Orbital Cloud

When Kazumi Kimura discovers that the orbit of a spent rocket booster is increasing rather than degrading, he posts an article about it on his website, Meteor News. When Ozzy Cunningham, former realtor to tech startups and now retired and obsessed with astrophotograpy, sees the post, he turns his lens to the sky and captures images of the anomalous object for his own post, but decides to add some click-bait to it by speculating that it's a kinetic strike platform, dubbing it the "Rod from God." That's not true, but it works just fine for the terrorist nation behind what's actually going on, hiding their intent until they're ready.They've put up some 40 thousand tiny spacecraft which use a revolutionary power and propulsion technique developed by an Iranian graduate student, who doesn't know that his thesis paper has found a receptive audience after being ignored by his adviser. The Rod from God ideal doesn't get any traction with Kazumi, or NORAD for that matter, but they quickly realize that something potentially more dangerous is going on and a tale of international intrigue and space science takes off complete with web developers saving the world, CIA agents holding project meetings, scientists and engineers not being given the support they need and getting even, and a tech entrepreneur and his journalist daughter in an orbital hotel on a collision course with disaster.Taiyo Fuji's is an award winning Japanese SF author whose first book, Gene Mapper, was the #1 Kindle title for Amazon.co.jp in 2012. Orbital Cloud, his second novel, swept a number of awards in Japan for its 2014 release, and was published in English in March 2017, but hasn't gotten a lot of attention. That's too bad, because the thinking in this sf/techno story is on a par with James Cambias second novel (Corsair) in terms of tech vision and real world consequences. As for the story itself, there's a quality to the characters and prose which is very Japanese, a little too proper, a little to burdened with getting the details presented correctly, and not leading with as strong a hook as it could have. The story starts out a bit slowly, but once you get into the rhythm of the translated writing, and things pick up, the action pulls you along nicely.

I pity myself for not being able to read Japanese. I suspect that some of the nuances have been lost in translation.Still, both in content and in style this is some truly contemporary reading. No fantasy muck, just present day technology taken a firm and extremely interesting step beyond. Plus a very real world very cutting edge feeling of time, place, social network, behaviour.This is truly intelligent entertainment.

I really enjoyed Orbital Cloud. I wasn't sure what Taiyo was getting at in the first chapters. But he kept the action moving and brought out a unique technology concept around which he wove an interesting, immersive story. I love the characters and the interplay of the geo-political landscape.Good hard science fiction is rare and Taiyo delivers well. I'm always watching for translated works from him and have not been disappointed.

In all I loved the story, it's engaging most times, technically believable enough most of the times but too stereotypical when it comes to character building and nationalities, this made the book less enjoyable for me.

Great concept and plot. The writing style was jerky, but I blame that on the translator

I enjoyed Cixin Liu's trilogy and started actively looking for some foreign SF when I came across several sites promoting Orbital Cloud. The teaser looked interesting enough and I bought it as a digital book, since the local book store didn't have it. That probably should have been a red flag. At least this wont end up in a donation bin and be inflicted on someone else.I haven't finished the book, and I will never finish the book. From the get go it annoyed me. The rich investor/rocket industrialist/entrepreneur is such a blatant copy of Elon Musk, I don't know why he's not named Elon Musk. Except that he lacks any actual character to make him interesting. The nerd of questionable morals is the stereotype of the morbidly obese extreme loner with no social skills. The female characters are described first by their physical attributes: "a black pantsuit and long coat concealed her toned body." And it turns out that character is the female spy-runner who has to have sex with her asset once a week to keep him from wandering off. She's running an economic scam that sells "more than a million" crappy computer cables for $300 each, "are practically free to manufacture" and only netted $2.2 million. So, gross of over $300 million. Profit 0.7% Less than one percent. That's the WORST SCAM EVER. And this is supposed to show her as this manipulative evil genius. And apparently every part of the US has even more surveillance than central London.But the part where I just put it down and was done was when I read "One thousand and twenty-four, that's two to the power of seven." NO. IT BLODDY WELL ISN'T. And the line isn't from a character that is supposed to not know that. It is one programmer explaining it to another. Which no programmer would ever need to explain. And the (egregiously incorrect) explanation does nothing to inform the reader or further the plot. Ok, the author is Japanese, the novel was written in Japanese and translated to English. That might explain some of the clumsy language. But I'm pretty sure base two math works the same way no matter what country you're in. I don't care if it is the author, the translator or both that is criminally incompetent. At page 54/327 I'm done and I'm not reading another single word. I just wish I could get my time and my money back.

A great sifi read. Good for any age, any gender. A real glimse into the future. Some much for being succinct. Amazon requires 20 words in a review? Who makes these rules up?

An extremely inspiring story that is relatively believable and uncannily resembles the weaponisation of information we have been experiencing in the last few years.

I liked the mix of science with a good story. Will read more from this author

Great read. I'm leaving the rest to the reader's enjoyment.

Just a modern fantasy story. I struggled to the end, but it really wasn’t worth the effort. Try harder next time.

If you're a fan of hard science fiction, you'll definitely enjoy Orbital Cloud.The plot is multilayered, and features a variety of characters from all backgrounds, including JAXA, NORAD, the CIA, the US Air Force, a freelance web designer, and a professor making history without the use of modern technology in Tehran.I enjoyed the complexity of the science, mathematics, and physics, along with the way the story interspersed the characters across a consistent and impressive timeline. An excellent read, and I will certainly be downloading more books by this author.