The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronaut Universe #3)

by Mary Robinette Kowal

I paused just outside the social arc created by the two men and waited to be noticed, which gave them the illusion of being in control of the situation.

It is hard, sometimes, to spot the line between a desire to help and ambition.

Someday, the IAC might let a woman fly one of the big rockets, but so far, the duty roster kept us firmly in the co-pilot or Nav/Comp roles. Apparently, my boobs got in the way of firing thrusters.

When you see a woman with stitches in her chin and ask her what she did to make her husband angry. There are two scenarios. The first is that she’s happily married and you’ve insulted their relationship. The other is that her husband is abusive and she will not thank you for endangering her by drawing attention to it. In the range of possibilities in between, there’s not a single one in which a joke about being a battered woman is funny.

There are boxes that people want to put me in and I resent it.

Recognizing a cycle and being able to stop said cycle are not the same thing.