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The latest novel by the Washington Post writer draws back the curtain and shows how the deliberatively murky world of intelligence and espionage really works.

Review by Alma Katsu
Updated May 14, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. EDT|Published May 14, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. EDT

“Phantom Orbit,” the latest spy thriller from Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius, has all the trademarks of his beloved books. There’s lots of inside baseball (no doubt supplied by the senior officials in the defense and intelligence worlds he thanks in the acknowledgments) and topics ripped from today’s headlines: threats to the GPS system and satellites; a renewal of the “great powers” struggle with Russia and China; allegations of widespread sexual harassment at the CIA; and, of course, covid. As with all Ignatius’s novels, “Phantom Orbit” draws back the curtain and shows how the deliberatively murky world of intelligence and espionage really works.
The novel opens with a tantalizing prologue in which Russian scientist Ivan Volkov tries to pass a dangerous secret about U.S. satellite systems to the CIA. The agency, suspicious of his intentions, seems to ignore him, and so, in desperation, he contacts an American woman he once knew and suspected of being a spy, in the hope that she can make the powers that be listen.
David Ignatius. (Stephen Voss)
We then learn what happened in the preceding decades. Volkov has the bad luck to come of age in Russia in the years surrounding the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He’s a brilliant math nerd who wants to pursue a PhD at a time when everything is in flux: The Soviet system is in tatters, and the new rules are still being written. When he can no longer afford Moscow State University, he accepts a scholarship from Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he is quickly noticed by professor and Communist Party power player Cao Lin. Volkov is steered toward a career in aerospace, specifically satellite operations. He knows he’s being groomed to be useful to the Chinese physicist, but as a Russian, he is used to being manipulated. At the same time, he’s being watched by a Russian intelligence officer, who wants Volkov in his pocket for his own purposes.

Ignatius fleshes out other characters, adding depth to the narrative. Cao Lin, for instance, has over the years become a shadowy figure in the Chinese government, heading a “special committee” for the powerful Central Military Commission. He furthers the government’s capabilities through any means possible, recruiting useful foreigners along the way. And then there’s Edith Ryan, the young American CIA officer with whom Volkov fell in love in his youth. After they part ways, we see her early career at the agency, and her transition out of clandestine service to analysis and, eventually, to the Directorate of Science and Technology, where she becomes a specialist in satellites. After she retires from the government, she makes a sideways move to private industry in support of the intelligence community. And it’s at this point that we understand what the threat is, the nefarious plot that Volkov and Ryan must work together to overcome.
The story is entertaining and informative — but is it, as billed, a thriller? Thriller readers have come to expect breathless, page-a-minute writing that propels them through a dizzying, multilayered plot. Of course, in real life stories don’t unfold that way, and, as someone who has worked in U.S. intelligence, I know that spy stories certainly do not. Events unfold in more of a slow burn. To be sure, Ignatius has written an interesting novel, peopled it with rich, believable characters and built a wholly realistic plot. He’s chosen to tell the story chronologically, which well serves the content — different storylines, lots of moving pieces, technical subject matter, backstory that enriches readers’ grasp of the stakes — but sacrifices tension. And that’s a luxury today’s thriller writers generally aren’t allowed.
Then throw in the accessible explanations of math and science necessary for readers to understand the vulnerabilities inherent in satellites, and well, you can see what an ambitious novel it is. It’s one well worth reading. Still, though it may seem like a small thing, I wish they’d take the word “thriller” off the cover and replace it with “novel.”

Alma Katsu worked for more than 30 years in government intelligence. She is the author of the spy thrillers “Red Widow” and “Red London,” and her serialized story, “The Spy Who Vanished,” will be published in July.

This fictional thriller was well written, with a unique and original plot, interesting characters, and settings that were well described. I love it when a novel has you "hanging on the edge of your seat", and "Phantom Orbit" did just that! Even though this novel is fictional, I kept thinking, "Could this possibly happen in our future?"
In summary, the plot follows the life of Russian, Ivan Volkov. The novel starts out in the 1990's, as Ivan finds himself as a student studying astronomy and mathematics in Beijing. Over the next 27 years, Ivan discovers and keeps working on (in secret), an unsolved puzzle in the writings of 17th century German astronomer Johannes Kepler, his idol. He meets many interesting characters along the way. However, who can he trust? Who is not what they appear to be? The plot is full of twists and turns and the ending was a work of a truly talented author. A definite must read! ( )