In The Relentless Moon, the third novel in The Lady Astronaut series, Mary Robinette Kowal picks up the story of a world shattered by a meteor strike and an accelerated space race. After focusing on Elma York in the first two novels in the series, Kowal jumps a decade and switches first-person narration from Elma York to Nicole Wargin as a colony is established on the moon and the clock on the fate of humanity seems to be accelerating.
Mary Robinette Kowal continues her Hugo and Nebula award-winning Lady Astronaut series, following The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, with The Relentless Moon.
The Earth is coming to the boiling point as the climate disaster of the Meteor strike becomes more and more clear, but the political situation is already overheated. Riots and sabotage plague the space program. The IAC’s goal of getting as many people as possible off Earth before it becomes uninhabitable is being threatened.
Elma York is on her way to Mars, but the Moon colony is still being established. Her friend and fellow Lady Astronaut Nicole Wargin is thrilled to be one of those pioneer settlers, using her considerable flight and political skills to keep the program on track. But she is less happy that her husband, the Governor of Kansas, is considering a run for President.
Nicole Wargin was a fellow “Lady Astronaut” with Elma York but while Elma continued her life in space, Nicole’s husband Kenneth became Kansas Governor and she was absorbed in the life of politics. Kansas happens to be where the base of operations for the Space Program, as a result of the meteor impact a decade prior to the start of this novel. In other words, Nicole is literally living at the centerpoint of the space program and all the politics that are involved.
While the 1960s in our world were chaotic and tumultuous stew of social change, the 1960s of Kowal’s novel are equally socially charged In the intervening 20 years since The Fated Sky, a great deal of the global lens has focused on leaving the Earth. Unfortunately, not everybody will be able to leave the Earth and there has been a rising faction of people calling themselves “Earth First” who think humanity should not leave the earth.
As Kenneth’s political career is on the rise, he is aiming to become the Democratic Presidential Nominee, Nicole is recruited to help establish the first Lunar Colony. There are complications, of course. The social unrest – a mix of the growing racial conflicts and the aforementioned group who oppose leaving the Earth, coupled with what is essentially the emerging technology of space travel and planetary colonization, make for a less than smooth ramp to departure for Nicole on her way to the Moon.
Our lens into this world, as mentioned, is Nicole and the story is told completely through her voice and point of view. She brings a slightly different sensibility than Elma, has her own set of unique issues, and while the overall voice of Kowal as a writer powerfully shines through, Nicole quickly sets herself apart as a wholly engaging protagonist. As an astronaut, she has to have a high level of drive and intelligence, just like Elma. From there, we learn what really sets Nicole apart – she is incredibly politically deft. She’s a codebreaker and oh yeah, she was a spy in World War II. How goddamn cool is the idea of a character being a spy and an astronaut? Seems a little over the top when it is plainly stated, but this is part of the genius of Kowal’s writing – as we get to know Nicole, it is impossible to not believe this about her.
The fact that this story hinges on a woman in her fifties (with arthritis) is, quite frankly, out of the ordinary for Science Fiction. Add to that the her eating disorder, and you’ve got even more traits that aren’t typically associated with protagonists in Science Fiction. But here again is what makes this such a brilliant novel, Kowal is thrusting such an atypical character at the forefront of this novel, but all I could do as a reader is shrug and say, “so what.” More in a, “Yeah, Nicole is believable and human so why couldn’t she be the hero of this novel?” Kowal brings all of Nicole’s traits – age, disorder, spy, astronaut, burgeoning politician into an elegant balance.
I’ve gushed about the wonderful characterization on display here, but Kowal doesn’t allow plot or narrative power to take a back seat. This novel is very much an espionage thriller in many respects, with the natural tension of a novel where one of the main themes being that there are untrustworthy characters mixing with our protagonist.
The aforementioned social unrest on Earth is paralleled palpably on the Moon, lending both a personal, intimate tension for Nicole as well as a global tension for the fate of humanity. Personal since her husband as Kansas governor is at the center of where much of the social unrest happens.
What I found particularly gripping and fascinating was how prescient and relevant the novel is to the world we live in today. The Earth First group who are adamant about not leaving the planet seems extremely short-sighted in ignoring the obvious warning signs that the planet Earth will no longer be habitable. Simple human survival shouldn’t be a politicized thing, but it is in the book. Although the book was written before the current pandemic, that can easily be transposed to the idea of wearing a mask today. There’s also a quarantine element that comes up in the plot of the novel, which again, is eerily relevant in the 2020 COVID pandemic.
I’ll admit, when I first began reading The Relentless Moon and realized I was not reading Elma, I was slightly unbalanced. I didn’t read the description of the book before reading the book itself for I needed NO convincing that I wanted to read the book! It took me a chapter or two to settle in with Nicole as my storyteller and I suspect that was intentional on Kowal’s part. Hell, it is pretty clever move that helps to bring new readers into the series. That is, The Relentless Moon could work as a fantastic jumping on point for people who (sadly) haven’t read The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky.
The Relentless Moon is probably going to be my favorite Science Fiction novel of the year. It is a hopeful, beautiful, gripping, powerful continuation of The Lady Astronaut saga, which is emerging as a Modern Masterpiece of the Genre.
Wherever Kowal charts these stories, I will follow without hesitation.
Highly, highly recommended.
July 2020 | Tor
544 Pages | Trade Paperback
http://maryrobinettekowal.com
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Tor
Excerpt: https://www.tor.com/2020/06/16/excerpts-the-relentless-moon-lady-astronaut-series-mary-robinette-kowal/
I couldn’t agree more! I’m dying to discuss this book with other readers, but can’t say why because: spoilers, sweetie.