Book Reviews: THE CALCULATING STARS and THE FATED SKY by Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series began in 2012 when Audible.com published her novelette “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” within RIP-OFF, an original audiobook anthology. The Hugo-winning story subsequently saw print. Since then, Kowal has revisited the universe of that novelette with additional short stories, including “The Phobos Experience” in an issue of last summer’s The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Additionally, she has also taken the story back to its “origins,” starting a series of Lady Astronaut novels with The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky. The third novel in this series, The Relentless Moon, is due from Tor Books in 2020, meaning that you have plenty of time to catch up if you haven’t yet experienced this series of positivity and hope. Combining alternate history with science fiction, the series tells a story both progressive and uplifting. At the core of the series lies the principle that if space is the future of humanity, then the process of humanity’s movement beyond the confines of Earth should involve all elements of that humanity. The stories are about the societal and technical challenges that face the characters involved in reaching that goal of colonizing alien worlds. Starting chronologically in 1952, Kowal takes elements of history and spins in an imagined catastrophe to set in motion an alternate timeline where the space program could be built differently, perhaps with more diversity. The establishment of that diverse representation proves as great of a challenge for humanity as do the physical threats against extra-planetary survival. The Lady Astronaut series depicts its characters overcoming these challenges, one step at a time.
146. Artificial Intelligence and You w/ Mary Robinette Kowal (A Discussion)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode146ArtificialIntelligenceAndYouWMaryRobinetteKowal/SandF%20–%20Episode%20146%20–%20Artificial%20Intelligence%20and%20You%20w%20Mary%20Robinette%20Kowal.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSRunaway robots, evil computers, and automatons, oh my! Mary Robinette Kowal, author of the recently released Without a Summer, joins us to discuss one of science fiction’s longest-lived concepts: artificial intelligence. We explore the motivations behind their prevalence in SF, early examples of AI (pre-Victorian Era), and more. Plus, we talk a little bit about Mary’s new book, which we’re sure a lot of you will love! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 146 — Download (MP3) Intro and Discussion (0:00 – 1:28:58) Mary’s Website Mary’s Twitter The Year Without a Summer (Wikipedia) Shades of Milk and Honey (UK Edition) The (Mechanical) Turk (Wikipedia) Eerie, Indiana (IMDB) Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam (Wikipedia) The Future Eve by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam (Wikipedia) de l’Isle-Adam on Project Gutenberg (all in French, I’m afraid) Check out Mary’s books! They are awesome! You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible. Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
