
The Calculating Stars
A Lady Astronaut Novel
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Narrated by:
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Mary Robinette Kowal
About this listen
Mary Robinette Kowal's science fiction debut, The Calculating Stars, explores the premise behind her award-winning Lady Astronaut of Mars.
Den of Geek - Best Science Fiction Books of June 2018
Omnivoracious - Fifteen Highly Anticipated SFF Reads for Summer 2018
On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the East Coast of the US, including Washington, DC. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs.
This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space and requires a much-larger share of humanity to take part in the process.
Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.
Elma’s drive to become the first lady astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
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YA Space Opera fights fascism but pulls punches
- By Dream Fractal on 06-26-23
By: Emily Tesh
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The Fifth Season: Booktrack Edition
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
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I would give this less than one star if I could.
- By Christin on 02-12-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
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The Windup Girl
- By: Paolo Bacigalupi
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman.
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Good and also Frustrating
- By txkimmers on 11-16-09
By: Paolo Bacigalupi
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Ancillary Justice
- By: Ann Leckie
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
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Has some redeeming value, but is deeply flawed
- By Matthew J. Mimnaugh on 08-07-19
By: Ann Leckie
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Downbelow Station
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Pell's Station, orbiting the alien world simply called Downbelow, had always managed to remain neutral in the ever escalating conflict between The Company, whose fleets from Earth had colonized space, and its increasingly independent and rebellious colony worlds. But Pell's location - - on the outer edge of Earth's defensive perimeter - makes her the focal point in the titanic battle of colony worlds fighting for independence.
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Narrator kills that book
- By K. Krieger on 07-11-12
By: C. J. Cherryh
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The Ten Percent Thief
- By: Lavanya Lakshminarayan
- Narrated by: Deepa Samuel, Shawn K. Jain
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to Apex City, formerly Bangalore, where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve. With the right image, values, and opinions, you can ascend to the glittering heights of the Twenty Percent—the Virtual elite—and have the world at your feet. Otherwise you risk falling to the precarious Ten Percent, and deportation to the ranks of the Analogs, with no access to electricity, running water, or even humanity. The system has no flaws. Until the elusive "Ten Percent Thief" steals a single jacaranda seed from the Virtual city.
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Great stories, not great reader
- By James Lawrence Gogek on 02-25-25
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The Medusa Chronicles
- By: Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Howard Falcon almost lost his life in an accident as the first human astronaut to explore the atmosphere of Jupiter - and a combination of human ingenuity and technical expertise brought him back. But he is no longer himself. Instead he has been changed into an augmented human: part man, part machine, and exceptionally capable.
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Almost stopped listening. Glad I didn't.
- By cek on 08-21-16
By: Stephen Baxter, and others
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Blue Remembered Earth
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 21 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Critically acclaimed author Alastair Reynolds holds a well-deserved place “among the leaders of the hard-science space opera renaissance." ( Publishers Weekly). In Blue Remembered Earth, Geoffrey Akinya wants nothing more than to study the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But when his space-explorer grandmother dies, secrets come to light and Geoffrey is dispatched to the Moon to protect the family name - and prevent an impending catastrophe.
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A surprising and staisfying departure for Reynolds
- By Michael G Kurilla on 07-21-12
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Rose/House
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Raquel Beattie
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else. But now Deniau's been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect's will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.
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Bad Plot
- By xon69 on 10-22-24
By: Arkady Martine
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Cast Under an Alien Sun
- Destiny's Crucible, Book 1
- By: Olan Thorensen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Joe Colsco boarded a flight from San Francisco to Chicago to attend a national chemistry meeting. He would never set foot on Earth again. On planet Anyar, Joe is found unconscious on a beach of a large island inhabited by humans where the level of technology is similar to Earth circa 1700. He awakes amid strangers speaking an unintelligible language and struggles to accept losing his previous life and finding a place in a society with different customs, needing a way to support himself and not knowing a single soul.
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Slowly we turn, step by step, inch by inch...
- By Ron on 09-18-17
By: Olan Thorensen
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Goliath
- A Novel
- By: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White, JD Jackson, Juliana Vélez, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked.
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Superb.
- By Jackalope on 01-31-22
By: Tochi Onyebuchi
What listeners say about The Calculating Stars
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- Lonnie-The GreatNorthernTroll-Moore
- 07-12-18
New found favorite book...
