Listen free for 30 days
-
The Calculating Stars
- A Lady Astronaut Novel
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Series: Lady Astronaut, Book 1
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction
People who bought this also bought...
-
Seveneves
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Peter Brooke
- Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The astounding new novel from the master of science fiction. What would happen if the world were ending? When a catastrophic event renders the Earth a ticking time bomb, it triggers a feverish race against the inevitable. An ambitious plan is devised to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere. But unforeseen dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain....
-
-
Excellent until about half way through then tedium
- By Ruairi Smyth on 23-07-15
-
The Windup Girl
- By: Paolo Bacigalupi
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman.
-
-
Great story - Narrator on Valium
- By David on 06-04-14
-
The Bone Shard Daughter
- The Drowning Empire, Book 1
- By: Andrea Stewart
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Natalie Naudus, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands. Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
-
-
Original fantasy
- By Ragne on 19-11-20
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 22nd century visionary scientist Vannevar Morgan conceives the most grandiose engineering project of all time, and one which will revolutionise the future of humankind in space: a Space Elevator, 36,000 kilometres high, anchored to an equatorial island in the Indian Ocean.
-
-
Arthur C Clarke at his best
- By Steve B on 24-04-19
-
Fuzzy Nation
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi - introduction
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.
-
-
Lovely retelling of a classic.
- By Simon P. on 05-10-15
-
Autonomous
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap medicines for those who can't otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane. Hot on her trail is an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his indentured robotic partner, Paladin.
-
-
Just Plain Awkward
- By Simon on 16-03-18
-
Seveneves
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Peter Brooke
- Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The astounding new novel from the master of science fiction. What would happen if the world were ending? When a catastrophic event renders the Earth a ticking time bomb, it triggers a feverish race against the inevitable. An ambitious plan is devised to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere. But unforeseen dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain....
-
-
Excellent until about half way through then tedium
- By Ruairi Smyth on 23-07-15
-
The Windup Girl
- By: Paolo Bacigalupi
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman.
-
-
Great story - Narrator on Valium
- By David on 06-04-14
-
The Bone Shard Daughter
- The Drowning Empire, Book 1
- By: Andrea Stewart
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Natalie Naudus, Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands. Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
-
-
Original fantasy
- By Ragne on 19-11-20
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 22nd century visionary scientist Vannevar Morgan conceives the most grandiose engineering project of all time, and one which will revolutionise the future of humankind in space: a Space Elevator, 36,000 kilometres high, anchored to an equatorial island in the Indian Ocean.
-
-
Arthur C Clarke at his best
- By Steve B on 24-04-19
-
Fuzzy Nation
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi - introduction
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.
-
-
Lovely retelling of a classic.
- By Simon P. on 05-10-15
-
Autonomous
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap medicines for those who can't otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane. Hot on her trail is an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his indentured robotic partner, Paladin.
-
-
Just Plain Awkward
- By Simon on 16-03-18
-
Constitution
- By: Nick Webb
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 2650. Seventy-five years ago, an alien fleet attacked Earth. Without warning. Without mercy. We were not prepared. Hundreds of millions perished. Dozens of cities burned. We nearly lost everything. Then the aliens abruptly left. We rebuilt. We armed ourselves. We swore: never again. But the aliens never came back. Until now. With overwhelming force the aliens have returned, striking deep into our territory, sending Earth into a panic.
-
-
excellent space opera
- By Russell Ridley on 19-10-15
-
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- Wayfarers, Book 1
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Firefly meets Mass Effect in this thrilling self-published debut! When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer.
-
-
Well intentioned but uninvolving
- By Jonathan on 07-05-16
-
Earth Abides
- By: George R Stewart
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Connie Willis
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A mysterious plague has destroyed the vast majority of the human race. Isherwood Williams returns from a wilderness field trip to discover that civilization has vanished during his absence. Eventually, in San Francisco, he encounters a female survivor who becomes his wife. Around them and their children a small community develops, but rebuilding civilization is beyond their resources, and gradually they return to a simpler way of life.
