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A review by tani
The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal
5.0
I was going through my massive to-read list last night, and when I sorted it by number of pages, I realized I have some short stories/novelettes/novellas on there. Knowing that some publishers will offer these free to read online, I checked out this one, and sure enough! There it was on Tor's website. So if you're at all interested in this story, you should go read it at once!
I'm not a huge fan of the short story/novelette/whatever you call this short stuff. I grew up on Robert Jordan and other epic fantasy, and there's a part of me that looks at short works and instantly labels them as a disappointment. They're just too short! However, after reading this and some other shorter works recently, I think I'm going to have to work on eliminating that knee-jerk reaction.
This is the story of the first lady astronaut of Mars, years later, when she's too old to fly most missions. She lives on Mars with her husband, who is very ill. Dying, in fact, a slow and humiliating death. She is 63, and doesn't expect to ever get another mission. Until she does, and she's faced with the choice of being there for her husband's death, or returning to the stars that she loves.
I teared up several times while reading this. It really struck an emotional note with me as far as the relationship between Elma and her husband, and the choice that she is faced with. I never want to be faced with that kind of decision. The mere thought terrifies me. My rating is based almost entirely on that emotional reasoning. The story is quite short, so the emotion was more than enough to carry me through. I didn't need anything other than the tears in my eyes to make it warrant the five star rating.
I'm not a huge fan of the short story/novelette/whatever you call this short stuff. I grew up on Robert Jordan and other epic fantasy, and there's a part of me that looks at short works and instantly labels them as a disappointment. They're just too short! However, after reading this and some other shorter works recently, I think I'm going to have to work on eliminating that knee-jerk reaction.
This is the story of the first lady astronaut of Mars, years later, when she's too old to fly most missions. She lives on Mars with her husband, who is very ill. Dying, in fact, a slow and humiliating death. She is 63, and doesn't expect to ever get another mission. Until she does, and she's faced with the choice of being there for her husband's death, or returning to the stars that she loves.
I teared up several times while reading this. It really struck an emotional note with me as far as the relationship between Elma and her husband, and the choice that she is faced with. I never want to be faced with that kind of decision. The mere thought terrifies me. My rating is based almost entirely on that emotional reasoning. The story is quite short, so the emotion was more than enough to carry me through. I didn't need anything other than the tears in my eyes to make it warrant the five star rating.