I read a lot of raving reviews about Mary Robinette's books but this was the first I read.
An excellent sci-fi/alternate history story that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Great world building and character development, excellent storytelling.
I want to read the other book in the series and I loved this one.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Trying to find a saboteur on the moon base. Like an Agatha Christie in space. Absolutely loved it.

I got a review copy of this from NetGalley and read it without having read the first two in the series. I’m sure there will be aspects of the first two books I might have spoiled for myself but I have bought them both and I am really looking forward to reading them.

I really love the attention to detail and realistic space travel aspects of this book. It feels very much like what you would expect NASA is like. It doesn’t read like sci-fi because it feels so real.

Protagonist is brilliant. Pilot and a genius, exactly what you’d expect for an astronaut. Definitely can’t wait to read more Lady Astronaut books.

I've really enjoyed the previous two Lady Astronaut novels, and was looking forward to the third one, though I was slightly apprehensive that Nicole, who I hadn't paid that much attention to in previous books, would now be the lead character.

The story does take a bit of time (around 100 pages) to get going, as the story starts slightly behind the end of The Fated Sky. Similarly I also felt like Nicole's personality initially felt a bit thin, as she mainly complains about her feet and forgets to eat, which I found relatable, but does not a personality make.

However, as soon as the story moves to the Moon everything speeds up, the story becomes a multifaceted mystery (who is trying to ruin our colony) and a race against time (we must find the culprit before we're all killed) which I found genuinely thrilling. Nicole's personality settles at this point, and I also really enjoyed how Nicole works through all the crises in a calm, logical manner while narrowing down the list of suspects. It's a really engaging mystery, and I felt like I learned a lot about how difficult it would be to live on the Moon.

I also really enjoyed the ending though it jumped forward a bit too much for my liking. I quite wanted to see how Nicole went about achieving her final goal.

The Relentless Moon is an excellent addition to the Lady Astronaut world. I read that Mary Robinette Kowal initially wrote a 180,000 word draft of this novel so I really hope there's a sequel coming soon.

I didn't read any of the other books in this series, but I've seen Kowal state that this was intended to be readable as a standalone, too. I certainly didn't feel like I had missed anything from the previous novels. From what I understand, the narrator of this book (Nicole) is not the same narrator as in the others. Personally, I enjoyed this book so much partly because of Nicole, so I'm not sure I would have reacted quite the same to the other books.
This book offers a sort of alternate history, wherein meteors had previously hit the earth, urging developments in space travel. A colony is being established on the moon, with further flights even heading for Mars. Nicole, one of the first female astronauts, still travels to the moon despite being over fifty years old now and the wife of the governor of Kansas. This particular book is set in the 1960s, partially on earth, and partially on the moon.
Nicole's character is fascinating in so many ways. Her relationship with her husband Kenneth, for example, and her role in all the politics around his role. She's also one of few female astronauts, as well as being a little older than most, but with relatively high ranking due to her experience. Finally - and this is where I strongly relate to her - Nicole has anorexia. She manages it most of the time (with the help of Kenneth) but of course has the occasional slip-ups. The way in which the disorder sneaks its way into her life, particularly in times of distress, is very realistic. It's not always an overt desire to lose weight or starve oneself. It is often simply forgetting to eat, or making excuses, or physically feeling unable to. This can lead to a devastating downward spiral - as Nicole well knows.
It should definitely be noted here that Nicole's anorexia is in no way the main aspect of the story, or of her character. It affects a lot of things, sure, but it's not the main story. It's just a part of her life. I very much appreciated how Kowal did this.
As for the plot, the simplest way of describing it is that there is possibly a saboteur - or group of saboteurs - on the moon. Things have been going wrong with spacecraft, and now there are problems on the moon, too. Further, a Polio outbreak suddenly occurs, which is a bit of a nightmare in a small, close colony. Finally, Kenneth decides to run for president, and Nicole has a lot of personal issues to deal with while trying to hunt down the saboteur.
It's a pretty wild ride. It's long, but I didn't find myself getting bored. There were times where I maybe felt a tiny bit lost, especially where a lot of space jargon was used, but most of the time I managed to follow along quite well. 4.5 stars!

Spoiler alert as this is book 3 in the Lady Astronaut series!  I've put links to my reviews for books 1 and 2 at the bottom!

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal is set during the same time as book 2, except it's from the point of view of Nicole Wargin, and we learn more about the sabotage and terrorism from the Earth First group.

I really enjoyed this book, and seeing things from a different perspective.  I had that moment of reading the beginning, and thinking 'of course!'. It made so much sense to tell us what happened when we heard so little on Elma's trip to Mars in the second book!

