The Terranauts

''The Terranauts'' is a novel by T. C. Boyle, published in October 2016 by Ecco. 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.

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". 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". 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."

''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". 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." 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."

See also

* Jane Poynter

References

External links

T.C. Boyle official web site

TED talk: Jane Poynter on Life in Biosphere II

YouTube - Biosphere 2 crewmember & author Jane Poynter interview

2016 American novels
Novels by T. C. Boyle
Ecco Press books
Novels set in Arizona

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