The Terranauts

Last updated

The Terranauts
The Terranauts T.C. Boyle book cover.jpg
First edition cover
Author T. C. Boyle
Cover artistJim Tierney
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Ecco
Publication date
October 25, 2016
Publication placeNew York
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages528
ISBN 978-0062349408
OCLC 936619562
813/.54
LC Class PS3552.O932 T47 2016

The Terranauts is a novel by T. C. Boyle, published in October 2016 by Ecco. [1] It is set in a glassed-in biodome in Arizona, closely similar to the real-life Biosphere II. The plot focuses on two of the inside crew and one jealous outsider. [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

The setting is "Ecosphere 2," a very close analogy of the real-life ecological experiment Biosphere II, which is a 3.14 acre glass-enclosed biodome in Oracle Junction, Arizona. The novel is set in the fictional town of Tillman but the physical description of E2, as it's known, is exactly that of the Biosphere.

As with the real-life experiment, four men and four women are shut in for a two-year mission, determined to be self-sufficient in food, water and oxygen. Also as with the real thing, technical problems and major personal strife threaten to end the mission prematurely.

There are three narrators in Boyle's literary device--insiders Dawn Chapman and Ramsay Roothoorp, and outsider Linda Ryu. Chapman (nickname E) and Roothoorp (Vodge) quickly become one of several sexually active couples inside E2, and Ryu develops from being Chapman's best friend into a devious spy working for the mission management team. When E turns up pregnant and decides to give birth inside rather than break closure, the repercussions are dramatic. How the insiders react, and how the management ultimately turns the crisis to its cynical advantage, are the meat of this novel.

Reception

Jason Heller for NPR applauded the novel as a success and commended the author's attention to detail, writing, "Boyle navigates his well-worn territory with sensitivity and finesse". [4] Michael Berry of the San Francisco Chronicle similarly wrote, "What works best in the book is the detail with which Boyle portrays the nitty-gritty of life inside an enclosed environment". [5] M. John Harrison for The Guardian praised the novel for having a unique and resonant brand of humor and wrote, "Boyle's dissections are far too accurate." [6]

The Washington Post critic Ron Charles panned the novel as being very "dull" with "numbingly petty" characters and "no relief from their flat voices, their obvious confessions, their poisonous jealousy". [7] Michael Upchurch for The Boston Globe wrote, "The Terranauts touches on fascinating issues. It's just that Boyle, with the characters he has cooked up, stacks the odds too heavily against E2's success from the outset." [8] Henry Hitchings of the Financial Times described it as being occasionally "a striking portrait of vanity and weakness" but concluded, "Despite all Boyle's efforts to make the novel seem a spiritually charged experience and a religious allegory, it feels like an upmarket soap opera. There's too relentless a concern with which of the terranauts will pair off — and too much sprawling evocation of how and where they might do so." [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Boyle</span> Anglo-Irish scientist (1627–1691)

Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. He is best known for Boyle's law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system. Among his works, The Sceptical Chymist is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry. He was a devout and pious Anglican and is noted for his writings in theology.

<i>Trainspotting</i> (film) 1996 film by Danny Boyle

Trainspotting is a 1996 British black comedy-drama film directed by Danny Boyle, and starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald in her film debut. Based on the 1993 novel of the same title by Irvine Welsh, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1996.

<i>28 Days Later</i> 2002 UK horror film by Danny Boyle

28 Days Later is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic survival horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus has caused the breakdown of society. Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson appear in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. C. Boyle</span> American novelist and short-story writer

Thomas Coraghessan Boyle is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published nineteen novels and more than 150 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988, for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biosphere 2</span> Closed ecological research centre in Arizona

University of Arizona Biosphere 2 is an American Earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe. It is a 3.14-acre (1.27-hectare) structure originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system, or vivarium. It remains the largest closed ecological system ever created.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montreal Biodome</span> Sporting arena

The Montreal Biodome is a facility located at Olympic Park in the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that allows visitors to walk through replicas of four ecosystems found in the Americas. The building was originally constructed for the 1976 Olympic Games as a velodrome with 2,600 seats. It hosted both track cycling and judo events. Renovations on the building began in 1989 and in 1992 the indoor nature exhibit was opened.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lara Flynn Boyle</span> American actress (born 1970)

Lara Flynn Boyle is an American actress. She is known for playing Donna Hayward in the television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991). After appearing in Penelope Spheeris's comedy Wayne's World (1992), Boyle had a lead role in John Dahl's neo-noir film Red Rock West (1993), followed by roles in Threesome (1994), Cafe Society (1995), Happiness (1998), and the villainous Serleena in Men in Black II (2002). From 1997 to 2003, she starred in the ABC series The Practice, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark David Chapman</span> American convicted murderer

Mark David Chapman is an American man who murdered English musician John Lennon in New York City on December 8, 1980. As Lennon walked into the archway of The Dakota, his apartment building on the Upper West Side, Chapman fired five shots at the musician from a few yards away with a Charter Arms Undercover .38 Special revolver. Lennon was hit four times from the back. He was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. Chapman remained at the scene following the shooting and made no attempt to flee or resist arrest.

<i>The Outsiders</i> (film) 1983 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

The Outsiders is a 1983 American coming-of-age crime drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film is an adaptation of the 1967 novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton and was released on March 25, 1983, in the United States. Jo Ellen Misakian, a librarian at Lone Star Elementary School in Fresno, California, and her students were responsible for inspiring Coppola to make the film.

