Jul 092018
 

Cover of The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal.Library Journal: In 1952, Elma York and her husband are celebrating their marriage in the Poconos when a meteor strikes, destroying Washington, DC, and most of the eastern seaboard.

As a mathematician and WASP pilot, Elma knows the need for space exploration, but now that Earth is poised to fall owing to a climate change of apocalyptic proportions, that timetable has been pushed into the fast lane. Elma wants to be one of those to enter space, and when a program invites women to take the same astronaut training as men, she won’t let anything – not family, history, or the attitudes of men regarding the proper place for women – stand in her way.

VERDICT: A fast-forward thrill ride, Hugo Award­winner Kowal’s (“Glamourist Histories”) exciting alternate history, the first in a duology, highlights the space race and the sexism of the time. SF and space history buffs will enjoy this entertaining tale.