Lady Astronaute

This was originally published in 2012 (as an audio story) and 2013 (as a short story), six years before The Calculating Stars. I think that if I had read it before reading the novels, I would think it a rather banal story of an astronaut reminiscing.

However, because I read it after two novels about Elma York, it hits me in the feels as a coda to a long relationship between Elma and her husband Nathaniel. The series devotes significant words to their domestic relationship, not just to the details of going into space. It's one of the most well written science fictional relationships I've ever read. So reading about their lives nearing their ends means something, even though the story of a relationship at the end is banal in the details.

A short story about older Elma and Nathaniel living in Mars. It happens 30 years after Elma joined the expedition to Mars. It's sad and hopeful at the same time. Will Elma go on another space travel exploration or will she stay and watch her husband die? I read it in a short sitting.

I’m so glad I read Calculating Stars before the story that started it all.

Elma and Nathaniel live on Mars. They should be enjoying their golden years — but instead Nathaniel’s dying and Elma’s dreaming of the stars.

I got to know both Elma and Nathaniel well in the books. The pair we meet here are pale shadows of them.

This story is very good, but not as good as the books.

Well that explains some of the odd aspects of the novels.

This short story looks at Elma and Nathanial at the end of their lives, but it was written first and refers back to several key moments in their lives. It's now obvious these were used as way markers of some sort and I imagine had I read this first certain scenes would have seemed more poignant than they were without this context.

You could read this and skip the novels or skip this and probably be better off for it, but they almost feels like vaguely related stories from parallel timelines. It's funny how these things work out sometimes.

I can see how this might have been more compelling if it was your first introduction to the series, but after having read both books and the other short story, this just seems short and under-developed.

Oh my, I have no idea how I missed this. Can't wait to read the novels.

Short novelette that won the Hugo in that category this year. In few words it manages to tell the life story of a female astronaut in an alternate history where humans colonized Mars in the 1950s. I love the ending, it's sad and not-sad at the same time somehow.