Once again, I have only managed to read one book this week. Lovely Husband and I are still stuck in our King-sized bed, so I only get about an hour each day! Aargh! Not enough time for a reading fanatic!

At least the book that I did read was a very good one…

I have been intending to read a book by Mary Robinette Kowal for some time and I chose this science fiction one, The Calculating Stars, Lady Astronaut Universe #01. I also have one of her fantasy books in my “to read” list.

Anyway, this is the blurb:

“One woman. One mission. One chance to save the world.

It’s 1952, and the world as we know it is gone. A meteorite has destroyed Washington DC, triggering extinction-level global warming. To save humanity, the world unites to form the International Aerospace Coalition. Its to colonise first the Moon, then Mars.

Elma York, World War Two pilot and mathematician, dreams of becoming an astronaut – but prejudice has kept her grounded. Now nothing – and no man – will stop her from reaching for the stars.”

I really enjoyed the book and so wrote this review on Goodreads:

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really loved this book, which may be surprising to anyone who knows me well! I have to admit to a very poor science education so a lot of the detail in the book went straight over my head. However, the main ideas were excellent and very well written. The characters were interesting and it will be good to follow their development in the next book in the series. The horrible sexism of the time was also well written and raised my hackles at several points. I had heard of the female “computers” and found those parts of the book fascinating.

I remember the real race to the Moon in the 1960s quite well, although I was a small child at the time. How different it might have been!

View all my reviews

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In fact, I liked this book so much that I immediately downloaded the sequel, The Fated Sky, and I am already well into that! As the series is a trilogy with lots of short novellas too, I think that I will be entertained by female astronauts for quite some time.

OK, I will probably read some other stuff in between!

Happy Reading to you all.

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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