A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. While there's a fascinating alternate history here of humanity's quest for the stars, it could stand to be told with characters who are a little more human.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing. The plot hits all its beats dutifully, but don't expect surprises.

(Nathaniel is even more exemplary-understanding, supportive, hot, and perfectly progressive.) With the exception of a misogynist antagonist, the supporting cast is never too deeply developed-a shame, given their supposed diversity. She advocates for feminism and for women of color with admirable.admirableness, but Elma never really addresses her own privilege. Her supposed flaw of discomfort with public speaking is apparently not too obvious to anyone but her, as she's lauded by other characters for how well she does it. Elma is an obvious genius, ethical to a fault, and sets records at everything she attempts. The Apollo-era technology is well-researched and well-presented and always feels organic-more organic than the characters.

Elma fights the sexism and racism of the era as well as her own personal anxieties. Earth may have just decades to live, and both men and women will need to go into space for humanity to survive. The Meteor, as it comes to be known, destroys Washington, D.C., and most of the East Coast, leaving the survivors to scramble to fill leadership gaps and address the sudden winter brought on by the impact and the devastating greenhouse effect that will follow. Elma is a physicist, pilot, and human computer she and her engineer husband, Nathaniel, both work for NASA's predecessor agency.

In the 1950s, the world nearly ends, first due to a strike from what Elma York will always remind people was a meteor ite and then through the resulting climate change. Veteran historical fantasist Kowal ( Ghost Talkers, 2016, etc.) tackles an alternate history of the space race, in which a catastrophe necessitates an earlier reach for the stars-and the confrontation of gender barriers.

The calculating stars book