-
-
A Thinker's Book
- By Simon on 05-10-14
-
Of Ants and Dinosaurs
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Bruno Roubicek
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout the universe, intelligence is a rare and fragile commodity - a fleeting glimmer in the long night of cosmic history. That Earth should harbour not just one but two intelligent species at the same time defies the odds. That these species, so unalike - and yet so complementary - should forge an alliance that kindled a civilisation defies logic. But time is endless and everything comes to pass eventually....
-
-
What fun
- By our Cher on 22-02-21
-
Outland
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Bill Rustad and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to Outland - an alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved. The group races to establish control of the portal before the government, the military, or evildoers can take it away. Then everything changes when the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts in an explosion large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet.
-
-
Bright young things
- By Adam on 22-05-19
-
The Original
- By: Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Holly Winseed wakes up in a hospital room, her memory compromised and a new identity imposed on her, a team of government agents wastes no time stating their objective. With intent to infiltrate and defeat the terrorist group ICON, the agents tell Holly that she is now a Provisional Replica and has one week to hunt down and kill her Original for the murder of her husband, Jonathan. If she succeeds, she’ll assume her Original’s place in society. If she fails, her life will end.
-
-
Excellent Audiobook production
- By Martin Grisman on 14-09-20
-
The Crown Tower
- Riyria Chronicles, Volume 1
- By: Michael J. Sullivan
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hadrian, a warrior with nothing to fight for, is paired with Royce, a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach. The Crown Tower is the grandest fortress ever built and home to the realm's most prized possessions. But it isn't gold or jewels that their employer is after; if he can keep them from killing each other, they might just get him his prize.
-
-
Excelent Prequel or Sequel to the Riyria series
- By R. J. Barnes on 11-12-13
-
The Collapsing Empire
- The Interdependency, Book 1
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our universe is ruled by physics, and faster-than-light travel is not possible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transports us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war - and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.
-
-
Juvenile
- By Sal on 14-04-17
-
The Far Wild
- By: Alex Knight
- Narrated by: Stephanie Lane, Carlyss Peer, Peter Kenny
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suni Koudounas is enamoured with the wonders — and dangers — of the Far Wild. As a naturalist’s apprentice, she’s studied every book and expedition report about the miraculous wilderness. But when her mentor goes missing on expedition, Suni sets aside the Far Wild of ink and paper to venture after him into the primordial jungle. As the empire’s most beloved adventurer — or most successful raconteur — Senesio Suleiman Nicolaou doesn’t want much. Wealth beyond measure, fame beyond reason and a small kingdom somewhere warm should be about enough.
-
-
The Lost World meets The First Law
- By LMH on 08-12-20
-
The Doors of Eden
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee thought she’d lost Mal, but now she’s miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal’s reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn’t the only one with questions. Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power - and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor.
-
-
Super-woke Brexit allegory
- By Johari on 21-08-20
-
Duel in the Dark
- Blood on the Stars, Book 1
- By: Jay Allan
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Confederation has fought three wars against the forces of the totalitarian Union. Three generations of its warriors have gone off to war, held the line against the larger, more powerful enemy. Now the fourth conflict is imminent, and the Confederation's navy is on alert, positioned behind the frontier, waiting for the attack it knows is coming.
-
-
Abandon Ship
- By Sean Dynan on 04-12-18
-
The Collected Stories
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe, Mike Grady, Nick Boulton, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arthur C Clarke is without question the world's best-known and most celebrated science-fiction writer. His career, spanning more than 60 years, is one of unequalled success. Clarke has always been celebrated for his clear prophetic vision, which is fully on display in this audiobook, but there are also many stories that show his imagination in full flight, to the distant future and to far-flung star systems.
-
-
Inventive Early Work
- By Jeremy on 08-05-11
Summary
Mary Robinette Kowal's science fiction debut, The Calculating Stars, explores the premise behind her award-winning Lady Astronaut of Mars.
