A review by jakej
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

medium-paced

1.5

There's not a single new idea in here: it's the plot of Seveneves with the social issues and character dynamics of Hidden Figures (notably sacrificing the depth of both of these books in its quest to merge them together).

For an alternate history novel, there's a startlingly small amount of imagination or unknowns being confronted. The story is played completely safe, with little investigation on how the Meteor actually affects the world or anything else that is going on in this alternate timeline, ending up with a timeline that makes no sense at a base level (how is America the leader of the space race when the entire eastern seaboard [including the capital!] was blown clean off the map?).

As for the main plot and character dynamics, you know exactly what will happen as soon as the space program starts (which would've been the case even if this wasn't a prequel to an extant story).

The character interactions themselves feel ripped straight from a sitcom: we have the genius double PhD mathematician/physicist/pilot main character

(don't worry: she has anxiety so she's relatable!)

; the genius, unfailingly supportive, incredibly handsome husband; the gaggle of spunky supportive friends, etc etc.

This 'Big Bang Theory'-esque setup makes it hard to maintain immersion in the writing: I understand the author did a lot of research in the historical and engineering side of things, but the math is either basic, wrong, or both

(at one point Elma starts listing the prime numbers to calm down, and starts with 1)

.

Two other things that baffled me:

the situation with Stetsons wife and Elma attempting suicide. Neither contributed anything to the story and seemed like they were added to contribute to a dark atmosphere, which didn't work.