Why does Alexa speak to me in German?


Screenshot which says "1 new notification from Amazon shopping: ‘Ein Autor, dem Sie auf Amazon folgen, Mary Robinette Kowal, hat ein neues Buch mit dem Namen Die Berechnung der Sterne: Roman veröffentlicht.’"

I speak English. My Amazon account is set to English. My Alexa listens to my English commands and replies in English. Except for new book notifications. I saw a pulsing yellow light on the dot. I've memorised all of the various signs and portents the accurs'd device can summon up, so I asked it (in […]

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Book Review: Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories Series Book 1) - Mary Robinette Kowal


Book cover.

Let's get this out of the way first. I freakin' love Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut Series. She has created this amazingly rich and detailed universe, full of fleshed-out characters engaging in daring-do. So when this earlier novel was cheap on Amazon, I picked it up. The "Glamourist Histories" novels were written several years before […]

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Book Review: The Relentless Moon


A lady astronaut looks up at the moon.

The Earth is coming to the boiling point as the climate disaster of the Meteor strike becomes more and more clear, but the political situation is already overheated. Riots and sabotage plague the space program. The IAC's goal of getting as many people as possible off Earth before it becomes uninhabitable is being threatened. Elma […]

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Book Review: The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal


A lady astronaut faces the planet Mars.

The Fated Sky looks forward to 1961, when mankind is well-established on the moon and looking forward to its next step: journeying to, and eventually colonizing, Mars. Of course, the noted Lady Astronaut Elma York would like to go, but could the International Aerospace Coalition ever stand the thought of putting a woman on such a potentially dangerous mission?

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Book review: The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal


A woman stands in front of diagrams.

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...

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