The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

*The Fated Sky* continues the grand sweep of alternate history begun in *The Calculating Stars*. It is 1961, and the International Aerospace Coalition has established a colony on the moon. Elma York, the noted Lady Astronaut, is working on rotation, flying shuttles on the moon and returning regularly to Earth.

But humanity must get a foothold on Mars. The first exploratory mission is being planned, and none of the women astronauts is on the crew list. The International Aerospace Coalition has grave reservations about sending their "Lady Astronauts" on such a dangerous mission. The problem with that is the need for midjourney navigation calculations. The new electronic computational machines are not reliable and not easily programmed. It might be okay for a backup, but there will have to be a human computer on board. And all the computers are women.

This description comes from the publisher. *The Fated Sky* is the second book in the Lady Astronaut series, the first of which is *The Calculating Sky*.

This book is way more action packed than the first one. It feels more sci-fy-ish with a great deal of ordinary human life details. And that makes the story and the characters feel alive. Underneath the astronaut's objective problem-solving attitude we get a glimpse of their inner world with flaws, fears and anxiety. I emphasized with every character, even Parker who we all know from the first book is kind of a jerk.
And it's an epic adventure: ships going on a 3 year mission to start a colony in Mars. I used my suspension of disbelief on how they created micro gravity in some areas of the ship and how they could cultivate plants while on the space travel. I mean, it was the 60's, could we really have come up with a ship capable of journeying for 3 years with humans inside? I like to think that we could, but deep inside it feels improbable.
After I bought the idea that, yes, we could go to Mars with the technology available in the 60's, it's an amazing tale of how that trip would go. Elma York is a great character and I felt right by her side while reading. She is smart, goal driven and extremely curious. It was refreshing to see her discussion with Nathaniel about having kids or not. And their line of thought was so aligned with mine!
Diversity, racism and human rights discussions are intertwined with the story. There is even a Brazilian astronaut that curses in Portuguese.
Anyway, highly recommended as an entertaining and exciting soft sci-fi read!

If you liked the first book, you'll probably like the second.

CAWPILE
9 8 8 7 8 9 8
CAWPILE SCORE
C-9
A-8
W-8
P-7
I-8
L-9
E-8
TOTAL-8.14/10

Mary Robinette Kowal does an amazing job of potraying real characters doing both mundane and extraordinary tasks. I love the relationships she builds and the work put into understanding the “tech”