The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
Let me get straight to the point: Mary Robinette Kowal’s new novel, The Calculating Stars, is one of the best alternate histories I have read since… It is 1952. Dewey is president. Elma York and her husband, Nathaniel, are on vacation in the Poconos. They both work for the newly-formed National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Nathaniel is the chief engineer and has a reputation for putting up America’s first satellites. Elma is a mathematician, a superb one. She is also a former WASP pilot, which fact figures prominently in all that follows. In the midst of their idyllic vacation, a meteor slams into the Atlantic just off the east coast. It destroys Washington D.C. and wreaks havoc up and down the seaboard. Elma and Nathaniel manage to get out and to her plane and west until a fighter squardon challenges them, learns who they are, and escorts them to Wright-Patterson Air Base, the only fully operational military base within range. There they learn the extent of the immediate losses. CalculatingStars_comp_v7_final-220x338 Quickly, the government scrambles to get up and running. The only surviving member of the Cabinet is the Secretary of Agriculture, who becomes Acting President until an election can be held. This, too, is very important. While the pieces are being picked up and some kind of order restored, Elma is asked to calculate the size of the meteor so her husband can go into the meetings with the paranoid military and convince them this was nothing to do with the Soviets. She crunches the numbers and discovers to her shock and dismay that this was an extinction-level event. In 50 or 60 years, the Earth will be too hot for survival. Kowal lays all this out meticulously. The science has the resonance of reality. So do the politics, the culture, the economics. In fact, this is a very well thought-out scenario. For Elma, Nathaniel, the Acting President it means one thing: humanity has got to get off the planet. Which kicks the space program into high gear in the early 1950s. The novel is soaked in telling details. And while it offers plenty of science and rocket-geek delight, it is also a story of challenging culture and social norms and overcoming personal difficulties in the face of all that the 1950s—our 1950s—was about to be. Kowal brings the culture into play with a seamless grace that produces a “well, of course that had to change” which occasionally leaves a residue of embarrassment. Embarrassment at how we know things were and even how they still are. We talk about Wake Up Calls when faced with growing or entrenched social problems, matters of injustice, the unexamined givens of the world. Kowal delivers the ultimate Wake Up Call. And then shows us just how resistant people can be to making absolutely necessary changes if they challenge how we believe the world ought to be. She puts ought to be on trial in a compelling narrative that seems to be all about building the future writers like Heinlein and Clarke expected. They neglected a few of the underlying pitfalls of trying to do so. As well, we are treated to a protagonist completely human, flawed and excellent in her abilities and craft and sensibilities. Elma York is composed of the stuff we want to cheer and she carries us along with a convincing humanity that includes a heart as large and full one could wish for. Her relationship with Nathaniel is wonderfully portrayed. But it is Elma’s constant checking of privilege as she works to bring women into the astronaut corps and has to face the fact that she had often been blind to things sometimes right in front of her. Living up to her own values becomes a process well worth following. This the first book in a new series. If it continues with the same verve and attention to detail and sheer passion, we may be looking at a landmark work.
— From Mark
In 1952, a giant meteorite lands off the east coast of the United States. Mathematician Elma York and her husband, engineer Nathaniel York, come to a frightening conclusion: Earth's climate is about to rapidly change, and eventually, become inhospitable to humans. It's time to figure out how to get off the planet, and fast. That's how "The Calculating Stars" begins, and from there, spins an alternate history of the formation and development of the International Aerospace Coalition (in place of the US-based NASA), and its attempts to get humans to the moon and beyond on a much faster timeline. We follow Elma, a computer at the IAC and former WWII WASP pilot, as she rallies for women to get the chance to become astronauts alongside the men, while also dealing with government officials who remain hyperfocused on Russia, a public who dismisses the threat of climate change, her own anxiety, and a burgeoning understanding that, in the fight for women's rights, no one succeeds unless everyone succeeds, including her friends who are women of color. "The Calculating Stars" is both a remarkably timeline story, and a riveting re-telling of humanity's race into space through a brilliant new lens.
— From LaurenMary Robinette Kowal's science fiction debut, 2019 Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Award for best novel, The Calculating Stars, explores the premise behind her award-winning "Lady Astronaut of Mars."
Winner 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winner 2019 Locus Award for Best Novel
Winner 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Finalist 2019 Campbell Memorial Award
Finalist 2021 Hugo Award for Best Series
Locus Trade Paperback Bestseller List
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018—Science Fiction/Fantasy
Winner 2019 RUSA Reading List for Science Fiction—American Library Association
Locus 2018 Recommended Reading List
Buzzfeed—17 Science-Fiction Novels By Women That Are Out Of This World
Locus Bestseller List
Chicago Review of Books—Top 10 Science Fiction Books of 2018
Goodreads—Most Popular Books Published in July 2018 (#66)
The Verge—12 fantastic science fiction and fantasy novels for July 2018
Unbound Worlds—Best SciFi and Fantasy Books of July 2018
Den of Geek—Best Science Fiction Books of June 2018
Publishers Weekly—Best SFF Books of 2018
Omnivoracious—15 Highly Anticipated SFF Reads for Summer 2018
Past Magazine—Best Novels of 2018
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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.
Praise for The Calculating Stars
“This is what NASA never had, a heroine with attitude.”—The Wall Street Journal
“In The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal imagines an alternate history of spaceflight that reminds me of everything I loved about Hidden Figures.”—Cady Coleman, Astronaut
“The Lady Astronaut series might be set in an alternate past, but they’re cutting-edge SF novels that speak volumes about the present.”—The Verge
“Fans of [Hidden Figures] will definitely find something to like in this novel.”—SF Revu
“Readers will thrill to the story of this “lady astronaut” and eagerly anticipate the promised sequels.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Kowal’s book was revelatory for me, because here is a version of history where men eventually, finally, listen to women.”—Tor.com
“If you like: lady scientists and lady astronauts, space science, lovely romance, the historical fight for equality, if you read or watched Hidden Figures and loved it, if you watched the Netlfix’s documentary Mercury 13 (about the very real 13 women who underwent secret testing to become Astronauts in the 60s), please don’t miss this one.”—Kirkus
“A fine balance of integrating historical accuracy—including mid-twentieth-century sexism, racism, and technology—with speculative storytelling.”—Booklist
“Readers will be hooked.”—Library Journal
“Kowal has produced a novel that sheds light on how we can build a better future.”—Escapist Magazine
“I couldn’t put this paperback down, and I was mad at everything that kept me away from it.”—While Reading and Walking
“This is a book about fortitude, about preservation, and strength in the face of injustice, resilience as a flag against oppression and politics. Parts of this book makes me cry. I cry in rage, in defiance, in support, and in triumph.”—Utopia State of Mind
“An engrossing alternate history with a unique point of view, The Fated Sky dramatically demonstrates the technical problems with going to Mars—but the technical problems are the not the only ones. Never backing down from vital issues of race and gender, The Fated Sky confronts the human issues of space travel in a United States made increasingly desperate by a massive meteor strike. Plausible, convincing, and ultimately moving.”—Nancy Kress, author of the Hugo Award-winning "Yesterday's Kin"