 The Relentless Moon  by Mary Robinette Kowal was published on 26th November 2020, and is available on  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

You can follow Mary Robinette Kowal on her  Facebook ,  Instagram ,  Twitter  or her  website .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Rebellion Publishing .

This is book 3 in the Lady Astronaut series, and if you'd like to read my reviews for the two previous books, please look below:

 The Calculating Stars  (book 1)

 The Fated Sky  (book 2)

This is the third book in Robinette’s stellar ‘Lady Astronaut’ series, which has won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards: the premise follows the mid-20th century space race after a meteor strike in the 1950s that wipes out eastern America (including Washington DC and the entire government), causing extreme and ultimately devastating climate change on our home planet, forcing humanity to accelerate plans to colonise the Moon. This third novel follows the same timeline as the previous book (which tracked Elma York, the original Lady Astronaut, as she voyages on to Mars) but tells the tale from the perspective of Nicole Wargin, one of the pioneer settlers keeping the Moon colonisation program focused while riots and – pandemics – threaten to derail humanity’s best opportunity for survival. In space, she is a leader: on Earth, Nicole is a ‘decorative bauble’, smiling alongside her husband Kenneth in his role as the Governor of Kansas while he considers a run for President. A growing ‘Earth First’ resistance is building in numbers, opposing humanity’s relocation – and fifty-something Nicole is increasingly being sidelined in favour of younger, male colleagues. A perfect diversion from the current problems on our planet, this book can be read alone, but delightfully comes with two extra novels to enjoy if you’d like to start from the beginning of the series.

Cambridge Edition December Book Club

This book is set during the same time as Book 2, but follows some of the side characters such as Nicole Wargin and her experiences on the moon. Although I missed reading about Elma, it was so interesting to learn more about some of the other characters and to see the things that Book 2 had referred to during the mission. The writing, as usual, is fantastic and the characters are incredibly well written and it's just an absolute joy to read this series. I can't praise it enough and I'm so excited for the next book!

If Mary Robinette Kowal is setting out to create a franchise, then Relentless Moon is her Rogue One: a sidestep to flesh out the Lady Astronaut Universe rather than a giant leap forwards in the story. Elma, the original LA from The Calculating Stars, is on her way to Mars and the entirety of this novel takes place while she’s en voyage and offstage. Just as the first novel is seen entirely through Elma’s eyes, the Restless Moon is told through fellow LA Nicole Wargin. Nicole spends the first quarter of the book earth-bound - by far the worst section of the book. Kowal’s strengths are a rock-solid grasp of how the mechanics and technology that a space programme running ten years in advance of NASA would operate, and a well-constructed though entirely predictable detective story. Neither kick in until we get to the moon. Before that the things that irritated me most about volume one are back. While showing happy marriages are not a bad thing in a book, demonstrating them through endless cheesy sexual banter (spoken and thought) is. There’s an awful lot of over-writing of domestic detail that adds to the many comments that this book is a hundred pages too long.

When we get to the moon a lot of the overwriting falls away, and the book picks up speed as the plot kicks in. A terrorist group of deplorable Earth Firsters are causing havoc in the space programme and it’s up to Nicole to track down the offenders who are determined to force humanity off the moon.How you feel about Nicole, and about Korwal’s saga, is whether you find her combination of alternate history and domestic saga appealing. For me she has her protagonist slipping out of heels after a hard days moon-basing just a little too insistently and frequently. More Solo than Rogue One for me then.

My thanks to Rebellion/Solaris for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Relentless Moon’ by Mary Robinette Kowal in exchange for an honest review.

While I had known of Kowal’s historical fantasies, The Glamourist Histories, I wasn’t aware of her award winning Lady Astronaut series. This is technically Book 3 in the series though enough background was provided on the alternative history and characters that I didn’t feel confused.

Following the devastating meteor strike of 1952 climate change is becoming increasingly severe. The international Aerospace Coalition has established bases on the Moon and Mars. Yet the goal of getting humanity off Earth is threatened by the Earth First movement. Aside from protests on Earth, their plan now appears to have been extended to sabotage.

Astronaut Nicole Wargin has two lives; one as the wife of the Governor of Kansas and the other as an astronaut on the recently-established Moon Base. Before leaving on her most recent mission she is tasked with discovering the identity of a possible agent: code named Icarus. Complicating matters further is the news that her husband is considering a run for President.

