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The Fated Sky

by Mary Robinette Kowal

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Lady Astronaut (2)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8765424,358 (4.18)75
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 there's a lot riding on whoever the International Aerospace Coalition decides to send on this historic, but potentially very dangerous,-mission? Could Elma really leave behind her husband and the chance to start a family to spend several years traveling to Mars? And with the Civil Rights movement taking hold all over Earth, will the astronaut pool ever be allowed to catch up, and will these brave men and women of all races be treated equitably when they get there?… (more)
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» See also 75 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
El primero me gustó mucho y creo que este es mejor incluso, quizá porque gran parte sucede en el espacio. Un libro de viaje espacial, con una tripulación carismática y muchas dosis de ciencia bastante fiel a como seria en la realidad, my kind of jam. ( )
  Cabask | Mar 27, 2024 |
I had no idea the second Lady Astronaut book would come out so soon after the first. It was pure luck that it surfaced in one of my news feeds. Kowal's novel series continues to be engrossing, both as an alternate timeline narrative and as a social commentary. If there are no further books in this series, this is a satisfying place to end it. But I still hope there's more.
[Audiobook note: Kowal reads the audiobook herself. She was already one of my favorite readers of other people's novels. So I knew that it would be a treat to hear her read her own work.] ( )
  Treebeard_404 | Jan 23, 2024 |
Heart-wrenching in all the right ways. The lives of astronauts are like the lives of everyone: complicated, messy, and in need of a lot of grace. ( )
  AdioRadley | Jan 21, 2024 |
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal is the second book in the Lady Astronaut series and it manages to be an even better story than its predecessor. I thought Calculating Stars was a really fascinating alternative history of space flight which I loved. I found it to be a fun and relevant book. The Fated Sky might be an even better read. There is more action, more adversity, more emotion (there are a few devastating moments in this book). The stakes here feel a bit higher and I therefore found it more powerfully written. I think it has to do with the story-line.

Our heroine Elma York gets put on the crew for the first mission to Mars working again with Stetson Parker (a man she hates). The main crux of the novel is about how not only Elma and Parker must find ways to get along on a multiple year long mission to Mars but how the rest of the crew (which is highly diverse) must overcome adversity and the assumptions of that Parker and Elma often place upon them. The tension of being stuck on a space ship with a diverse array of individuals and someone like Parker (who very much embodies the sexist, racist Mad Men 1960s trope) makes from some fascinating character interactions. Additionally, there are riveting technical scenes of operations aboard the space shuttle gone awry. Some of these descriptions are just as riveting as the technical aspects of an Andy Weir or alastair reynolds novel. Elma York continues to be a charming, smart, woman who we willingly cheer on as her and her crew near Mars.

This really was a great continuation of the story started in The Calculating Stars. I look forward to reading The Restless Moon soon. ( )
  ryantlaferney87 | Dec 8, 2023 |
Every bit as good as the first one. ( )
  cdaley | Nov 2, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Mary Robinette Kowalprimary authorall editionscalculated
Kowal, Mary RobinetteNarratormain authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to heaven: the fated sky
Gives us free scope, only doth backward pull
Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull.
What power is it which mounts my love so high,
That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?
The mightiest space in fortune nature brings
To join like likes and kiss like native things.
Impossible be strange attempts to those
That weigh their pains in sense and do suppose
What hath been cannot be: who ever strove
So show her merit, that did miss her love?
The king's disease—my project may deceive me,
But my intents are fix'd and will not leave me.

Helena, All's Well That Ends Well,
William Shakespeare
Dedication
For my niece Laura Olafson, who boldly goes.
First words
Do you remember where you were when the Friendship probe reached Mars?
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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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 there's a lot riding on whoever the International Aerospace Coalition decides to send on this historic, but potentially very dangerous,-mission? Could Elma really leave behind her husband and the chance to start a family to spend several years traveling to Mars? And with the Civil Rights movement taking hold all over Earth, will the astronaut pool ever be allowed to catch up, and will these brave men and women of all races be treated equitably when they get there?

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Book description
But even with personal sacrifices and political tensions, Elma York, the Lady Astronaut, dearly wants to go on the first mission to Mars—despite everything that stands in her way. ‘The Lady Astronaut series might be set in an alternate ...
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Mary Robinette Kowal is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.

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Mary Robinette Kowal chatted with LibraryThing members from Sep 13, 2010 to Sep 26, 2010. Read the chat.

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Average: (4.18)
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