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There are secrets. There is danger. And impossible odds to face.
As a reviewer, I've come to ''Satellite'' relatively late. Usually, I'm writing about books before what everyone else has to say about it has arrived on the internet. But my copy of ''Satellite'' arrived after its publication date and I couldn't resist having a nosy at what everyone else thought about it before saying anything myself. And I was quite surprised to see that the emphasis everywhere has been on Lake's decision to make Leo use textspeak - he says ''c'' for ''see'', ''u'' for ''you'', doesn't use capital letters and suchlike. I suppose this is worthy of note - it's not a teen thing, it's a conserving-every-effort-in-space thing - but it seems like such a non-issue with regard to the book as a whole, which exudes quality, subtlety and poetry from every single page. It makes the book sound simple. And it really, really isn't. But there you go. There is, as Lake puts it, some ''silly orthography'' and now you knowabout it.
Much more importantly, I think you should also know that ''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 - secrets are being kept from Leo and Orion and Libra, but what are they? - 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.
