The Calculating Stars

I just finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. This book is an alternate history (I wrote about alternate history in another blog a few weeks ago). In this novel, history is the same as ours until about the late 1940’s, then there are some subtle changes. Then there is a dramatic change as a large meteor slams into the ocean just off the eastern seaboard of the United States. I am not really giving away a spoiler here as I think the meteor is mentioned in the first sentence of the book. The meteor and ensuing climate change caused by it force people to accelerate the drive into space. There is a drive to set up colonies on the Moon, Mars and other places as a Plan B, in case Plan A (Earth) becomes uninhabitable.

There is a nostalgic feeling throughout The Calculating Stars. For me I got the thrill of sort of reliving the space race (even though it is a different space race than the one we went through). We are watching this happen from the inside as the main character and narrator is Dr. Elma York who works as a computer (a human computer) for the international space agency. Being a human computer is not a glamorous job but if you have seen the movie Hidden Figures, you know how important they were to the space program.

But with all the warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings, come other feelings. Life wasn’t all great in America in the 1950’s in our history or in Kowal’s. Prejudice and discrimination against people of color was overt. Not every white person was prejudiced, but there were enough powerful ones to keep opportunities away from minorities, to keep them mistreated and ignored. Of course this is also the paternalistic 1950’s that believed “a woman’s place is in the home,” which made opportunities for women very limited. This is why women with advanced degrees in math and physics were allowed to become computers, while men with the same degrees became engineers. A case in point is Elma’s husband (also a Dr. York) who has a PHD in Physics and becomes the chief engineer of the space program.

I love good character driven fiction and this one is no exception. Elma is a fully formed character rich with strengths and weaknesses. One strength is that she is good pilot (she was a WASP during WWII). She is driven to become an astronaut, and it is made quite clear that without that tenacious drive and the drive of others, she would never become one. But her main strength is her superb mind with its mathematical abilities. Her main weakness is her debilitating anxiety if she has to speak to an audience. She can’t engage in public speaking without throwing up. Fear of public speaking is not an unusual problem. I suspect most of us suffer from it to a greater or lesser degree. But for Elma it is a serious problem, especially because she has decided that she wants to go into space. Convincing people in the 1950’s that women should be astronauts would be a herculean task. In our timeline the first American woman didn’t go into space until 1983! Why? There is no compelling reason. After all, the Soviets sent a woman into space in 1963.

Of course there is an antagonist to annoy, block, and generally piss off Elma. This antagonist is not a cardboard villain. He is a complex person with both good and bad qualities. In other words, he is like a real human being. We may not like him much, but we cannot help but admit (as Elma does) that he has some good qualities.

This is part of the Lady Astronauts series by Kowal. While feminists might cringe at the term lady astronauts, had they existed in the 1950’s that is probably the term they would be called. By the way, it took me a while to understand the title The Calculating Stars. I was about two thirds of the way through the book when it suddenly hit me. The emphasis isn’t on the word “Stars”, but on the word “Calculating.” Meaning this book is about the heroes of calculation (human computers).

This is one of those books that got so big that the author had to split it into two books. The Calculating Stars is the first book and The Fated Sky (which I have not yet read) is the second. I have read several books like this and usually the first book just ends in the middle of the story, or worse, ends on a cliffhanger. That is not the case with The Calculating Stars. The ending feels like a natural resolution point in the story. We can see places where the next book might go, but it is still a satisfying ending.

In short, this is a fun read with just enough social commentary to make it relevant to our age. I am looking forward to reading the Fated Sky as soon as I can get it.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon, or the other usual online sources)

Star Liner