The Lady Astronaut Stories, Part 2
by Mary Robinette Kowal
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted April 20, 2025
The Martian Contingency / Silent Spaces (pending)
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Please refer back to this page for my comments on the first three novels, plus one short story. The fourth novel in the Lady Astronaut series was published almost five weeks ago, but it took a while for my library to receive, process, and make it available, and way longer than I would have liked to finish it. Remember, this is alternate history. Events in this book take place in 1970, with the impetus for the accelerated space program being a meteor strike in 1952, which caused a nuclear winter that threatened life on Earth. Dr. Elma York is again the first-person narrator. She had been part of the First Mars Expedition detailed in the second book, but had stayed aboard the orbiting craft, as had also happened on the first crewed Moon landing. This time she is able to land on the red planet. Literally, since she is the Second Expedition's lead pilot. Her husband Nathaniel is also part of the mission, although things she learns later has her thinking he shouldn't have been. But she loves him even more than she loves flying, more than being the Lady Astronaut, and it would have been another very long time apart otherwise. Elma is the deputy administrator of Bradbury Base, which at the time consisted of two domes, Main Base and Garage, which housed rovers and other equipment. Two others are planned, one being a dormitory, another as greenhouse, with adjacent offices, science modules, and storage. I don't want to reveal too many details of the plot, but the contingency of the title refers to various things that alter the mission's original parameters, so that word should have been pluralized.
The first thing that forced changes was the death on Earth of the longtime IAC Director, with his replacement being someone with whom Elma had clashed on numerous occasions. Stetson Parker had been among those who felt the space program should have been limited to men, but he and others had been overruled, with Elma's celebrity status as the Lady Astronaut paving the way for her and other women to participate. Parker does implement a change in personnel at Bradbury Base, moving all the women but one, their doctor, back to the orbiting Goddard. The second alteration of plans came after a crisis on Mars, the failure of CO2 scrubbers, which had previously happened on the moon in the third book. That had been sabotage by a member of the Earth First movement. Could that be the case here too? Nathaniel is lead engineer on the mission, and had already been working the solution for scrubbers for the second dome, following the loss of equipment when one of their early supply drops had crashed. His idea was to repurpose parts from one of the Goddard's five engines to complete scrubbers for the new dome. He assured everyone, including IAC, that the Goddard could return to Earth on the remaining four engines if need be, although the intent had been for it to remain in Mars orbit as a permanent space station. Elma leads several spacewalks to acquire those parts, which are taken down to Mars in one of their two shuttles. Unfortunately, the scrubbers in the first dome fail during work on the second dome, Nathaniel and two others incapacitated for a time. Another unfortunate thing: Elma had already been named the Goddard's mission commander, so is unable to go down to the surface to be with her husband.
Since the second book had also been narrated by Elma, who remained aboard the orbiting craft, not getting to walk on Mars, there were details of that mission not revealed until this book. It is another unfortunate thing that that was the case, because Elma had several questions about things she saw at the Main Base, with other crew who had been there on the first mission dodging her questions, or outright lying to her. That information would have helped anticipate several of the problems that occur later. Problems that led to Nathaniel's condition after the scrubber malfunction. Not to mention things about Nathaniel that he, and the doctors, had kept from her. They had been married more than 20 years, and she did not know things a wife should have, but which Nathaniel and IAC had withheld. On the other hand, she had withheld things from him, or thought she had, but he had realized her problems with anxiety when they first met at Stanford, years before they married. Everyone else who later learned that were amazed at how poised she always seemed to be during interviews and promotional tours as the Lady Astronaut. If that had been common knowledge, and the same for Nathaniel's condition, it is quite possible neither would have been allowed to go to space. Nathaniel could have managed to maintain his job as IAC's lead engineer on Earth, or at least one of their engineers, but now has to adapt to the very different conditions on Mars. The very first story written for this series showed they were still on Mars years later. Everything else written so far has been set prior to that story, which will be included in the new collection mentioned below.
Again, the strength of these books are character related, how people with such varied backgrounds, political and religious history, and wildly different personalities, can mesh together to face the harsh conditions in space and on alien worlds. It is a different history, but all of the same problems that have faced humanity are still with them; nationalistic fervor, ethnic diversity, racism, misogyny, and the clash of egos. The first story appeared in 2012, with the first novel not until 2018. All of them combined were nominated for a Best Series Hugo in 2021. I feel confident this new book will place the series on the ballot again next year. I don't know how long this series will last, but I will be happy to read any and all future adventures. They are highly recommended.
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Silent Spaces is a short story collection set in the Lady Astronaut universe. Several have been available online and/or as ebooks for a while, but this new book, powered by a Kickstarter campaign, will include a few never before published. I am not sure when I will be able to read it, but since I will get the ebook, that might arrive sooner than others will get their print copies. I have seen a list of story titles, but I am not sure of the final order, and I think there will a few other surprises not yet revealed. My first page on this series includes the first story published, "The Lady Astronaut of Mars," but since it will be in the new collection I will eventually move those comments to this page. I think it will be available in a couple of months, hopefully not much longer than that, and I am sure it will be released to bookstores and ebook retailers, not limited to only Kickstarter backers. Stay tuned.
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