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Why it matters
Kowal combines rigorous alternate space history with the overlooked labor and barriers surrounding early aerospace programs.
A celebrated work
The Calculating Stars
Mary Robinette Kowal2019 selection · Science fiction & fantasy
The Calculating Stars
A meteorite destroys Washington, D.C., in 1952 and triggers climate changes that make off-world settlement urgent. Mathematician and former pilot Elma York pushes to join the astronaut corps while confronting institutional sexism, racism, and her own anxiety.
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Read this if…
You like hopeful alternate history, technical problem-solving, and determined women in science.
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Ideas inside
SpaceflightGender equalityClimate crisisAnxiety
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The Calculating Stars
- Nebula Award for Best Novel
A meteorite destroys Washington, D.C., in 1952 and triggers climate changes that make off-world settlement urgent. Mathematician and former pilot Elma York pushes to join the astronaut corps while confronting institutional sexism, racism, and her own anxiety.
All the Birds in the Sky
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Childhood friends Patricia and Laurence grow into a witch and a technological visionary on opposite sides of a worsening planetary crisis. Their renewed relationship becomes entangled in a conflict between magic and science over how, or whether, humanity should be saved.
The Stone Sky
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Essun and Nassun move toward a final confrontation over the fate of Earth and its lost Moon as the origins of the Stillness come into view. The conclusion links an ancient technological catastrophe to generations of exploitation and grief.