Intriguing alternative history that I swallowed in just 2 days. I feel like I have been prepared to read this book by watching “Hidden Figures” recently. Another comparison I couldn’t forget is show “For All Mankind”, but this book is definitely on higher level. It’s premise is what could happen if giant meteorite hit at the east coast of USA, climate catastrophy bigger than ours and plan for escaping the planet in coming decades.
There’s a lot of moving pieces in this story that peaked my curiosity. The date for catastrophe was in 1952 which set story in gap of my knowledge. Obviously I knew 2nd world war and about ‘60, their space programs, civil rights movements and counterculture, but it was somewhere in between. This version of history with their own climate change creates interesting parallels with our own real. It’s more catastrophic and quicker which creates greater urgency for escaping the planet. Still, window for characters to actually pull this off seems very narrow and I just can’t wait to see how it will develop further into the future where divergence will be even bigger in next books of the series. And yet, it was in a way painful to see that even in this timeline where people saw Meteorite and more rapid climate change, there are still denialists.
At the heart of the novel are obviously struggles that comes out of misogyny that is still big issues, but at the time it was even more blatant and tough. Story also points multiple times to racism of the times, but it doesn’t resolve the issues in any way. It would be easy to pretend that in alternate history it would be better. Hopefully it will be in further books of the series. First person narration was perfect choice to showcasing how main character with horror realising that if not chain of chances she wouldn’t see casual exclusions of Blacks and other minorities from society and opportunities.
When I finished the book I started to wish I will read someday more about early space program, women “computers” and also next books from the series. Considerable help is historical note and bibliography at the end. I could try to grab next novels, but I get this book just when it came out in Poland so I read it in translation. I think I will wait for the next novels when they’ll come out here.
“The Calculating Stars” as a first novel in series of alternate history with big divergence is in peculiar position. It gives a lot of promises, but if they will be fullfiled we can see only in next entries in the series. Despite big impact of the Meteorite it still can draw a lot of inspirations from our world. I can’t wait to see what will happen when temperatures will be extreme and how realistic space colonialism will be.
Elma and Nataniel are such a perfect couple and Nataniel seems so completely understanding and progressive. Sometimes I felt he’s too unrealistic, but on the other hand I was glad that deuteragonist is good example of healthy masculinity.