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babewiththepower.bsky.social · @babewiththepower.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated The Calculating Stars 6/10

I've been suggested and have been interested to read books by Robinette Kowal for a while now and finally got around to picking up this book. So many things to recommend it from being a Hugo Best Novel winner to two things in my wheelhouse, having women central to the plot and taking place as an alternate history. As mentioned in the Acknowledgements at the end, this book is really helped by having come out soon after the book (and almost simultaneously the movie) "Hidden Figures." If you read that first or at least watch the movie inspired by it, you'll get a lot of the feel and background to how NACA/NASA Computers were a part of space science history.<br/><br/>For (some) women to have made such a significant impact and allowed to fully do so in the 1950s to the extent they do in this book, though, could've only taken place not only in an alternate history, but also at least partially due to being forced to by a catastrophic natural disaster. Having that be central to the plot is great and yet I was still left unsatisfied by this book. Having said the above, I realize that one of the things I would've wanted to be different is to actually feel the urgency of getting off-planet after an extinction-level disaster. While the main character repeatedly mentions it and there's the occasional occurrence, I never really FELT it.<br/><br/>The main character seems to continue to flit through life, more concerned with public speaking than making part of the plot the initial massive loss of life and probable food and economic effects it would have. Hell, there really should've been a collapse of the U.S. government or at least a severe disruption for a few years and yet none of that happened. Which brings me to the other thing that I think is what really irritated me and will probably keep me from reading further in this series, at least for the time being, and that is the main character and her constant anxiety issues. That's not a type of character in whose head I like to be, so when I'm rolling my eyes for the umpteenth time she's run off to vomit because someone might ask her a question as a prominent NASA Computer, I'm just not motivated to read more. Your mileage may vary.

#book

Published 2026-08-18 17:59 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere