Book review: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

A meteor decimates the U.S. government. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated timeline in the earth’s efforts to colonize space. One of these new entrants in the space race is Elma York. 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 women can’t go into space, too...

This book is now only 99p on Amazon and I urge you to get it. Within the first dozen pages I knew I was going to devour the rest of it.

Broads in spaaaaaaaace! The sexist sensibilities of Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men turned full force on the girls (girls!) who want to go into space. Will our plucky heroine make it?! Can human computers calculate their way to the stars?

It's good knockabout fun with a serious core. Women are better adapted to space travel than men. The more we reject sections of society, the more we lose.

The only slight criticism I have is that it reads a little like it's preparing to be the next big Netflix binge-athon. But that's no bad thing. Plenty of cliff-hangers, strong characters, and dense technical detail.

I loved every page and immediately bought the sequel.