Den of Geek - Best Science Fiction Books of June 2018
Omnivoracious - Fifteen Highly Anticipated SFF Reads for Summer 2018
On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs.
This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process.
Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.
Elma’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Calculating Stars
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sah
- 27-02-20
Interesting idea shame about the execution
The concept of an alternative history of space exploration and the fact that it is based in the 1950s and explores racism and the treatment of women in science and engineering had there been an global astronaut programme is intriguing. However, in this audiobook the author’s somewhat feeble attempts at narration and, in particular, her diabolical attempts at French or British accents somewhat detracts from the story itself. At times it has more if a flavour if Mills and Boon about it than Jules Verne. I know it’s about space but sex scenes that refer, euphemistically refer to rocketry is somewhat crass. Hire an actress, Audible, and re-record it.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Margarida Neto Coelho
- 21-02-20
What a waste of time!
Cringeworthy and embarrassingly bad sex talk, shallow, implausible characters and serious social issues that are reduced to backdrop or scenery.
The fact that this novel was given the Nebula Award is a mistery to me.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ruth de Haas
- 19-02-19
Made me cry a lot in public. Super embarrassing.
MRK makes her book come to life such that I was having panic attacks with Elma, sad crying whenever anything bad happened, happy crying whenever anything good happened... basically this book left me a complete mess.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul Joseph Walsh
- 28-09-19
Disappointing
Full of good intentions, climate change, equality and so forth but was more a book on social commentary than true science fiction.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Atkinson
- 08-09-18
Uplifting (pun intended)
Following Dr Elma York from the day she escapes the impact of an extinction-level meteorite, through her time as a computer at the now-international NASA, and her fight to allow women and POC to become astronauts. I normally like my heroines to be infallible, but Dr York is humanised by Southern-feminine style self-effacement (we only find out halfway through the book that she holds two doctorates) and a crippling social anxiety. A very enjoyable and uplifting listen.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A. J. Morson
- 07-02-21
Bad performance
Read a lot of good things about this book. Unfortunayely the performance (by the author) is so bad it's distracting.
Everyone, bar the main character, has a ridiculous sounding, forced voice, especially the 'Men' and 'Black People'. it's quite cringey at times.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. Maines
- 28-09-19
Great!
I’m a sucker for an alternative history story and this one grabbed me. It set in the past, but it also feels like an old fashioned story from the golden age of science fiction.
The author narrates her own book and does a great job apart from the English accent.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brian - UK
- 04-09-19
Strong lead character...
... but too often is weaker than projected. Although I get it, the discontinuity detracts. Ultimately worthy but unsatisfactory. Great depth and study, but somehow on its head. Alas, I shan’t be listening to more.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- CitizenV
- 18-02-21
Peachy keen!
I am embarrassed to have only just read/listened to this. I was put off by the series title and now I feel thoroughly stupid.
If you like relatable characters, a great story, really great historically adjacent commentary or a fantastic opening sequence then this is your book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Davey
- 02-12-20
Sc-Fi with emotional maturity. Fresh.
The story tackled anxiety and Feminism in a Fresh Sci-fi way. Thought provoking and enjoyable.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jim N
- 04-02-19
Fizzles After a Great Start
The Calculating Stars received a lot of praise in 2018 so when I saw it on sale at Audible, I decided to give it a chance, despite being a little put off by the series title, which sounded silly to me. The book justifies that title well enough and after listening to the riveting first few hours of the novel, I told a friend that my misgivings were unfounded. The book's opening sequence, in which a massive meteorite strike in 1952 sets off a sequence of cataclysmic events, is great. Unfortunately, after that, it slows down, following a predictable path and never truly regaining that early momentum. The remainder of the novel reads like a Hallmark Channel riff on Hidden Figures, co-produced by the SyFy Channel. There are few surprises, the drama is minimal and the plot crawls toward a conclusion that's both predictable and inevitable. There are, however, a number of cringe-worthy "romantic" scenes between Elma, the protagonist, and her husband, Nathaniel, complete with increasingly painful rocket and launch references. After such a promising start, I was very disappointed.
