Dec 12

Dec 12 The Lady Astronaut Novels

Author: Mary Robinette Kowal
Publisher: Tor
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

Description for book 1, The Calculating Stars:

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. 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.

TL;DR Review

The first three Lady Astronaut novels are fun to read with an imaginative premise, and they’re impressively packed with research. I had a good time reading them!

For you if: You like hard sci-fi and/or astronomy and/or math and/or historical fiction, or you’re looking for Jewish rep in SFF

Full Review

I set out to read the Lady Astronaut novels, of which there are currently three, when the third one (The Relentless Moon) was nominated for the 2021 Hugo Award. When I set out, I thought they were a trilogy. Actually, though, the first two (The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky) are a duology, and the third one is connected but slightly separate. Anywho, this is a combo review for all three novels, which I now realize is a little strange, but hey here goes.

The Lady Astronaut books are historical fiction/hard sci-fi novels that take place in an alternate 1950s and ‘60s. The Calculating Stars starts thus: A meteor crashes into DC, destroying the US government and triggering a dinosaur-style climate extinction event. The race to colonize space is on, and a young mathematician named Elma York is determined to be the first woman in space — and dubbed by the media “the Lady Astronaut.” The third book takes place at the same time as The Fated Sky, but in a different setting with a different main character (someone who was a secondary character in the duology). It’s actually more of a sci-fi mystery, which was cool.

All in all, I thought these books were fun. They have sort of slow pacing and can be a bit cheesy (Elma and her #goals husband, Nathaniel, have some hilarious fade-to-black “rocket launch” bedroom banter, which honestly I loved), but they’re exquisitely researched and explore important things like white saviorism, being Jewish, mental health, eating disorders, and disability through a 1950s lens. At the end of the day, they worked well for my busy brain as I pushed through long days of end-of-year work hustle.

If you like hard sci-fi and/or astronomy and/or math and/or historical fiction, or you’re looking for Jewish rep in SFF, these could be a great choice for you.