the fated sky a lady astronaut novel mary robinette kowal

I also like that Elma’s learning and the apologies that accompany it don’t always equal the people she has wronged immediately changing their minds and liking her-that wouldn’t be realistic.

She makes a lot of mistakes, and more importantly, she learns from those mistakes. Elma is well-meaning in all her actions, yet she constantly screws stuff up, because her privilege and experiences mean that she doesn’t always understand how intent doesn’t necessarily equal consequence. Once again, Kowal gives us a flawed protagonist that many of us should recognize in ourselves. This is a book about racism and sexism, about race and gender relations, about knowing when to lead and when to follow. Really, though, the space travel is just an excuse. Kowal certainly provides an interesting look some of the things that might happen to a pair of crews travelling to Mars.

This isn’t really a book about going to space, or even about going to Mars.

They must conquer the challenges caused not just by the environment of space itself but by the interpersonal conflicts that are always going to arise in such a long-duration mission. With communication with Earth only possibly via teletype, the crew of the Nina and its sister ship, the Pinta, are very isolated. Eventually, the mission gets underway, and the bulk of the book is spent aboard the Nina, in transit to Mars. But it’s a politically savvy move to have the “Lady Astronaut” on the mission, even as racial tensions and other tensions flare up commensurate with the flares in Earth’s temperature. Elma finds herself assigned to the IAC’s first crewed Mars mission, although the decision to do so ruffles many a feather. It’s a couple years after the events of the first book. Fortunately, Mary Robinette Kowal nails the balance of having the same atmosphere yet with a very different plot. Honestly: at first I was worried the book would feel too similar to the first one, and so I wouldn’t like it as much. Part of me really just wants to say: what I said in my review of The Calculating Stars, but more so. In this case, I rushed out and bought The Fated Sky the weekend after I finished the first book and very deliberately made this my first book of 2019-I like to start my reading year off with something I know I will enjoy. If it feels like just yesterday that I read The Calculating Stars, that’s because it practically was! I seldom read sequels so close together, but once in a while I manage to buy them at the same time.

The fated sky a lady astronaut novel mary robinette kowal