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The Calculating Stars

A Lady Astronaut Novel

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The Calculating Stars

Auteur(s): Mary Robinette Kowal
Narrateur(s): Mary Robinette Kowal
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Mary Robinette Kowal's science fiction debut, The Calculating Stars, explores the premise behind her award-winning Lady Astronaut of Mars.

Den of Geek - Best Science Fiction Books of June 2018

Omnivoracious - Fifteen Highly Anticipated SFF Reads for Summer 2018

On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs.

This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process.

Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.

Elma’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.

©2018 Mary Robinette Kowal (P)2018 Audible, Inc. Conquête spatiale Fiction Hard science-fiction Histoire alternative Science-fiction Interstellaire Force aérienne des États-Unis Aviation Justice sociale Force aérienne

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This was a well-written book. The characters are interesting and engaging, the narration is spot on, and the experience of prejudice based on race, sex, and mental illness was very believably described. There is not a lot of science fiction per se in the story but I note that it is the first of a larger trilogy so I expect that will expand later on.

My difficulty in rating it (and finishing it) is purely personal. I work in mental health. I read for escapism. I do not need to be reminded of the bleak helplessness of some people’s lives, of just how awful people can be to each other, and how unfair the world can be to those who have no power to protect themselves.

So even though I could not finish it, I would also highly recommend it to anybody who does not have my particular relationship with the world.

This was hard to rate properly

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Mary Robinette's novel is set in an alternate universe where, in 1952, a huge meteorite hits the earth just off the eastern seaboard of North America, taking a huge bite out of the continent and throwing ejecta and water vapour into the atmosphere. The protagonist, Dr Elma York, a WASP pilot in WWII, and a world class mathematician and physicist, works for the USA government as a "computer" for a rocket test lab survive by being away from DC on holiday and eventually calculates that it is an "extinction level event" that will eventually become completely inhospitable to most life. This kick starts the space program almost a decade earlier than in our universe with the express purpose of eventually founding extraterrestrial colonies. And Elma very much wants to go into be one of the first "

Kowal has done her research and the story is filled with hard science facts and real world considerations. But she also brings a measure of humanity, in all its glory and its folly, in Dr York's character and the lense through which she perceives and handles the world around her and her drive to be a Lady Astronaut in a world still so heavily steeped in a, largely white and wholly patriarchal societal environment.

Captivating story with perfect narration

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In an alternate version of Earth's history, a meteorite strikes the USA in 1952, obliterating Washington and most of the US government. Pilot/mathematician Elma and her rocket scientist husband Nathaniel York escape immediate death by a combination of coincidence and intelligence, and make it to safety at a military base where their expertise leads them into an advisory position to the new acting president (former minister of agriculture). As Elma calculates the climate impact from the meteorite will be an initial cooling and then an escalating greenhouse effect that will be so severe the oceans will start to boil, both push for a desperate escalation of a space program to establish a colony on the moon before humanity is wiped out entirely.

In this alternate history, the story follows Elma and Nathaniel as Earth struggles to establish a moon colony on a vastly earlier timeline than ours, in an America where segregation is still very present, women are still in the "Mad Men" style roles of homemakers and decorations, yet are also the "Hidden Figures" style computers who are essential to spaceflight before actual electronic computers reliably exist. As a former WASP pilot, Elma struggles for the inclusion of women in the astronautics program.

I had an extremely low opinion of Kowal's first "Glamourist" book but decided to give this one a try as it's a completely different genre, and I enjoyed it a lot more. Part of this may be due to picking this one up as an audiobook - if she made as many terrible spelling choices, I wouldn't notice in audiobook form - but mainly as an American author I think the characters and setting of this book are just much more within her ability to write well (while pseudo Austin-esque last-century British characters are clearly NOT). The main character was enjoyable and, as a woman in a STEM field myself, it's always a joy to see a smart and capable heroine. Even though she seems to make some particularly stupid decisions, it was possible to frame those as a side effect of the era and attitudes towards women of the time.

The other characters were likeable enough but did seem rather stereotypical or tokenistic. Nathaniel is apparently the perfect feminist enlightened and supportive husband in every possible way, which seems more than a bit improbable given the era. The characters of other races and nationalities were good to have, but didn't really do much more for the plot than representing their race and/or nationality. The fact she's Jewish was brought up repeatedly but ultimately didn't seem to have any meaning or impact, even when she meets Wernher von Braun in person. While Kowal was clearly trying to bring up the topics of race and ethnicity and discrimination, it's done with a very shallow touch that doesn't really have any impact on anything. Elma is also a heroine with every possible advantage imaginable so that everything works out perfectly for her - rich family, perfect supportive husband, brilliant mind, brother who coincidentally happens to have exactly the right skills and job to help with her climate modelling, military father who protected her in her WASP days, etc etc. So yes, everything's just a bit easy for our heroine all the way through.

It's more of a joyful romp down alternate history while eating popcorn than a gripping novel of actual hardship, but read it eating a candy bar and it's still a fun story of an alternate history that might have been.

Easy reading alternate history of space program

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I bought this novel because I'm going through the Hugo/Nebula award winners and thought I may as well get the 2019 winner.

It started in an interesting fashion but then wandered from sci-fi/fantasy into a kind of novel with clumsy sex scenes and interpersonal intrigues as filler. Exploring the gender and racial aspects of the space program would have been interesting by itself. Climate change is a secondary character that could have been brought to the front.

I guess a 58 year old guy is not this book's audience.

Started in an interesting fashion

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really a fantastic tale that pounds home a lot of sad but true suffragette and racism problems from the past. really looking forward to part 2

Seveneves in the 50's

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