<i>Biosys</i> 1999 video game

Biosys is a 1999 simulation/graphic adventure game hybrid developed by British studio Jumpstart Solutions Interactive and published by Take-Two Interactive. Inspired by the Biosphere 2 experiment, the game is set inside an artificial biosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Poynter</span> American aerospace executive, author and speaker

Jane Poynter is an American aerospace executive, author and speaker. She is founder, co-CEO and CXO of Space Perspective, a luxury space travel company. She was co-founder and former CEO of World View Enterprises, a private near-space exploration and technology company headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. Poynter was also a founding member of the Biosphere 2 design team and a crew member from the original two-year mission inside the materially closed ecological system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John P. Allen</span> American systems ecologist

John Polk Allen is a systems ecologist, engineer, metallurgist, adventurer, and writer. Allen is a proponent of the science of biospherics and a pioneer in sustainable co-evolutionary development. He is the founder of Synergia Ranch, and is best known as the inventor and director of research of Biosphere 2, the world's largest vivarium and research facility to study global ecology. Biosphere 2 set multiple records in closed ecological systems work, including degree of sealing tightness, 100% waste and water recycle, and duration of human residence within a closed system. He is also involved with forestry and reforestation in Puerto Rico where he owns a 1000 acre Mahogany tree farm at Patillas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taber MacCallum</span>

Taber MacCallum is the co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, a human spaceflight company planning to take people and payloads to the edge of space by balloon, and the former chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF). He is co-founder and former CTO of World View Enterprises, a stratospheric balloon company using its un-crewed Stratollite for remote communications and sensing. MacCallum was also a founding member of the Biosphere 2 design team and a crew member from the original two-year mission inside the materially-closed ecological system.

<i>Book: A Novel</i> Book by Robert Grudin

Book: A Novel (1992) is a metafictional novel by Robert Grudin, published in 1992. The novel was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate fiction</span> Fiction in a setting defined in part by climate crisis

Climate fiction is literature that deals with climate change. Generally speculative in nature but inspired by climate science, works of climate fiction may take place in the world as we know it, in the near future, or in fictional worlds experiencing climate change. The genre frequently includes science fiction and dystopian or utopian themes, imagining the potential futures based on how humanity responds to the impacts of climate change. Climate fiction typically involves anthropogenic climate change and other environmental issues as opposed to weather and disaster more generally. Technologies such as climate engineering or climate adaptation practices often feature prominently in works exploring their impacts on society.

<i>Steve Jobs</i> (film) 2015 film directed by Danny Boyle

Steve Jobs is a 2015 biographical drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin. A British-American co-production, it was adapted from the 2011 biography by Walter Isaacson and interviews conducted by Sorkin. The film covers fourteen years in the life of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, specifically ahead of three press conferences he gave during that time - the formal unveiling of the Macintosh 128K on January 24, 1984; the unveiling of the NeXT Computer on October 12, 1988; and the unveiling of the iMac G3 on May 6, 1998. Jobs is portrayed by Michael Fassbender, with Kate Winslet as Joanna Hoffman and Seth Rogen, Katherine Waterston, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jeff Daniels in supporting roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon Spheres</span> Amazon workspace complex in Seattle, Washington

The Amazon Spheres are three spherical conservatories comprising part of the Amazon headquarters campus in Seattle, Washington, United States. Designed by NBBJ and landscape firm Site Workshop, its three glass domes are covered in pentagonal hexecontahedron panels and serve as an employee lounge and workspace. The spheres, which range from three to four stories tall, house 40,000 plants, as well as meeting space and retail stores. They are located adjoining the Day 1 building on Lenora Street. The complex opened to Amazon employees and limited public access on January 30, 2018. The spheres are reserved mainly for Amazon employees, but are open to the public through weekly headquarters tours and an exhibit on the ground floor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandon Taylor (writer)</span> American writer (born 1989)

Brandon Taylor is an American writer. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Iowa and has received several fellowships for his writing. His short stories and essays have been published in many outlets and have received critical acclaim. His debut novel, Real Life, came out in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2022, Taylor's Filthy Animals won The Story Prize awarded annually to collections of short fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riven Rock, Montecito</span>

Riven Rock is a residential subdivision in the unincorporated area of Montecito, California near Santa Barbara, California. The Riven Rock subdivision is located on the former Riven Rock Estate.

<i>I Saw the TV Glow</i> 2024 film by Jane Schoenbrun

I Saw the TV Glow is a 2024 American horror drama film written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun. It stars Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine as two troubled high school students whose connection to their favorite television show drives them to question their reality and identities. The supporting cast includes Helena Howard, Lindsey Jordan, Conner O'Malley, Emma Portner, Ian Foreman, Fred Durst, and Danielle Deadwyler.

References

  1. LaBounty, David (October 21, 2016). "It's no thriller, but 'The Terranauts' still shows T.C. Boyle's talents". The Dallas Morning News . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  2. Dean, Michelle (October 28, 2016). "T.C. Boyle explores a world within a world in 'The Terranauts'". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  3. Locke, Charley (October 25, 2016). "The Bizarre Experiment That Inspired T.C. Boyle's New Novel 'The Terranauts'". Wired . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  4. Heller, Jason (October 25, 2016). "Fact, Fiction, History And Heart Converge In 'The Terranauts'". NPR . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  5. Berry, Michael (October 20, 2016). "'The Terranauts,' by T.C. Boyle". SFGate . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  6. Harrison, M. John (October 21, 2016). "The Terranauts by TC Boyle review – 'an ark to save humanity'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  7. Charles, Ron (October 25, 2016). "Reading 'The Terranauts,' by T.C. Boyle, is like being trapped in Tupperware". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  8. Upchurch, Michael (October 27, 2016). "Like its real-life Biosphere 2 inspiration, things in T.C. Boyle's novel don't go well". The Boston Globe . Retrieved July 26, 2024.
  9. Hitchings, Henry (October 21, 2016). "The Terranauts by TC Boyle — 'more soap opera than religious allegory'". Financial Times . Retrieved July 26, 2024.