, of his clear understanding of the human psyche in times of ultimate stress. He made me wish, very much, that his story could be real - that the world could, if only for a week, forget their envies and their greed, their petty indignities and spite, their deeply ingrained hatreds and misunderstandings. To simply watch, and think.

      Of course, sociological and emotional points aside, this is definitely an intelligent thriller, with a level of technical expertise that lives up to Mr. Nance's reputation. The concept is fascinating, and well within the realm of reality as corporations begin to research the feasibility of space travel, both financial and technical. These are interesting times, and Mr. Nance has done an amazing job of allowing us to look to the future with hope rather than despair.
    • 5/5
      Kip Dawson’s longtime dream is to fly into space. When he wins a seat aboard the American Space Adventures’ shuttle Intrepid, little does he know that this incredible once in a lifetime journey will also change the course of his life in a manner no human being could ever foresee or imagine. After months of training as a substitute astronaut, Kip’s launch date has arrived, and although his wife and son are angry with him for being so selfish due to the high risk this flight carries, he decides that for once in his life it is time to focus on his own dreams instead of that of others. As engines ignite and lift-off rumbles through the rocket, Kip is strapped in his seat behind Intrepid’s only other passenger, pilot Bill Campbell. When fear and adrenaline pump through Kip’s body, he suddenly doubts his decision and his life begins to flash before him.Arriving in outer space to view the wonders of the galaxy, the lives of Kip and Bill quickly and dramatically spin out of control as a small undetected meteor hits the Intrepid, punching a hole in the cockpit and killing Bill instantly. Sudden panic overwhelms Kip Dawson when realization that he is alone up there, descends over him like a shroud. He has no communication to earth, no way to yell “Mayday”, and no button to push that will allow him to say “Houston,…we have a problem!”. Kip then desperately grabs for instruction manuals on how to keep himself alive aboard this rocket bound for hell. He finds that systems are not working, and engines won’t fire in order to turn him around and get him out of Dodge. His only salvation as the reality of imminent death ensues, is an onboard laptop computer that he decides to use to chronicle his life’s biography in case someone in the future finds this stranded heap of metal floating in space. Hour after hour, day after day as time runs out, Kip details pages and pages of his life. All of his regrets, sorrows, feelings of guilt, anger, lack of personal happiness, as well as his most desired dreams, pour out from his heart through his fingers as he types by star light. Paragraphs of his life expectations and moments of joy include heaps of personal intimate thoughts of life, love, and the pursuit of happiness, including his wildest sexual fantasies. Little does he know that his journal from space is being read by a 12 year-old computer hacker in Kalgoorie Australia that has somehow latched on to Kip’s ramblings. At first thinking this was one heck of a scammer’s joke, young Alistair Wood gets a jolt when he comes to the heart stopping conclusion that this is real and he better call NASA. As Kip Dawson’s biography screams across every television, radio, computer, cell phone and billboard with live download feeds scrolling his every word across the planet, the world becomes enthralled and captivated by the mind of a man soon to die in outer space as he chronicles the life he has already lived, as well as the one he wishes he had if he could start all over. Orbit is an entrancing story that is simply one that readers will not be able to set down from start to finish. It is a novel that is totally engaging, and a tale that is very different offering a nice change of pace. This is an amazing story sure to have you philosophizing about your own life with all its dreams and past regrets. Orbit by John J.Nance is a top-notch fictional suspense yarn that serves up a lot of thought provoking ingredients, edge-of-your-seat suspense, and exemplary writing!
    • 3/5
      This was my first John Nance book. The premise/jacket cover sounded great, but I don't think Mr. Nance delivered. The story was predictable and the action not so great. But, this is coming from a hard-core nerd that loves hard-core sci-fi. I would recommend this as a good read for non-nerds, as the technical detail is just enough for the layman, with an okay story to boot.
    • 2/5
      Nance's writing skills really shine, in my opinion, when he is writing about flight, aerodynamics and the skill and art of flying.This book was about a civilian winning a space flight from a private corporation to spend a few hours orbiting the earth. For various reasons the other three people who were to be passengers are not able to embark on the flight. So, he and the company pilot launch and begin the orbital flight together. The tension really ramps up when space debris hits and passes through the craft, striking the pilot, killing him instantly and disabling some of the spacecrafts functions. The passenger, Kip Dawson, wakes from a nap and gradually pieces together what might have happened. His emotions are all over the place and it is very hard for him to even imagine what he might be able to do in this situation. After much fear and anguish he accepts that he will most likely die in the craft as it continues to orbit the earth far beyond the ability of the on board CO2 scrubbers which clean the air and resupply oxygen to the spacecraft to continue performing their vital function.Eventually he begins to review his life and the primary relationships he has had. There is a laptop computer on board and he begins keyboarding a document relating not only his feelings and thoughts, but also very personal memories of his family of origin, his present family and early romantic loves. Unbeknownst to him, there is a link that downloads his entries to earth and over a short period of time, millions of people are reading the feed (or translations of it) around the world.My husband enjoyed this book more than I did. I felt some of it was a little gratuitous for my taste. I'm not a book snob and I love being entertained, but occasionally I felt I was being strung along, not in a good way, by the author.It is really the flying and passages about flying where I as a reader greatly admired the skill of the author.I would say it was a lukewarm thriller. I can understand how some people who haven't ever taken the time to examine their own lives and relationships would be inspired by this protagonist's journey to find himself and go on.
    • 5/5
      A well written novel. Though there is a sci-fi backing (man wins orbital trip and gets trapped in space) this book is much more about two themes: facing the end of life and voyeurism. As the world watches his every word come over the internet, Kip Dawson (unaware that his transcript is being broadcast) writes out his life's story filled complete with wonder and regrets. The world is transfixed by his honesty and works feverishly to save him from certain death.