Failure Is Not an Option

books & arts Failure is not an option The Calculating in the International Aerospace Coalition save the world she finds herself as the face Stars: A Lady (IAC), a scientific organization founded of a movement as the ‘Lady Astronaut’ and Astronaut Novel to make sure humanity can spread to must resolve to help not only herself, but the stars. Elma works initially as one of every girl out there who dreams of the stars. the ‘computers’ running the complex At every step the stigma of mental health By Mary Robinette calculations that underpin the entire issues presses on her. Kowal endeavour, but her frustration grows as she But even as she rails against the sees the establishment unwilling to take smothering patriarchy above, Elma herself the necessary steps to truly move humanity has a degree of privilege as a white woman TOR BOOKS: 2018. beyond this world. In particular if there are and the wife of the lead engineer at the IAC 342pp. £8.99 to be colonies, women must go to space, not and that allows her leeway where others have only gung-ho male test pilots. Elma must none. As she confronts those with prejudice push against prejudice and misogyny to earn against her, she must also confront her own t is 1952, and a meteorite has just her place as an astronaut, fighting every inch prejudices and come to terms with them. slammed into the eastern seaboard of the against the ingrained expectations of those Kowal wonderfully crafts a narrative IUnited States, destroying Washington DC around her. where the antagonist is systemized sexism and triggering an extinction-level climate This world is intriguingly presented. and racism, and whilst those issues might catastrophe. Humanity has one choice The removal of the Soviet Union as have avatars such as charming poster boy if it hopes to survive: to move outwards an existential threat and the relatively for the space programme Stetson Parker, to the stars. harmonious unification of the world behind the world presented in The Calculating This premise motivates the alternative the endeavour of spreading humanity to the Stars is earnest and optimistic in its belief history of The Calculating Stars: A Lady Moon, Mars and beyond allow the novel that skill and grit can push against those Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal, to focus on the internal battles against beliefs. The importance of family and which in August won the 2019 Hugo Award entrenched gender and racial inequality that community (be that husband or brother for Best Novel. This win cemented the Elma faces and encounters. Whilst there are or friend or flying club) underlies the novel’s earlier successes since its publication murmurs of the militarization of the space achievements of Elma. Her community last summer, having won the Nebula Award programme and opposition from crazed of computers and pilots, brilliant women for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best fundamentalists and politicians unconvinced from all backgrounds, drive her on even at Science Fiction Novel, a rare sweep of three by the threat of the global warming, overall her lowest moments. of the top awards in science fiction. these are minor events to be brushed aside. The alternative timeline presented by The Calculating Stars takes us to an The real threat here is that the IAC may Kowal shows us a world where the space alternative timeline where humanity must fail altogether if it refuses to make use of race is a unifying movement, humanity with focus on space travel far before our own all of its resources, namely the brilliant and all its flaws racing against annihilation rather space race between the USSR and the US driven cadre of women in its ranks. The than racing for dominance over one another. in the 1960s. The meteorite impact has world is presented as nostalgic Americana The domesticity presented throughout the triggered brutal shifts in global climate, with cocktails at dinner and polite smiles all novel is a constant reminder of what the IAC leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union around, even as hints of the growing climate and its astronauts are striving to save. In the and to an international effort to reach catastrophe are drip-fed into the background face of catastrophe and gender and racial beyond the bounds of Earth for the survival and the deep wells of sexism and racism inequality, these women — scientists and of humanity. Our protagonist is Elma fester. The world and its inhabitants are computers and pilots — push forward. York, a World War II pilot and brilliant traumatized by the meteorite, and its lasting It is their dogged determination, which mathematician with a doctorate in physics legacy trickles through the novel in the typifies this version of the 1950s, that who must face the prejudice of the time in smallest of moments. warrants the nostalgia. ❐ order to attain her dreams of space. Elma is a fantastic pilot and brilliant Elma and her rocket scientist husband mathematician, but she battles with anxiety Reviewed by Ian Green Nathanial barely survive the initial impact and this is utterly integral to the narrative. Senior Editor, Nature Communications. of the meteorite, and as the world comes Public speaking is a nightmare for her, e-mail: [email protected] to realize that the impact will inevitably and the approach of a reporter with a lead to a deadly global temperature rise, cameraman is enough to make her queasy. Published online: 1 October 2019 they both move forward into integral roles As she fights for the right of women to help https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0676-4 NatURE PHYSICS | VOL 15 | OCTOBER 2019 | 985 | www.nature.com/naturephysics 985.

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