For a sci-fi nerd like me, it is total catnip. A heady mix of brain-tangling "what ifs" and the geeky joy of "competency porn". The language is gorgeous with some beautiful turns of phrase, and the pacing does an excellent job of ratcheting up the tension.

My only criticism is that Elma is such an ineffective character. She seems to forget that she's one of the most senior people on the mission and has the right - nay! the duty! - to get answers. Her lack of confidence isn't a quirky character flaw; it is a profoundly irritating co-star.

I love the world building, the jokey asides, and the sense of purpose all the characters have. The moral dilemmas and Politics are well articulated and don't feel tacked on. It's worth picking up the whole series.

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 English) what notifications it had for me. It replied, naturally, in German.

I couldn't grab an audio recording in time, and I've no idea which command invokes a repetition. But the Alexa app contains a handy history of every utterance to spew forth from its speaker.

To be clear, my IP address shows that I am in the UK. I have never bough German lager from Amazon. I've never watched Das Boot on Amazon Prime. I haven't even asked Alexa to play the soundtrack to Cabaret!

Whatever. Eine Kline Glitche um Der Matrix.

And then, a few weeks later, it happened again!

Was ist das? Ein großer Haufen Schweinescheiße!

To be even clearer - neither of the authors are German. I stopped learning German when I was 14. My liebe Frau happens to have German A-Level but she swears blind that she only uses it to speak with Hans, our flaschenspüler - and never in front of Alexa.

So what gives?

As far as I can tell, neither of these authors has a new book out. But a German translation of their work has been published. Amazon knows I follow these authors and, because Amazon are Kapitalistische Warzenschweinficker, will gently encourage me to by more of their works. Ordinarily, that might be useful. But as I don't speak the language, it's all a bit pointless.

For some reason, this only seems to happen with German translations. No idea why.

It seems that Amazon's prowess in deep-artificial-learning-neural-technobabble doesn't actually extend to anything useful - like making sure it doesn't read out garbled multilingual sentences.

What a bunch of Kartoffelköpfe!

The "Glamourist Histories" novels were written several years before the Astronette books. And, I'll be honest, it shows. The plot is basically "Jane Austen But They Can Do Magic". Or, to more modern ears, "The Witches of Bridgerton". As a concept, it's pretty interesting - although retreading the same sort of ground as "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell". But I felt the execution just fell flat.

Firstly, it is an entirely derivative novel. Two sister competing in a marriage market. A brooding but handsome stranger. A roguish Captain. A hysterical mother. Stir the big Regency pot of clichés and see what pops out. (To be fair, the original book was written as part of NaNoWriMo. It is everything you expect from a debut novel.)

Secondly, and more importantly, magic is irrelevant to the story! If you took out every mention of "glamour" and replaced it with "watercolour paintings" the book would be identical. It feels like a squandered opportunity.

Well, right up until the last few chapters. We finally catch a glimpse of what magic could do in this world - other than give ersatz rhinoplasty to insecure debutants. All of a sudden, we're thrown into a much more interesting world. One where the scientific investigation of magic could become a powerful force in the world. It brings forth a exciting set of options outside of the standard regency drama.

If you like Jane Austen-style novels, it is perfectly fine. But I was expecting something more rigorous. Kowal's later books are astonishingly good, so I might check out the sequels to see how they compare.

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 York is on her way to Mars, but the Moon colony is still being established. Her friend and fellow Lady Astronaut Nicole Wargin is thrilled to be one of those pioneer settlers, using her considerable flight and political skills to keep the program on track. But she is less happy that her husband, the Governor of Kansas, is considering a run for President.

Relentless is too bloody right! This book is almost Dickensian in the way each chapter ends with a cliff-hanger.

This is a smart and zeitgeisty book. Filled with reactions to sexism, racism, and how people cope with pandemics. It's a little too on the nose at times but, hey, these are strange days indeed.

There are some cute historical references as Easter Eggs - the start of chapter 43, for instance. And there are a couple of simple puzzles for the reader to work out.

It's the perfect mix of speculative history, sci-fi, and spy novel.

It isn't essential that you read the first two books - The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky - but I thoroughly recommend them.

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?

I rushed to buy this book the minute I finished its prequel - The Calculating Stars. Mary Robinette Kowal has created an wonderful alternate history - dealing with the practical problems of going to Mars. Not just technical - but sociological.

It's not as as recklessly disaster ridden as Andy Weir's The Martian, but it has its fair share of heart-stopping moments. I'd gladly read a couple more books set in this universe.

It gets a little repetitive - with our fearless Astronette waxing lyrical about her love of baking, and a few too many paragraphs are dense technobabble and encrypted text. But I'd be churlish to call this anything other than great. It left me with a big grin on my face and a heart full of hope.

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.