Wow! This completely blew me away. Hard science fiction at its best. I loved it. There was the pleasure of Kowal’s compelling vision of an alternative 1960s complimented by strong characterisations. It was a highly engaging SF espionage thriller that proved a very satisfying read.

I appreciated her Historical Note in which she discusses aspects of her alternative timeline as well as some of the medical themes in the novel. This latter includes anorexia for which she provides helpline information for anyone effected by it. There is also a bibliography for those who wish to follow up on the science underpinning her fiction.

Mary Robinette Kowal is also a voice actor and did an excellent job of narrating this novel for the audiobook edition.

I plan on seeking out the first two novels in the Lady Astronaut series in the near future.

Highly recommended.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s third instalment of The Lady Astronaut is a gripping space thriller set in the isolation of space.

In this third book of the series, Mary Robinette Kowal shifts the focus of the story from our eponymous hero of the first two books, Elma York, to Nicole Wargin.

Now, when I started reading the book, I fully expected this to be a continuation of Elma’s story and was quite taken aback to discover that there was a shift in the narrative to Nicole. I have to say this is quite a brave move as Elma is firmly established in the first two books with The Lady Astronaut crown. However, does the book suffer from this shift. Not at all! And I have to say that I found this book to be more compelling than its two predecessors in all honesty. Nicole is a fascinating character and as I read through the book, I found that I liked her more and more.

In the first two books, Nicole is a side character that is a shining beacon of strength and determination for Elma (obviously, as well as Nathanial). However, in this book we see her as she really is. We see that whilst she might have an exterior of steel, inside she is as fragile as sugar glass and at many points throughout the book, we see her shatter into a hundred pieces.

The story takes place in the three-month silence that was described in The Fated Sky, when the Mars expedition loses contact with Earth and we learnt that there had been some major upheavals caused by the Earth First group. It fills in the blanks of what happened to Nathanial and why he was hospitalised, the impact of the direct action that was instigated by the Earth First movement, the loss of communication with the Lunar Colony and the events that happened there.

As I said earlier, the book changes tone quite considerably and rather than being a book about exploration and colonisation, The Relentless Moon is a gripping thriller as Nicole, Eugene, Myrtle and Helen attempt to discover the saboteur of the Lunar Colony and what action they will take next.

As usual, Kowal does not shy away from the social commentary that was prominent in the last two books and she weaves the actual history of the time with her constructed alternative history. In the midst of this there is also a real-world juxtaposition of the current COVID epidemic and the Polio outbreaks that affected so many lives at this time. Although, when Kowal wrote this book COVID was not an issue. Strange how past and present repeat themselves, isn’t it?

One of the interesting aspects that she comments on is our world view of the more mature female and how that view is to see an older woman as ‘old hat’.

And the other pertinent point that she brings to the fore is the effects of direct action from pressure groups and at what point does that change from peaceful protest into acts of violence.

Nicole is a perfect protagonist in this book. She is a woman who is a mass of contradictions. She is a strong woman who underneath it all is as brittle as iron, and this comes out in many ways, particularly when we discover that she has experienced Anorexia throughout most of her life and that it is not a disorder that solely affects the younger population, but is a lifelong disorder. Kowal deals with the topic in a sensitive manner, rightfully pointing out that the condition is not ‘an eating disorder’ but is an extreme method of regaining control in extenuating circumstances. And we see that when Nicole’s locus of control is threatened, she will fall back on these methods to exert and regain some control over circumstances that she has no control over. Kowal never implies that as soon as she eats some food everything will be ok as people believe but challenges the perception of what the disorder actually is.

What we also learn is that Nicole’s image is built on subterfuge. The subterfuges that she enacts to give the impression that she is a strong, determined woman. The careful subterfuge and manipulation that she employs about hiding her condition and give the impression that she is eating. The subterfuge of what she actually did during the war and her own particular skillset.

I really enjoyed this book and Kowal’s writing. She shows a mastery at constructing complex plot with heart pounding pacing. Of commenting on social aspects but never preaching and writes fantastic characters. Mixed in with this is her masterful ability to write an emotive story that once or twice brought a lump to my throat as there are some events in the book that truly devastate Nicole's world.

If you want a science fiction series that has strong female leads and a story that that tackles numerous social aspects of the human existence mixed with compelling story lines and masterful writing then look no further than The Lady Astronaut series..

I seem to be a little adrift from most readers in my enjoyment of this book. Perhaps it’s because I’ve come to the series out of order; certainly, there seemed to be a lot of prior knowledge of the key elements of the previous book assumed by the author.

