Aviation disaster on the verge of space

This is not a highbrow literay piece by any means but if you like airline disaster stories it's right in that genre with some sci-fi twists. What I did like is all the discussion about the aviation technology and I was drawn to the novel becasue I have a soft spot for the film 'Starflight One' which was loosley derived from this book. The stories don't have too much in common though and 'Orbit' is a more in-depth story.

I have problems with the way woman are portrayed in the text. It really stuck out to me. They are largely there as fodder to be burnt/disfigured, sucked into outer space or be saved from choking via field tracheotomies - it's a bit like a teen horror slasher where all the young woman are hacked up for male titalation.

The audiobook production is odd. They have used a static effect on a lot of dialogue and contextually it makes sense where people are talking across the radio but it is is also used for internal dialogue where characters are thinking and that doesn't make sense to me. The effect is very noticeable in places and distracts from the story.

It's also quite obvious the book has had a modern revison with cell phones and emails being used/mentioned in the communcations. There is also sections that has Russian characters talking in a post-Soviet context and we do get a quick allusion to the two shuttle disasters. I think the section with the Rusiians didn't need to be there as it added nothing to the overall story. It became too much to believe the author was this visionary in the early '80s.

It's okay for a bit of ride.

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