The Fated Sky

July 1, 2018

After successfully establishing base colonies on the moon, the International Space Coalition looks to the next step: traveling to Mars. Lady Astronaut Elma York definitely wants in on that trip, but this voyage will be both historic and especially dangerous. It's 1961, and the burgeoning civil rights movement may finally see individuals of all races on equal footing across the globe. But in the meantime, Elma must face the ups and downs of being a woman in a male-dominated field as she struggles to make her mark. As a nearly three-year trip to the next planet in our solar system looms, will Elma be able to leave her husband and chance at a family behind? VERDICT This gripping follow-up to The Calculating Stars is a near-perfect combination of real-world issues set in an alternate universe. Highlighting the racial tensions of the early 1960s with a frantic race for space colonization, Kowal's deft writing is sf at its best.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018
Elma York's enterprises as the Lady Astronaut continue in this follow-up to Kowal's The Calculating Stars? (2018). It's 1961, three years after that novel's conclusion, and mankind has set up a temporary society on the moon. When Elma returns to Earth, the International Aerospace Coalition?desperate for good PR?assigns her, its most famous astronaut, to its first Mars mission. Elma agrees, even though it means leaving her husband behind for three years and, as she realizes belatedly, replacing her more qualified Taiwanese friend. Most of the story occurs within the Mars-bound spaceship. Fires, broken antennas, and E. coli by turns threaten the crew's safety, ramping up the suspense and drama. Racism and misogyny complicate matters further. Elma's boss still thinks it's funny to make sexist jokes, while some colleagues want to keep the brown-skinned astronauts on the kitchen and laundry roster. In the process of trying to fix these social issues, Elma often makes them worse. An alternative look at the midcentury space race led by an intelligent, well-meaning, but flawed heroine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)