They are also books that would probably make John W Campbell apoplectic, as Kowal puts second-wave feminism front and centre with York having to fight institutional and personal prejudices to become an astronaut and also brings in the racial politics of 1950s/60s America. I say Campbellian, because this is an epic series about bold people with top piloting skills, sharp mathematical brains and a dedication to treating the perils of space as engineering problems to be solved. Set in an alternate 1960s where a cataclysmic meteorite crash has plunged the Earth into a climate crisis and spurned on space exploration, the first two novels followed the back story of Elma York, the heroine of her much earlier short story The Lady Astronaut of Mars. Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series continues to offer an almost Campbellian approach to science fiction with her alternative history series.
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