Satellite

Satellite is a novel of great beauty. The prose is careful but expansive and technical but poetic. The glories and wonders of space and science breathe through every line but so do the more quotidian experiences of tasting ice cream for the first time, or seeing a bird in flight, or hearing music played live and not through your headphones. It's a mystery thriller at its heart...but it moves at a slow, luxurious pace, unlike most thrillers. And Lake finds room for so much that is of interest to his young readers - family dynamics, sexuality, gender expression, finding love, coming-of-age, climate change, the list seems almost endless. And it's seamless; nothing shoe-horned in...Nick Lake is one of the highest quality authors writing for our young people today. His range is exceptional and he can capture human experience with poetic detail. And in Satellite he wrote a kiss that made me cry for its beauty and sadness.

An exciting read, full of suspense.

'Satellite is a sci-fi, poetic-epic adventure that is foremostly Leo's, whose story you must read...Meticulous and mesmeric second-by-second descriptions of floating existence in zero gravity are combined with a detective-like thread in Leo's voice - an assured narrator whose mature self-reflections and heightened visual descriptions are highly enjoyable...The whole narrative is laden with introverted meditations on language and experience, making for challenging reading...always rich, poetic and thrilling...Personally, the love of language and experience that Satellite exudes will stay with me the most.'

Told in Leo's abbreviated, allusive diction, this is extraordinary science fiction, as diverse and humane as Iain M Banks at his best'

a timeworn science fiction scenario is brought back to full brightness, aiming its tight-beamed questions with the intensity of borrowed light...The book's depiction of an Earth both familiar and strange (and a satellite in which engineered sterility is pervaded by tenderness), its thrilling, audaciously unlikely denouement, and its ethical and philosophical conundrums are all communicated via Leo's truncated, syncopated diction.

Nick Lake's book grips from the off, combining elements of science fiction and thriller for a page-turning read. A powerful vision of space and science, at its core Satellite is a story about the need to belong - a universal story about a universal dream.

This is extraordinary science fiction, as diverse and humane as Iain M Banks at his best

An epic space story based around real science, it's a truly gripping thriller, imbued with raw emotion. Lake's best book since his debut, In Darkness.

Set on a space station in the near future, this cool concept sci-fi novel with a powerful finding-your-way-in-the-world theme also has much for fans of contemporary YA...This is a thought-provoking thriller, fuelled by the suspenseful space journey, and by Leo's emotional journey...With this foray into sci-fi, author Nick Lake confirms his status as a writer with immensely diverse talents.

I love Nick Lake's writing. I would read anything he wrote - grocery list, email etc., because his writing, always, is so real and so brave. He takes on subjects other writers might avoid, and he writes the hell out of them.