The harmony and chaos of the world, evoked in one long song
[Powers’s] 11 works of fiction have surfed the revolutions of science and technology, drawing the heart and head into lyrical alignment. … Orfeo is a long novel, but it never feels so. The book sets its themes early — grief and love, exploration and its limits — and plays variations on them, some of such power it is the only thing that forces you to stop.