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A review by toggle_fow
The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Guys, why is this just not it? Honest question.
The Martian Contingency is book four in the Lady Astronaut series. I started out really liking The Calculating Stars, and the series premise overall is incredible.
It's alternate history science fiction starting in the 1960s, when a massive meteor slams into the Atlantic ocean, instantly wiping out most of the east coast and dooming humankind to a slow but inexorable climate-change death.
The first book centers on Elma, a scientist and mathematician who joins the effort to make it to outer space in order to save humanity. She faces obstacles both scientific and social/cultural on her way to becoming the Lady Astronaut, and it's a Hidden Figures/Interstellar mash-up that I completely enjoyed.
Book four returns to Elma as the protagonist, only now it's sixteen years later and she and her husband are part of what is intended to be the first wave of permanent colonization of Mars. They face the expected issues and setbacks, of course, but there's also something strange going on - a dangerous secret kept between the members of the first Mars expedition, that Elma isn't being told.
For some reason, this book felt like it took all the minor annoyances present in book one (Elma and Nathaniel's relationship consisting of 100% awkward rocket-themed sexual puns and fade-to-black sex scenes, somewhat lackluster relationship work in general) and turned them up to eleven. Meanwhile, everything fun in book one (the science! the danger! the math problems! the overcoming society's doubt, scorn, and roadblocks!) got turned way, way down.
It takes a long time for The Martian Contingency to even introduce the first big problem. Before that point, all we have is Elma doubting herself, Elma noticing the first Mars expedition crew's shadiness and being lied to about it, Elma making cultural connections with her coworkers of all faiths and races, Elma continuing to doubt herself, Elma doing chores, Elma and Nathaniel making cringey innuendo puns and multiple closed-door sex scenes, etc.
When the problem actually happens, it was a huge relief. Finally! A space problem to solve! But for some reason the space problems even in the second half of the book remain on the periphery of the story. The women get sent to the orbiting space station, while the men remain on-planet.
Supposedly, this is a good thing because it means the women will get to do all the spacewalks. And we do get to see Elma do one spacewalk! Other than that, the amount of time we get to see anyone actually addressing any plot issue or solving any problem is miniscule, and these problems are political and PR problems. I'm not even mad at that, though, because I LOVE political and PR problems compared what we actually do get to see.
We get way too much discussion of how upset all the men are that they won't get to have sex while separated, and how the lack of condoms is such a huge issue for the colonists. We get to see Elma baking at least three times, and the women celebrating cross-cultural holidays together at least twice. We continue to be treated to plenty of Elma's self-doubting moments.
And I want to clarify that I don't hate baking, or self doubt, or cross-cultural holidays! All of these things could be enjoyable! I love a multifaceted main character, and cast bonding! The problem is that when this takes the lion's share of the wordcount and the actual plot is happening in the margins of the story, it becomes frustrating. And this series continues to fail to convince me that the characters have strong relationships and care about each other.
There were approximately two times I was compelled by this book: 1) the disaster that puts Nathaniel in danger, and 2) the reveal of what happened during the first Mars expedition.
Both of those were good moments that held the strong place in the forefront of the narrative where they needed to be. Everything else fell mostly flat for me, which was not only disappointing but also kind of shocking. This story and this world have such an incredible premise that it should be impossible to miss such a slam-dunk.
(Thank you to the publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!)
The Martian Contingency is book four in the Lady Astronaut series. I started out really liking The Calculating Stars, and the series premise overall is incredible.
It's alternate history science fiction starting in the 1960s, when a massive meteor slams into the Atlantic ocean, instantly wiping out most of the east coast and dooming humankind to a slow but inexorable climate-change death.
The first book centers on Elma, a scientist and mathematician who joins the effort to make it to outer space in order to save humanity. She faces obstacles both scientific and social/cultural on her way to becoming the Lady Astronaut, and it's a Hidden Figures/Interstellar mash-up that I completely enjoyed.
Book four returns to Elma as the protagonist, only now it's sixteen years later and she and her husband are part of what is intended to be the first wave of permanent colonization of Mars. They face the expected issues and setbacks, of course, but there's also something strange going on - a dangerous secret kept between the members of the first Mars expedition, that Elma isn't being told.
For some reason, this book felt like it took all the minor annoyances present in book one (Elma and Nathaniel's relationship consisting of 100% awkward rocket-themed sexual puns and fade-to-black sex scenes, somewhat lackluster relationship work in general) and turned them up to eleven. Meanwhile, everything fun in book one (the science! the danger! the math problems! the overcoming society's doubt, scorn, and roadblocks!) got turned way, way down.
It takes a long time for The Martian Contingency to even introduce the first big problem. Before that point, all we have is Elma doubting herself, Elma noticing the first Mars expedition crew's shadiness and being lied to about it, Elma making cultural connections with her coworkers of all faiths and races, Elma continuing to doubt herself, Elma doing chores, Elma and Nathaniel making cringey innuendo puns and multiple closed-door sex scenes, etc.
When the problem actually happens, it was a huge relief. Finally! A space problem to solve! But for some reason the space problems even in the second half of the book remain on the periphery of the story. The women get sent to the orbiting space station, while the men remain on-planet.
Supposedly, this is a good thing because it means the women will get to do all the spacewalks. And we do get to see Elma do one spacewalk! Other than that, the amount of time we get to see anyone actually addressing any plot issue or solving any problem is miniscule, and these problems are political and PR problems. I'm not even mad at that, though, because I LOVE political and PR problems compared what we actually do get to see.
We get way too much discussion of how upset all the men are that they won't get to have sex while separated, and how the lack of condoms is such a huge issue for the colonists. We get to see Elma baking at least three times, and the women celebrating cross-cultural holidays together at least twice. We continue to be treated to plenty of Elma's self-doubting moments.
And I want to clarify that I don't hate baking, or self doubt, or cross-cultural holidays! All of these things could be enjoyable! I love a multifaceted main character, and cast bonding! The problem is that when this takes the lion's share of the wordcount and the actual plot is happening in the margins of the story, it becomes frustrating. And this series continues to fail to convince me that the characters have strong relationships and care about each other.
There were approximately two times I was compelled by this book: 1) the disaster that puts Nathaniel in danger, and 2) the reveal of what happened during the first Mars expedition.
Both of those were good moments that held the strong place in the forefront of the narrative where they needed to be. Everything else fell mostly flat for me, which was not only disappointing but also kind of shocking. This story and this world have such an incredible premise that it should be impossible to miss such a slam-dunk.
(Thank you to the publisher for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!)