Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - The Calculating Stars

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

38 reviews

cascadienne's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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minervacerridwen's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.25

The Calculating Stars is a really well-written slice-of-life report of the life of a brilliant mathematician in an alternate history defined by a meteorite impact. Even the technical parts kept me engaged, and the bits where the book seemed to slow down never lasted too long. While not the main plot, the story deals with sexism and racism, and I feel like I actually learned some things at the end.
I'm glad I finally got around to reading this book thanks to T & Fie!
(Note to my future self: for emetophobia reasons I will probably not want to reread this.)

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oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

3.5

Enjoyable and easy to read story about a human "computer," married to the lead engineer of a space agency who both live through a meteorite hit that devastated much of the eastern seaboard of the United States. Elma, the main character, has experience flying after serving as a WASP in WWII and wants to be taken seriously as a potential astronaut when she helps discover that earthlings are going to have to start colonizing space sooner rather than later due to the catastrophic environmental effects from the meteorite.

This book had enough interest to hold my attention, though I enjoyed the pace at the beginning of the book (directly before & after the meteorite hit) more than the latter half which sometimes feels like it's not sure where it's going or headed. The pacing isn't always spot on, either - some plot points seem to linger for a long time without strong reason and then other thing things I assumed would take much longer to happen seem to pass in the blink of an eye. The ending of the book was a bit weird to me - it feels like its hurtling towards the conclusion in a rush when I would have liked for the author to spend more time getting there, but it wasn't a huge deal.

This book attempts to broach a lot of difficult topics - feminism and sexism in the 1950's, grief and loss after a catastrophic event, mental health/depression/anxiety, anti-semitism, and homophobia. I am glad that the author includes and grapples with all these issues as it feels very authentic to the timeframe that this story is taking place. I especially am grateful for the author's recognition of mental health and the part that mental health plays in our personal and professional lives (especially for women - who are seen as "overly emotional" or "hysterical" to start with). I thought the way that this topic was raised and examined was fairly true to historical context and added a good layer of depth to the story. I do think that the plot points and scenes that had to do with the character grappling with her experience as a white woman were sometimes glossed over or not done with the sort of cultural sensitivity that I would have expected for a book published this recently. Again, I'm glad the topic is raised but I think I expected a bit more depth.

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bibliocat's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

3.75

I was looking forward to some science-y goodness after reading a bunch of cozy mysteries. If you liked Hidden Figures, this is a fictionalized offshoot.
I'm not sure how I really felt about this one. We follow the adventures of Dr. Elma York, a WWII WASP pilot and mathematical savant in the immediate aftermath of a meteorite hitting the East coast USA, setting up our alternate history of how humanity gets to the moon.

Dr. York, or Mrs. Nathaniel York as others would name her, struggles to become accepted into the ranks of astronauts to forge the way to colonize the moon. Along the way, she deals with all the sexism inherent in that organization, and some anti-semitism as well. Imagine women training in underwater situations requiring them to wear makeup and bikinis instead of appropriate flight suits.

She is not perfect, however, and suffers from anxiety. Being the wife of the lead engineer of the newly formed International Aerospace Coalition (IAC), which replaces NACA, and gaining recognition as the "Lady Astronaut", she breaks down over public speaking, and we see the stigma of taking anti-anxiety meds at the time. I wonder how much of an issue that would be today?
It's also used as leverage against her by her arch enemy, Colonel Parker Stetson, hyper-confidant, hyper-masculine, women-should-never-be-in-the-military test pilot. She reported him for sexual harassment (not to her, but to other women), back when she was a WASP, and he's had it in for her ever since. I actually think the most interesting part of the book is where she learns about medical issues HE'S having and then blackmail can go both ways.

Also addressed in the book, although other characters other than Elma aren't' really focused on, is the inherent racism of the time. When the meteorite hits, the people flowing westward who are accepted as refugees are overwhelmingly white. Elma realizes this. She sees what is going on as well with the black women in her flight club who are also ignored for astronaut training despite being completely qualified.

One thing that was touched on, but probably not focused on quite enough was the environmental catastrophe to come. The bulk of humanity knows it's going to get left behind to die, and there's a few little protests/complaints from the population, but the total focus is still on the space program. Nothing is ever touched on with earth science to try to mitigate what's about to happen.

Another thing I thought was "unrealistic" was that Elma's husband was so 100% supportive of her career efforts. I expected some microaggressions from him as well.

I think the thing about the book that was obvious was the story wasn't going to be wrapped up by the end of book one. The plot about Elma's trials and tribulations of getting to be an astronaut was slow. This just wasn't a page-turner for me. I've read reviews that the second and third books in the series were better, so I'll be reading The Fated Sky right after this.

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