The Relentless Moon - MXHDR BookWyrm

jkb@books.theunseen.city reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Other Lady Astronaut

5 stars

At first I was surprised that it was Elma's voice I was reading. But in the end this writer is just wonderful and I found Nicole Wargin a wonderful character to explore.

Like Elma there are secrets to this character that I will not explore. I will say that the time period of the third book takes place at the same time of the second book. You don't need to read book 2 but there is a spoiler in this book if you hadn't read it.

All the characters were great and the Mary Robinette Kowal never shies from either the misogyny nor the racism prevalent for the time period of this book. Nothing is shocking but it's beautifully written and very much a part of 1960s.

I do hope that if Kowal continues the Lady Astronaut series she adds some LGBTQ characters.

Martin Kopischke reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

When the dark side of futures past plays out on the Moon …

3 stars

… you know Mary Robinette Kowal is expanding her Lady Astronaut universe. This instalment is the first not focussed on “the” Lady Astronaut, Dr. Elma York, still on her way to Mars (the timeline parallels The Fated Sky, with the latter’s plot a background thread). It is also notably darker than its predecessors, with the casual misogyny of the early sixties, which sees Nicole Wargin, an overachieving, hypercompetent colleague of Elma York relegated to supporting roles again and again by the conceited men who consider themselves her betters, meeting the screaming stupidity of a terrorist movement that thinks their God has decreed humanity needs to perish with its planet – when they acknowledge the planet is perishing at all. In this, as in many things, the novel feels painfully close to our time, albeit nominally playing in 1963, and that quality makes it punch way above the weight of …

… you know Mary Robinette Kowal is expanding her Lady Astronaut universe. This instalment is the first not focussed on “the” Lady Astronaut, Dr. Elma York, still on her way to Mars (the timeline parallels The Fated Sky, with the latter’s plot a background thread). It is also notably darker than its predecessors, with the casual misogyny of the early sixties, which sees Nicole Wargin, an overachieving, hypercompetent colleague of Elma York relegated to supporting roles again and again by the conceited men who consider themselves her betters, meeting the screaming stupidity of a terrorist movement that thinks their God has decreed humanity needs to perish with its planet – when they acknowledge the planet is perishing at all. In this, as in many things, the novel feels painfully close to our time, albeit nominally playing in 1963, and that quality makes it punch way above the weight of its “counterinsurgency on the Moon” plot, which Kowal pulls off with her usual talent.

zeitverschreib reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

Review of 'The Relentless Moon' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

Absolutely fantastic. I loved every single page of this book.

Even though I was a bit surprised by the new main character, I soon found myself as unable (or unwilling?) to put my reader down as I was while reading the first two novels from the LAU.