In terms of positive features, the author has without doubt created a reasonably internally consistent concept of a colony on the moon, with ambitions to explore beyond. The characters are well developed and action sequences are well described.

However, for this reader there seemed a lot of what seemed like inconsequential events and scenarios that added little to the narrative. Human interest aplenty, for sure, but much lighter on the more hardcore science fiction elements that some readers might expect from the description.

This book takes place at the same time as the second book in this series, written from the perspective of Astronaut Nicole Wargin, whilst Elma is off on her Mars mission. I was worried I’d miss Elma, our Lady Astronaut, but I absolutely loved Nicole and loved this approach.

Nicole was such a great character to add to this saga. She was relatable, fallible and just all round really interesting and well-developed. I loved that she didn’t have to be perfect, that she was real and that it didn’t limit her either. She was still strong, independent, capable and reliable. That for me is true strength and the type of thing I want to read! It added so much depth to the plot too.

As for the story itself, all I can say is wow! I keep thinking I can’t enjoy this universe anymore and then Kowal just goes ahead and takes it to the next level. It was a genius idea to shift the focus and write this as a parallel to the previous story. It helped develop the world more, building on the details we already had, making the universe more substantial, and ultimately more intriguing and enjoyable, without it being laborious.

Add in all the mystery, sabotage, drama and ultimately the fight for survival, along with all the sci-fi elements and the complexities of space, and you find yourself with an epic read with so many facets. I was engaged every single moment and often found myself mulling over the pieces of the puzzle between reading sessions!

I’d just like to say how much I appreciated Kowal’s sensitivity in writing the parts that related to eating disorders and recovery. Including it was inspiring without ever being triggering or encouraging. This should be the gold standard for writing!

Thank you Mary Robinette Kowal, Tor and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you, Netgalley, for letting me read this.
I loved this book so much I had to rush to get the prequel. It's just marvellous: 1960s,with a feminist kick, space terrorism, survival, epidemic, assassination - when you write it down it all looks too much, but it is handled so deftly that I suspended all disbelief and just immersed myself. Proper sci-fi stuff. Loved it.

I received this novel as a review copy without realising it was the third in a series - and it has inspired me to want to read the others!

A well researched historical Sci Fi novel, it is set in the 1960s - but an alternative 1960s where a meteor has hit the Earth, wiping out a great swathe of North America and covering the world in dense cloud cover. With Earth’s future looking more precarious by the day, the moon is being made into a habitable community.

We follow Nicole Wargin, a politician’s wife but also an experienced astronaut, as she heads off on a fairly routine trip to the moon, only to discover that there is a saboteur in their midst. As a spy in the war (following training at the euphemistic ‘Swiss Finishing School’), Nicole is perfectly placed to investigate who the saboteur is and what their reasons are.

I would recommend this book - putting aside the sci fi genre, it’s just a great story, well told, with well defined and believable characters. Having read the author’s notes at the end of the novel, it seems incredibly well-researched as well, so I’m sure it would also appeal to people interested in this era, or space travel.

I’m off to read the others in the series - enjoy!

One of my great joys this summer was discovering the Lady Astronaut series of novels, written by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Events in book three – The Relentless Moon – overlap those in The Fated Sky (book two). The first Mars mission is on its way, but we’re back on Earth, with a different protagonist. Our ‘lady astronaut’ this time is a character we’ve met before. Nicole Wargin is one of the original female astronauts, but she’s also married to Kenneth Wargin, the Governor of Kansas City, the new capital of the USA. Like Elma York, she was a pilot during the Second World War. But her upper-class education is hiding a secret that will stand her in good stead for the events that follow.

Infuriated that their previous attempts to derail the space program have failed, the Earth Firsters being to take more drastic action. Their discontent is now fuelled by the realisation that the scientists were right. Earth is on course to become uninhabitable. Sexism and racism have yet to be banished. And although the Moon colony is well established, and the first mission is halfway to Mars, there’s a growing understanding that not everyone will be able to find a new home in space. Nicole Wargin battles health problems, personal demons and tragedy to ensure that the Moon colony survives, as Earth First sets up a series of events designed to destroy it.

To begin with, I was a little disconcerted at the change of protagonist and confused by the overlapping timeline. However, that quickly wore off, and I was drawn into the plot so entirely that I was angry at interruptions and would have liked to read the whole book in one go. So if you like sci-fi and you haven’t started the Lady Astronaut series yet, I encourage you to get stuck in immediately!

I utterly loved "The Relentless Moon" - never read anything by Mary Robinette Kowal before, but I'm now going to devour anything I can lay my hands on, starting at the beginning of the Lady Astronaut series.

