The Calculating Stars

A Lady Astronaut Novel , #1

trade paperback, 431 pages

English language

Published Aug. 20, 2018 by Tom Doherty Associates.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-7838-5
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(160 reviews)

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 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 computer. 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 …

4 editions

Pleasant

Alternative history - a meteor hits the earth in 1952 and humanity have to get the space program working in order to survive the extinction event level weather changes. Told from the point of view of a female pilot who wants to become an astronaut. I enjoyed this book, but it didn't really pay off the initial setup? Maybe that's because it's the first in a series. It felt like it started with a bang, and then ran out of energy. Still, the main character was intriguing enough to keep me going, although her husband was just unbelievable. Too good to be true. Reminded me of the husband NPCs created by Mathew Mercer.

Kohti kuuta

Kun kohtalaisen kokoinen meteoriitti kopsahtaa otsaan, eihän siitä mitään hyvää seuraa. Tällä kertaa seuraukset ovat sen verran vakavat, että ihmiskunta alkaa tosissaan valmistella maisemanvaihdosta.

Kowalin päähenkilö Elma York on matemaattinen nero, joka päätyy laskijaksi avaruusohjelmaan mutta haaveilee pääsystä astronautiksi. Matka sitä kohti kerrotaan taiten, ja siinä sivussa käsitellään myös naisten asemaa, ihonväriin kohdistuvaa syrjintää, uskontoon kohdistuvia ennakkoluuloja jne. Nämä kaikki onnistutaan upottamaan tarinan kulkuun suhteellisen sujuvasti, vaikka hetkittäin päähenkilöt vaikuttavat olevan asennemaailmaltaan hiukan aikaansa edellä.

A review from Goodreads

Alternate history. What if a meteor had hit the Earth in 1952 and the space program was accelerated? I loved that the story is told through the eyes of a woman: Elma York, ex-WASP pilot, mathematician, PhD and a computer. Yes, back in the '50s without the power of digital computers the calculation were made manually by women, called "computers". So, men were engineers, women were computers. And also, men were astronauts. So the book has this cool feminist feel because women want to be astronauts too! Why not?

I was excited to share with Elma the fascination about science. In a sense the story could have been told today, when women in STEM are still a minority. Elma and her husband (Nathaniel), a rocket engineer, form an amazing couple. They have their struggles and it was so nice to see this great "nerdy" relationship. Also, I could completely relate …

Review of 'The Calculating Stars' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I was a little afraid for this book, because I had just been very impressed by [b:Cryptonomicon|816|Cryptonomicon|Neal Stephenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327931476l/816.SY75.jpg|1166797]. It quickly established being much more fantastical than Cryptonomicon was, and much more optimistic in tone, I'd say. I think my favorite thing about this book is that the conflicts are due to people being people and overreacting or being a bit self-indulgent jerks, and not outright "villains". I'm definitely not opposed to sometime reading another book in the Lady Astronaut Universe.

Review of 'The Calculating Stars' on 'Storygraph'

No rating

The setting is an alternate-history version of the 1950’s and 1960’s after a meteorite strikes and wipes out most of the USA’s East Coast. While it’s undoubtedly science fiction, it’s not my preferred kind. It has really nuanced portrayals of issues like sexism and anxiety, but ultimately those are too real for me right now, mostly because of the historical setting.

Not my thing but seems well done, try this if you want an alternate history portrayal of women fighting sexist inertia to be in flight after a catastrophe turns the world’s attention to escaping off-planet. 

Review of 'The Calculating Stars' on 'Goodreads'

The main plot element was PTSD stagefright and entirely too much time was spent on it. Not much peril for the protagonist. It felt like the scenes providing background to the stagefright were written and then edited out. The cover photo is very misleading as it is the story of one person with limited character development of others. I had high hopes after the first fifty pages but this one lost me.

Review of 'The Calculating Stars' on 'Goodreads'

Serious eye-candy, entertainment and a plain 'old fashioned' good read. This is the first space opera con alternative history I have read. I think we may have a new genre. The author hits on almost every current social issue, takes emphatic positions, and pulls it off. I'm ready to read the next in the series. But first...

Review of 'The Calculating Stars' on 'Goodreads'

A fascinating and really well written alt-history novel that really deserves its Hugo win. Characters are relatable, the social commentary is on point and the plot, despite being relatively "mundane" after the intro (or as mundane as the development of an accelerated but grounded-in-reality space program can be) moves and introduces new developments at a comfortable pace. Nice feel-good sci-fi for sure and I'll be seeking out the sequels eventually.

Review of 'The Calculating Stars' on 'Goodreads'

I spent a lot of this year reading non-fiction and historical fiction about women in WWI and WWII, resulting in a ridiculous amount of knowledge about the WASPs (and WAVEs and computers in Bletchley and...) So I was very into the concept of alt-fiction NACA recruiting WASPs as astronauts. The climate-based apocalypse hit quite close to home. I think one strength was how Kowal captures a lot of the energy at the time: focused, goal-directed, but still heavily hierarchical and sexist and really portrays a time in the US para-military well. I liked the exploration about how sexism affected white women and women of color differently. Kowal also had very good consultants for the meteorology and astrophysics. Unfortunately, the pacing was a bit off: the first third is compelling and fast, and the back two thirds definitely drags through the same problems, introducing more and more characters

Review of 'The Calculating Stars' on 'Goodreads'

Not the book it sets out to be. Ends up being a story of marginalized characters fighting against historical status quo, very little about space. Not sure why they needed to smash a meteorite into the Earth to tell that story? Second book rectifies this a bit, but the focus remains on examining 60s social structure through a modern lens through person-to-person conflicts.

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