The Relentless Moon

jkb@books.theunseen.city reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Other Lady Astronaut

5 stars

At first I was surprised that it was Elma's voice I was reading. But in the end this writer is just wonderful and I found Nicole Wargin a wonderful character to explore.

Like Elma there are secrets to this character that I will not explore. I will say that the time period of the third book takes place at the same time of the second book. You don't need to read book 2 but there is a spoiler in this book if you hadn't read it.

All the characters were great and the Mary Robinette Kowal never shies from either the misogyny nor the racism prevalent for the time period of this book. Nothing is shocking but it's beautifully written and very much a part of 1960s.

I do hope that if Kowal continues the Lady Astronaut series she adds some LGBTQ characters.

Kadomi reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (A Lady Astronaut novel)

Review of 'The Relentless Moon' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This was my least favorite of the three Lady Astronaut books. This is the first one where it's not from Elma's PoV but instead Nicole Wargin, wife to a powerful politician and a lady astronaut. While Elma travels to Mars, Nicole is on the Moon and deals with the backlash of the dangerous Earth First terrorist group that already tried to sabotage the Mars mission.

Most of the book is spent trying to find out who Icarus are, Earth First terrorists who are on the Moon. It hit a bit close to home, because unvaccinated people are bringing polio to the moon, there's quarantine while the moon settlers wait for vaccine from Earth.

Most of my issues with the book are that I really couldn't connect with Nicole at all. Elma struggled with anxiety, Nicole with anorexia, and as a perpetually overweight person with anxiety anorexia is very hard to …

This was my least favorite of the three Lady Astronaut books. This is the first one where it's not from Elma's PoV but instead Nicole Wargin, wife to a powerful politician and a lady astronaut. While Elma travels to Mars, Nicole is on the Moon and deals with the backlash of the dangerous Earth First terrorist group that already tried to sabotage the Mars mission.

Most of the book is spent trying to find out who Icarus are, Earth First terrorists who are on the Moon. It hit a bit close to home, because unvaccinated people are bringing polio to the moon, there's quarantine while the moon settlers wait for vaccine from Earth.

Most of my issues with the book are that I really couldn't connect with Nicole at all. Elma struggled with anxiety, Nicole with anorexia, and as a perpetually overweight person with anxiety anorexia is very hard to grasp for me. She just never felt likeable to me. I applaud the choice at the end of the book to make her the next US president as character development. Also, it kinda read like a cold war espionage novel, and that is not a genre I enjoy reading at all. So I felt it dragged on quite a bit.

Overall, it was decent but not great, IMHO.

Michael Gouker reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

Review of 'The Relentless Moon' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The Lady Astronaut Alternate Universe continues with Nicole's story, wherein we learn that the Earth Firsters are willing to do anything to stop human exploration of space. This is a great story, but I resisted, because initially I really wanted to know about York's flight to Mars. Kowal tells a story that hits a lot closer to home, especially in post-qAnon America where we have all seen adults we thought were smarter believe unsubstantiated rumors and blatant lies. If this is intentionally, I really like Kowal's choice, especially putting the racism and sexism front & center. Brave move. For me at least it worked very well! Bravo!

zeitverschreib [bookwyrm] reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (Lady Astronaut, #3)

Review of 'The Relentless Moon' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

Absolutely fantastic. I loved every single page of this book.

Even though I was a bit surprised by the new main character, I soon found myself as unable (or unwilling?) to put my reader down as I was while reading the first two novels from the LAU.