THE CALCULATING STARS

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

In 2014, Mary Robinette Kowal won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for her story “The Last Astronaut of Mars.” Kowal, however, realized the there was a lot more to the story of Elma York than could be confined without the bounds of that novella and has published a duology that further examines York’s life when she was younger than in that story. The first of the novels, The Calculating Stars, focuses on the catastrophic meteorite strike that forced the established of an international space project in the 1950s and Elma and Nathaniel York’s roles.

The Yorks are enjoying a weekend in the Poconos when a meteorite slammed into the ocean off the east coast of the United States, destroying their home in Washington as well as much of the East Coast. After managing to fly to Wright-Patterson in Dayton, they realize that not only have they lost everything, including most of Elma’s family, but that things are going to get worse, with the Earth entering a greenhouse effect that will make the planet uninhabitable. Using Nathaniel’s ties to NACA and Elma’s formidable skills as a mathematician, the two become involved in the creation of a project to help get humanity into space and not tied specifically to Earth.

Kowal introduces numerous changes to the scenario, making the project a multinational one and altering the steps leading to its ultimate goal. With Elma being her focal character, the entire enterprise and all the other characters are seen through her eyes. Fortunately, she is integral enough that she is aware of almost everything that is happening, even if she isn’t present for some of the events. At the same time, her knowledge is limited by her own concerns, one of which is to permit women to join the astronaut corps. She becomes one of the most high profile, but not only, proponents of that goal, even when it causes her great personal distress to pursue it.

In addition to looking at the technological issues and presenting a realistic look at putting together a space program with successes and failures, Kowal also tackles social issues, trying to remain within the framework of the social situation of the 1950s. Elma and other female pilots are looking to continue the contributions they made during World War II without being relegated back to the kitchen. Elma also becomes aware of a parallel fight being put up by Blacks to gain greater acceptance in American society, and although Elma agrees with their battle, it is also clear that she’ll help, but it isn’t her primary fight.

There is a degree of verisimilitude to Kowal’s story. Not only do her characters feel real, but the world in which they live also feels real. Despite most of the people Elma comes into contact with having the same goal, they are not completely aligned. Elma is in a long-running feud with Stetson Parker, the first man in space, that goes back to their encounters during World War II. Betty, one of the pilots in Elma’s flying club, crossed Elma by assuming that Elma wouldn’t mind publicity, not being aware of Elma’s feelings about appearing in public, leading to on-going problems.

The Calculating Stars comes to a satisfactory and satisfying conclusion, but it is only part of the story, with the subsequent book, The Fated Sky, published only a month later. Even without knowledge of the subsequent book, it is clear that even as The Calculating Stars ends on a triumphant note, there are conflicts which need to be resolved and will bubble up in the future. Since the meteor strike, Elma’s eyes have been opened to injustices which concern her, some of which impact her directly and others assault her sensibilities. Furthermore, Kowal has laid out a massive project for her alternative space program to tackle and this novel ends with only the first steps taken.

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