the calculating stars by mary robinette kowal

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.Įlma’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. 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.Įlma 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. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Genres: alternate history, science fiction Source: purchased from Audible, supplied by publisher via Edelweissįormats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook

Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary.The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal Readers will thrill to the story of this “lady astronaut” and eagerly anticipate the promised sequels. Elma’s struggles with her own prejudices and relationships, including her relationship with herself, provide a captivating human center to the apocalyptic background. Kowal explores a wide range of issues-including religion, grief, survivor’s guilt, mental health, racism, misogyny, and globalism-without sermonising or subsuming the characters and plot. In a compelling parallel to our own history, Elma, who is Jewish, fights to have women of all races and backgrounds included in the burgeoning space program, squaring off against patriarchal attitudes, her own anxiety, and an adversary from her past service as a war pilot. Elma quickly realizes that this is an extinction event, and that the only option for humanity’s survival is off-world colonization. In 1952, mathematician and pilot Elma York is on vacation with her rocket scientist husband, Nathaniel, when a meteor strikes Chesapeake Bay, obliterating most of the East Coast. Kowal’s outstanding prequel to her Hugo-winning novelette “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” shows the alternate history that created a mid-20th-century Mars colony.

The calculating stars by mary robinette kowal