The issues above are complicated on audio by the author's reading which was fine except when reading some of the characters, which veered into exaggerated caricature when voiced.
44 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- sonja holmes
- 16-07-18
it's a nice story
"The calculating stars" is a nice story about an alternate history Space Program. The author does an excellent job of bringing life to the story, which is a good thing, because I think if I were to just read it, it would have been a little flat. This would be a fantastic story for a preteen or even a child, but it lacks drama. Now, not all stories need to be a daring space drama with horrible monsters and and heroic leaps of... heroism, but i kept eaiting for the other shoe to drop, and it never did. I see this story as the way the Space Program would have proceeded if everyone in the world were Canadian. A good read, but don't expect action.
71 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- LoriAnne Hacker
- 07-02-19
Not easy to listen to the whiny main character.
Not a fan of listening to whining women, apologizing for being competent humans. The 1950 housewife or the stereotype of that woman is best left in the past not in a Sci Fi book.
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mean Jane
- 27-07-18
Super impressed
Wonderful attention to detail, phenomenal voice acting, and wonderful characters. My only quibble is that it does sag in the middle as the story turns from the meteor strike and space race to the main character dealing with her anxiety. It does pick up again and finishes with a bang. Highly recommended.
69 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Richard Bruno
- 01-10-18
Never achieves lift off
So very disappointing. An interesting alternate history premise, but a deeply awkward and clunky execution. Infuriating, repetitive, formulaic. Every now and then there are whiffs of originality and creativity (like when, in listing a group of new astronauts, the familiar names of actual Mercury and Gemini astronauts are included, without calling any attention to the fact), but these moments are rare. And the obsessive and obligatory (but, of course, socially sanctioned) sex scenes between the protagonist and her husband are excruciating as they strive to call up every rocket launch innuendo that they can. Eew.
The author reads her own work, which doesn't help matters. Over the top narration and exaggerated characterizations.
89 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Karen
- 16-10-18
Promising story, cringeworthy main character ...
This story had promise and if you like romance novels with an intellectual undertone this might be for you. (I'm not a fan of romance novels so I can't say for sure.) I found the main character way too whiny. While her issues were justifiably real and I appreciate that ... it was the method they were delivered that I disliked. I am curious whether I would have the same impression of the main character as whiny if I had read rather than listened to the book. It is possible that this is more a narration rather than a story issue ... so I'll give the book the benefit of the doubt there. The other possibility is that this is simply how women in the 1950s behaved and that this is a more accurate representation than other books. If so, I guess it is a good thing I was not around then. I probably would have gotten into a lot of trouble.
65 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Shykim
- 17-08-18
Wanted to love it
There is a difference between reading and narrating. The author is OK at reading, but a complete amateur as a narrator. Her attempts at accents are painful - and distracting.
The characters, with the exception of the protagonist, are stereotypical and one dimensional. The protagonist is also a stereotype. She is what medicine used to described as a female hysteric. And yet, she is supposed to be a brilliant mathematician with 2 advanced degrees from Stanford, a child prodigy, and an accomplished pilot. Finally, she comes across as helpless, whiny and immature.
I suspect that the author may be trying to set her main character up for growth and change in the next book in the series, if so she overplayed her hand.
This book might be better if you read it rather than listen. Between the amateurish delivery and the whiny, pathetic marin character, the audio version is just annoying.
81 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- sbsd13
- 25-09-18
awkward sex scenes ruin message
I didn't like this as much as Ghost Talkers. Mostly bc the character isn't as likeable and all she and her husband seem to do is exchange rocket ship sexual euphemisms before they bone. If I hear that "his engines were firing" one more time, I quit. (this was about 75% through).