Mary Robinette Kowel is a very talented woman, as evidenced by her writing this beautiful book, and in the fantastic narration as well! Mary caught the social mores and nuances of the late fifties, beautifully!
This book covers some really hard issues of the times; women's role in society, racial bias, and even anxiety attacks... it's all wrapped up in this amazing talent that kinda' reminds me of old-school science fiction. That's probably because it takes place in an alternate, 1950's Earth, peopled with all the characters and products you'd expect to find then... and it also includes a meteor impact of truly cataclysmic proportions!
Science and mathematics are really important in this post-meteor-impacted-Earth, as opposed to the old trope of societal collapse after the big "event". Where the story really distinguishes itself is that it's written from woman's POV as she and others try to end the intolerance and inequity of a patriarchal society, and go to work in fields that have traditionally been reserved only for men... and Mary Robinette Kowal accomplished this without giving the story an agenda-driven feel to it!!!
This is my new found favorite book of the year! If you enjoyed books like The Martian and Hidden Figures, you're going to love this one... Oh, and even better? The sequel will be released soon!
Simply Stellar storytelling, in every way!⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Matt Pierce
- 09-07-18
Imagine a history where the space race began early
Imagine an America fresh from world war 2 and then Washington DC is wiped out by a meteorite. Instead of piddling around with space flight the US and the world lurch towards space. This book tells a great story in the landscape of the early 20th century with all it's hope and oppression.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Devan Chatelain
- 07-11-18
Excellent
Loved every second of this! Two things: I normally don't like 1st person. This book has proven to me that it can be done extremely well. Second, I don't normally love author narrated books, but Ms Kowal is now one of my favorite narrators. This is the first of her books that I have read, and I'm looking forward to catching up with her previously published works.
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3 people found this helpful
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- JMGL
- 08-09-18
Engaging characters, great story!
Absolutely loved this re-imagined story of the race to space. Great historical details that make the alternate history recognizable and familiar while taking you on a thrilling journey. Characters feel three dimensional and real, and the Yorks are on of my favorite fictional couples now.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jay
- 09-26-18
I would rate it higher if I could
what an incredible gripping story, it's like hidden figures mixed with the Martian and it's fabulous.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Long Island Reader
- 07-27-18
A truly great listening experience!
An absolutely incredible listen. This is a truly great book, with a plot that grabs you from the start, and doesn't let go until the very end (and considering there is a sequel coming out, not really even then.)
The book is well researched, and a completely believable path to what might have been had the U.S. Space program begun earlier, and Washington been shipped out by a meteor in 1952.
Emma Wexler York is now my all time favorite southern Jewish lady computer "Astronette." Yes, at one time computer ( like typewriter) was actually a job title, one usually held by women. There was indeed a program to test and train women Astronauts, that was killed in the early 60's.
I love Emma as a trail blazing fictional role model, dealing with so many of the historic (and sadly still present) stereotypes the way she does in this book.
I would be remiss in not praising the narrating talents of the author. She is a superb and multi talented voice artist. There are not many authors who could pull off the marathon of their own book the way she has.
All praise to Mary Robinette Kowal!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 11-22-18
21st century quality sci fi and alternate history
The deep character development and unflinching looks at prejudice set this book apart from many classics. The convincing and powerful performance by the reader is icing on the cake.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kristin
- 10-20-18
Worth the credit
Nicely done alternate history. As another reviewer mentioned, those of you who are pilots and/or closely involved with the space program will choke in some places but it’s well worth the listen despite those moments.
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1 person found this helpful
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- The Mays
- 09-15-19
Captivating
I loved it! Not all authors can pull of narrating their own books, but Mary Robinette Kowal did it beautifully. This book kept me wanting more, in fact I bought the second book while I was in the middle of this one. I hope you love it as much as I did!
Happy listening!
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1 person found this helpful
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- TheMorrigen
- 02-04-23
Brilliant Novel, Profound First-Person Narrative
I loved this book. I think it is a profound and surprisingly relatable experience for anyone who has been personally told “you can’t” or “you don’t belong.”
Rather than preaching at the audience or belittling or vilifying large swaths of society, Kowal gives a breathtaking and very human perspective to overcoming adversity and achieving a goal. Also, strong science in the science fiction and believable alternate history.
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1 person found this helpful