The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

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This is our discussion of the contemporary alternate history novel....

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
(2018; Hugo Award finalist & Nebula Award Winner.)

[Rachel]

I’ve started - first chapter starts out with a BANG!

[Rachel]

Oh and it just won the Nebula award...yesterday I think?

[Andrea]

Finished it yesterday.

Overall I enjoyed it, Kowal writes well and the plot flows well, I didn't find myself trudging through any sections, in fact I could read 100 pages a day no problem.

Covered a lot of important topics (gender, race, religion, mental illness, only sexual orientation was missing) but it didn't feel overloaded by those issues because those were the issues and challenges people would have had to deal with in those days.

I thought the science was well done, and LOVE the fact that once they decided they needed to go into space that it took *time*. Saturn Run bugged me since we went from a not even going to Mars to spontaneously being able to get all the way to Saturn and back. Here though, it's taking years just to get to the point where they could land on the moon, let alone colonize Mars. After all, you can't just implement a really complex new technology overnight, even if you have all the theories sorted out. Though again they've already built a rotating space station but in our real timeline, we still haven't given it a try to see if it really works :) I mean seriously, when are we going to build that station for real! We've known the theory since before we went into space, but two stations later, still haven't tried it out (where every SF book seems to assume that's what we'd build first)

Will let others catch up before I start discussing details :)

[Andrea]

Oh! Remember that anthology we read a while, A Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination? It included a short story that sets up the Lady Astronaut series, it was even written 4 years before the novel was - We Interrupt This Broadcast

It's free to read online on the author's website

It was funny because while I was reading the novel I was thinking "I've read something really similar, with an asteroid, and punchcard computing...", turns out I wasn't dreaming it!

And FYI, all the other short stories are available for free online, even the one in The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy (which you have to pay for) but the story can again be found on her website.

[Rachel]

I’m going along happily pretty much (or rather angrily at the all too realistic sexism and racism and the horror of her academic trials and the subsequent anxiety)
Except for the “rocket launches” of the ..second kind. In the bedroom. Pretty silly but it IS a traditional metaphor for sex and it’s not bad - mostly silly.

The characters seem so believable to me. I ache for Elma and what she went through (in academics and just so far) (I’m about 40% through)
Reminds me a lot of my mother. Except the Jewish/religious part.

[Rachel]

The first thing written in this world is apparently The Lady astronaut of Mars / which is st the end chronologically

[Andrea]

Rachel wrote: "Except for the “rocket launches” of the ..second kind. In the bedroom. Pretty silly but it IS a traditional metaphor for sex and it’s not bad - mostly silly."

I did some extra eye-rolling since it reminded me of the Amara/Bernard scenes in Codex Alera series, and since I'd just read that before starting this one, it was fresh in my mind. Otherwise it was kind of cute and I liked the fact that she had a supportive husband instead of an abusive one. She already had enough challenges to deal with.

[Jaelle]

I was pretty excited to read this book. From the description, it sounded like a story that checked most of the boxes that I like in a story. I was pleased to not be disappointed by high expectations.

Rachel wrote: The characters seem so believable to me.

I ended the book feeling rather inspired by Elma, especially in her struggle with anxiety and stage fright. Rarely have I related to a fictional character so well.

[Rachel]

This book has brought a test to my eye multiple times- it really hits me in a soft spot I guess!

[Rachel]

Uh TEAR

[Andrea]

I liked the moment where the teacher questioned whether her husband did her homework for her and she pointed out that not only does she use those equations on a daily basis, she was the one that came up with them in the first place.

[Clare]

Ha ha! Good one. Sometimes men (and teachers of either gender) just can't help mansplaining, even the nice men (and teachers).

[Steve]

I really enjoyed this book. I wasn't sure about the whole idea of an alternate history space programme at first, but before long I really got into the whole world. After a while I really felt like this world was true, almost like this was our history.

I thought Elma's struggles, particularly with her anxiety were really well done and realistic - too many books just do the 'oh I've got anxiety, I pop some pills/have a few minutes of therapy and I'm all fine now' approach which is just rubbish!

I really like that this is part of a series and can't wait to read more. I haven't read Lady Astronaut of Mars yet, so now can't decide whether to read that first yet, or read the next book in the series...