But no, the “rockets firing” sex analogies didn’t quit. I did keep going though and read till the end. The women’s empowerment, mental illness, and racial equality storylines were cheapened by the foibles of the main character and the attempts to make Elma seem sexy and empowered by showing that she liked sex. How do we know she liked sex? Oh, because she talked about her husband’s genitals in rocket ship terminology. Of course! Completely accurate and representative. Best parts when the “lady astronaut” was actually doing things like flying a plane and solving flight trajectories, and I wish Kowal had made those parts the majority of the book.
50 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Aubrey Reese
- 17-05-19
Had so much potential to be great-BUT
I was so excited to listen to this book. It had so much potential to hit many complicated and interesting topics but was ultimately very bland. It was chock full of simple annoying characters with no depth and loads of unrealistic scenarios. I kept catching myself thinking get it together b!&$#, the world is ending but we (the listeners) are stuck hearing you gripe about your stage fright and how hard growing up was with a powerful father and gifted mathematic abilities, poor thing! Not to mention, all the support needed to earn a PHD as a women during WW2. All in all I'd say life had been very kind to our lady astronaut but she still wines and complains at every opportunity and crumples when ever any person (man or woman) disrespects or disagrees with her-barf.
Lastly, why the heck is her husband so shocked she encounters sexism around every corner? It's 1952- it's everywhere and the norm. Realistically the shock should of been her drive to have more then the domestic life. Could of been so good but left much to be desired and with a urg to poke most of the main characters in the eye.
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Alex Levine
- 27-07-18
Close to perfect
I am a literary nit-picker. I can't really help it. When I read a historical novel, part of me is always hunting for inaccuracies, and when I read an alternate history novel, that same part is always hunting for premise-breaking implausibilities. For me to really, really enjoy an alternate history, it has to either be entirely free of such defects, or pretty damn amazing, so amazing that my nit-picking module shuts down. This book is pretty damn amazing.
The amazingness has many facets, of which I can only mention a few. The first is its timeliness, appearing as it does just two years after Margot Lee Shetterly's wonderful "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race," along with the movie it inspired. Shetterly's book helped bring overdue attention to the contributions Black woman mathematicians, employed as computers, made to the American space program, when the electronic digital computing revolution was in its infancy. In our timeline, their efforts were supplemented by electronic computers as the technology improved, and a state-of-the-art electronic computer traveled to the moon with Armstrong and Aldrin. It may not have worked very well, but it was ready in time to make the trip.
In the timeline of this book, the American space program gets its start ten years earlier than in ours, and vast investment spurs most of the necessary technologies to advance more over the course of the 1950s than ours did over the 1960s. The one exception is electronic digital computing, which appears to be no further along in the 1955 of this book than it was in our own 1955. Suppose space program managers realize that astronauts may need to solve unforeseen problems in orbital mechanics on the fly. Suppose, further, that the best way to obtain a quick, accurate solution to such problems is to consult a skilled human with paper, pencil, and slide rule. Finally, suppose that the most skilled such humans are women. We have a recipe for a narrative in which, rather than lagging well behind the rest of 20th Century American Society in its lurching, uneven progress toward gender equality, the space program leads the way.
Our heroine and first-personal protagonist is, as we would expect, an extraordinary individual. But she is NOT a "steely-eyed missile man" in drag. She has payed a serious, even crippling price for having succeeded in a string of male-dominated fields, and her struggle to shoulder that baggage is perhaps the most compelling aspect of her more general struggle. She is also a woman of her time and place, one who has developed her strategies for selectively ignoring numerous small injustices, and for coping with those she cannot ignore. This is NOT an idealized crusader for women and minorities anachronistically written back into a society that no time for such people. She is a completely believable person who has learned how to pick her battles. She is surrounded by an equally believable supporting cast.
I won't sully this review by rehearsing any of the small number of nits I have picked. Read the book, or better yet listen to it in the author's expert narration.
80 people found this helpful