The Calculating Stars

"The Calculating Stars is part of Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut Series , which was a book and then a duology and then a trilogy, so I think at this point we should just call it a series. It’s a really fascinating piece of almost-historical fiction about space colonization, which is weird to say because we haven’t actually colonized space historically. It’s an alternate history where in the 1950s, a meteorite crashes into Chesapeake Bay and takes out the Eastern Seaboard. The scientists figure out that based on the climate change caused by that, Earth has got about 50 years left before it’s uninhabitable. “The best science fiction is a mirror of what we’ve experienced here on Earth” This is set in a world just like ours, where the space program was just starting to get off the ground, but now suddenly is motivated by the survival of the species instead of the Cold War. It’s a really well-researched book, looking at, ‘OK, what if the US space program had been really focused on saving humanity?’ It would have kept some of its programs, like female astronauts for example. They were planned for but then dropped because it wasn’t part of competing with the Russians. But if we need to save humanity, we need to save both reproductive genders. The book follows a pilot and a mathematician, a woman, who gets into the space program and really pushes for equality of the sexes and later dives into racism, because that’s still taking place in the ‘50s and ‘60s as well. They’re dealing with sexism and racism, and polio at one point—there’s a really fascinating look at what a polio outbreak looked like on the moon. I just love that ‘historical’ look at space colonization. That’s right. I did my graduate work and I got my PhD in Astrophysics. I did that at NASA Goddard. That’s a great question. I was a science fiction fan long, long before I was a PhD in Astrophysics. So I am able to separate those parts of my brain and suspend disbelief. Every once in a while, I’ll run up against something that’s in my area of expertise. My area of expertise is orbital dynamics and celestial mechanics, so the orbital mechanics errors, I’ll notice. I will say that Mary Robinette Kowal, who is not a mathematician, does an excellent job of writing a character who is a mathematician."

"Yes – and the Locus Award for Best Sci Fi novel, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. It’s 1952 – hence, the alternate history – and a meteorite has hit the USA. The immediate death and destruction is vast (and politically destructive too), but the real issue is down the road: as deduced by our protagonist Elma, the climate consequences are imminent and will make earth uninhabitable. The push for space begins. But it’s 1952, and sexism frustrates Elma’s push to be involved with the mission itself. When she makes it onto the team she’s a figurehead as the ‘lady astronaut’, and not everyone is pleased. Kowal is reliably fun to read; Reactor Mag said of Calculating Stars , ‘The end of the world is no laughing matter, but Kowal knows well the importance of levity, and the healing power of a laugh.’ Yes, you can follow this one up with The Fated Sky , and there’s also a short story, The Lady Astronaut of Mars . The complete set has been nominated for the Hugo for best series, too."