Six Degrees of Separation – from Orbital to Ender's Game

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. This month’s starting point is the 2024 Booker winner, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, which follows six fictional astronauts over 24 hours on an orbiting space station.

Although I did not finish Orbital, it reminded me of my favorite book about space, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954), first in a popular series by Eleanor Cameron, in which two boys travel to the alien planet Basidium in their homemade spaceship.

My next link is alien planets. In C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Dr. Ransom, a Cambridge academic, is captured and taken on a spaceship to the red planet of Malacandra, which he knows as Mars. His captors are plotting to plunder the planet’s treasures and plan to offer Ransom as a sacrifice to the creatures who live there. Ransom discovers he has come from the “silent planet” – Earth.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (1996) involves a Jesuit mission to investigate singing from a distant planet. Father Sandoz is captured like Ransom, then he is mutilated and given to hostile aliens, causing him great suffering and loss of faith. At one point, Brad Pitt had bought the movie rights and was planning to play Sandoz but that fizzled out.

Also on a mission, but for younger readers, is Commander Toad in Space by Jane Yolen (1980). Brave Commander Toad and the crew of the spaceship Star Warts must go where no spaceship has gone before. But when they try to land their sky skimmer on the planet made of water, the crew of the Star Warts nearly become a space monster’s lunch! This series is a toad-themed parody of pop culture science fiction filled with puns.  I bought this first book for my eldest nephew when he was very young.

My fifth link is the search for extra-terrestrial life. Danny Dunn is a brash sixth grader who loves science. His widowed mother is the housekeeper for inventor and Professor Euclid Bullfinch, who is Danny’s mentor. They are often joined in experiments by Irene Miller, a smart girl, who lives next door, and Danny’s somewhat goofy friend, Joe Pearson. In Danny Dunn and the Voice from Space by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams (1967), the children go to England to consult to with a noted astronomer about an invention that could help in the search for extra-terrestrial life. This was a fun series I read from my grade school library.

Children with scientific aptitude are recruited for training as elite military officers to fight an alien species in Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985). Ender turns out to be a genius at war games that are preparation for battle. My book group read this several years ago and we found it quite fascinating, although not our usual style.

Lots of space for someone who doesn’t like science fiction! But it just goes to show that a good book can transcend genre. Next month (February 1, 2025), Kate has chosen a classic, Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.