Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Relentless Moon

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

23 reviews

penguininabluebox's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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brittshaw_p's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5/5⭐️ | 0.25/5🌶 | 1/3⚠️ |14 +

Genre: historical AU sci fi

Diversity: anorexic MC, steminist, feminist, B/A + API SCs

Moods: tense, relentless/non-stop, geo-political, steminist, anti-racist

Pace: medium

Device(s):

Trope(s):

Notes: told from Nicole’s perspective on the moon takes place at the same time as The Fated Sky - we see the fraught political landscape that we only saw glimpses and hints and consequences of during The Fated Sky. Earth Firsters are actively sabotaging the IAC and moon colony. Stick with Nicole as she ferrets out the saboteur(s) with Myrtle, Eugene, Hamid, and Helen. Relentless perfectly describes this books - one after another problems pop up - but at the same time it doesn’t feel overdone. An absolute rollercoaster emotions while set perfectly in the sexist and racist times of 1960s, expertly crafted AU. Excellent continuation of the Lady Astronaut novels!!

# of pages:

AB length:

Took me ~ to read:

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deedireads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

The first three Lady Astronaut novels are fun to read with an imaginative premise, and they’re impressively packed with research. I had a good time reading them!

For you if: You like hard sci-fi and/or astronomy and/or math and/or historical fiction, or you’re looking for Jewish rep in SFF

FULL REVIEW:

I set out to read the Lady Astronaut novels, of which there are currently three, when the third one (The Relentless Moon) was nominated for the 2021 Hugo Award. When I set out, I thought they were a trilogy. Actually, though, the first two (The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky) are a duology, and the third one is connected but slightly separate. Anywho, this is a combo review for all three novels, which I now realize is a little strange, but hey here goes.

The Lady Astronaut books are historical fiction/hard sci-fi novels that take place in an alternate 1950s and ‘60s. The Calculating Stars starts thus: A meteor crashes into DC, destroying the US government and triggering a dinosaur-style climate extinction event. The race to colonize space is on, and a young mathematician named Elma York is determined to be the first woman in space — and dubbed by the media “the Lady Astronaut.” The Relentless Moon takes place at the same time as The Fated Sky, but in a different setting with a different main character (someone who was a secondary character in the duology). It’s actually more of a sci-fi mystery, which was cool.

All in all, I thought these books were fun. They have sort of slow pacing and can be a bit cheesy (Elma and her #goals husband, Nathaniel, have some hilarious fade-to-black “rocket launch” bedroom banter, which honestly I loved), but they’re exquisitely researched and explore important things like white saviorism, being Jewish, mental health, eating disorders, and disability through a 1950s lens. At the end of the day, they worked well for my busy brain as I pushed through long days of end-of-year work hustle.

If you like hard sci-fi and/or astronomy and/or math and/or historical fiction, or you’re looking for Jewish rep in SFF, these could be a great choice for you.

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reviewsandreadathons's review against another edition

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hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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rubybastille's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wasn’t ready to pivot from Elma (though in retrospect, the way Fated Sky ended should have made it pretty clear her arc was done), but I ended up enjoying this book the most out of the three. The body copy does it absolutely no favors: not only does Nicole not really mind her husband advancing his political career, it’s really a side issue next to her active involvement in disrupting saboteurs in the space program. It’s a spy thriller more than anything, while still making room for human struggles large and small.

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