Phantom Orbit

One of NPR's "Books We Love" for 2024 A subtle and masterful novel from a prescient voice on the cutting edge of spy literature.

Praise for David Ignatius

THE PALADIN

"Tension, suspense, betrayal, and revenge…David Ignatius is the best in the world at this stuff."
— Lee Child

"No spy novelist knows the world of American spookery better than Ignatius…His latest complex, well-informed work is one of his best."
— Adam Lebor, Financial Times

THE QUANTUM SPY

"A fascinating, beautifully textured thriller."
— Richard Lipez, Washington Post

"The Quantum Spy is David Ignatius at the top of his game! A truly thrilling, superbly crafted spy novel that focuses on pivotal contemporary issues."
— General (Ret.) David Petraeus

"A work for now and forever. A contemporary adversary: China. A contemporary problem: quantum computing. And the ageless battle of spy versus spy. Couldn’t put it down."
— Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA

THE DIRECTOR

"An entertaining, high-tech ride…Mr. Ignatius…injects the plot with his wide-ranging knowledge of history, geopolitics and national security issues, while giving the reader an intimate sense of the tradecraft employed by his characters."
— Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

David Ignatius is known for his uncanny ability, in novel after novel, to predict the next great national security headline. In Phantom Orbit, he presents a story both searing and topical, with stakes as far-reaching as outer space. It follows Ivan Volkov, a Russian student in Beijing, who discovers an unsolved puzzle in the writings of the seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. He takes the puzzle to a senior scientist in the Chinese space program and declares his intention to solve it. Volkov returns to Moscow and continues his secret work. The puzzle holds untold consequences for space warfare. The years pass, and they are not kind to Volkov. After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who’d been too tough on corruption, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA. He writes: Satellites are your enemies, especially your own. . . . Hidden codes can make time stop and turn north into south. . . . If you are smart, you will find me. With this timely novel, Ignatius addresses our moment of renewed interest in space exploration amid geopolitical tumult. Phantom Orbit brims with the author’s vital insights and casts Volkov as the man who, at the risk of his life, may be able to stop the Doomsday clock.