Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Calculating Stars

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

20 reviews

spentcello's review against another edition

dark hopeful inspiring 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

3.5

I really liked most of this - I was invested in the story for the most part and it was gripping (particularly the beginning) and made me not want to put the book down. I liked the way in which Kowal used an alternate history to tell the stories of groups of people whose contributions have systematically been down-played in history. Sometimes, I felt that the obvious pointing out of racist and sexist biases at all points intruded on the story, and I would have rather that this was done in more showing way rather than just straight telling like 'wow, I can't believe that there aren't any black people on this list' (paraphrasing here) over and over again. But I appreciate the importance of getting these biases across to the purpose of the book.

I didn't particularly like how choppy the story felt in parts and some of it felt like it wasn't really serving any purpose by being in there. The repeated puns/jokes/double entendres were grating and sometimes stretching quite a lot to get there. I also find it highly unlikely that a maths genius and her rocket scientist husband, both of whom work in rocketry, would make a bunch of dirty jokes that stretch technical aspects of their field so much to be inaccurate. If anything (and this is taken from my own interactions with people in various specialisations - including myself), jokes in your main technical field of expertise are hyper-specific and generally only funny to others who have the same technical expertise. So I find it quite unrealistic and inconsistent with their characters when Nathaniel and Elma are making a bunch of jokes about turning the key in each others' ignitions and handling rockets. This was the same with the maths, with some particularly stretched jokes about prime numbers. I had other minor gripes with a lot of the other banter between Nathaniel and Elma as well and found I was really just trying to push through those parts to get to the more enjoyable parts of the story.

The issues I had with the book were minor though, and I felt compelled to keep reading right through to the end. Definitely a great read if you have any interest in alternate histories and space exploration.

Content Warnings

cascadienne's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings