Satellite Love is a fun book with an unusual yet familiar story. A warning, there are spoilers ahead.
I think the different perspectives are well distinguished and not annoyingly so. For example, Soki isn’t limited to using imperative sentences. His syntax is flexible and dynamic. All the voices feel in orbit of Anna. Pulled by her gravity as Anna-terasu, like planets held in orbit by the gravity of the Sun.
Ferguson offers a cosmic exploration of devotion. I wonder if the thousand prayers gave texture to Leo, filling him with spirit. Did the General die? Probably. What was the blue in the sky? Is Anna’s imagination of herself travelling through space? Hopefully she’s out there catching comet tails and vibing to emptiness on the Asteroid Belt. Cool to think about.
When the Satellite first foreshadowed that a great act of Anna’s would be the talk of the town, I was mildly annoyed at the ‘move’ of it. By the end, my annoyance turned to curiosity! What do his future orientated comments mean about his existence? Did he sacrifice himself (as the police reports indicate) or did he make it to space with Anna?
Thinking back to his foreshadowing, I don’t believe Leo knows Anna survives and is being tended to by her family and Soki. He kept saying demise as if that’s how it ended for him. Or maybe the Prince told him something we don’t know.
-HJ