It grabbed me with the storytelling and mystery, and entranced me with the science.

If you liked the Martian, I think you'll like this. With an excellent female lead, and good supporting characters.

https://twitter.com/askluzme/status/1316127590319611909

"Such a pleasure. Please do come and visit me on the Moon.”

I was a little dubious of this book to start, but by god it picked up and by 50% I was hooked, struggling to put it down even to sleep.

The Relentless Moon is a whodunnit. Set at the same time as The Fated Sky, we leave Elma on her way to Mars and follow Nicole Wargin, another of the original six Lady Astronauts, as she roots out the saboteur that’s causing chaos on the moon.

The story begins on Earth and, I admit, I struggled at first to acclimatise to the new protagonist. I missed Elma and her nervous yet determined crusades, I missed Nathaniel and his rocketry innuendos, and I wanted to see Elma and Nathaniel on Mars. Nicole is a harder woman to like and to know. She’s a politician through and through, playing the game and playing the system.

"Oh, and Kenneth doesn’t have a mink cat-o’-nine-tails.”
[…]"I didn’t think so.”

“It was suede.”
[…]"I am, suddenly, very glad you never played poker with us.”

And yet the more I read, particularly once she’s ensconced in Artemis Base, the more I grew to appreciate and admire her, to like and understand her. She’s a confident, infinitely capable, middle-aged woman, but like all of us, she has her weaknesses and her own challenges to overcome.

"So…what. That’s okay now? So I can just lie to you when I’m on the Moon?”
Kenneth looked at me, finally, and my heart cracked in two. “Oh, baby. I love you, but I don’t expect you to tell me the truth. Not about food.”

Nicole’s anorexia plays a prominent role in the story (though I wouldn’t consider it’s revelation a spoiler). It is portrayed in such a way that, even before I read the end note, I had little doubt that Kowal herself had first hand experience with the condition. Having never suffered the problem myself, nor knowingly known others to, it was illuminating to see its nuances and the myriad ways it’s experienced. Nicole’s struggle to overcome it made her so much more real and approachable as a character, and I salute Kowal for including such a difficult topic.

Alongside Nicole, we meet her husband, Kenneth, and see a little more of what it means to him, and to Nathaniel, to be left behind. It was nice to see the gender stereotype overturned, and yet my heart bled for the strong, kind, gentle men who loved their wives enough to let them go. Meanwhile, on the moon, we see more of the Lindholms, Myrtle and Eugene, who have settled in as long-term residents and appear to be, for all intents and purposes, the colony’s pseudo-parents, mothering their brood and gently but firmly chastising them when they step out of line. What utter babes.

I can’t imagine that setting up a colony is ever easy. By the time we see Artemis Base, it is reasonably well established (with an art exhibition to boot!) but still new enough that everybody knows everybody and things have the potential to go very wrong. Add to that a player who is intentionally trying to do harm and you’re left in a very scary space. If the vacuum isn’t trying to kill you, then one of your friends might be; the lights keep going off, the air might not be breathable, and help is another planet away, if it’s not already compromised. I was scared - more scared than Nicole seemed to be! I would have been out of there in a flash, jetting home for a much needed hug from mum, not carrying on as if nothing happened!

And yet the trouble is, I can sympathise. Humanity’s only hope of survival is to get off-planet and set up in the stars (well, on the moon and Mars anyway). However, time is scarce, places are scarcer and money is scarcest of all, and only a privileged few will escape the climate change that’s coming. For the poor, the uneducated or the unlucky left behind, that’s a bitter pill to swallow. They have no hope, and the money that they desperately need for food and basic infrastructure is being spent sending the elite away. Is their anger justified? Yes. Would that lead me to sabotage the small chance that humanity has to survive? No! Those people are crazy.

I never guessed who did it, and usually I can. I found out when Nicole did, and let me tell you, she’s one smart cookie, one cool cucumber, one….I’ve run out of food analogies. The plot kept me absolutely rapt, terrified of what was around the corner and suspicious of everyone I met. It’s different to The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, but it worked. And what a result at the end!

I’ll be reading the next in the series as soon as it’s out, whether it’s Elma, Nicole, Myrtle or Helen who’s fronting the show. Give me more, more more!

This is my favourite book from the series. The pace and tension is just right, keeping the story firing between what’s happening on the moon, alongside What’s happening back on earth. I love the slightly alternate world and the use of polio within this story. I also didn’t immediately guess who the instigator was in the story, and yes, I loved how this ended.

I have really enjoyed the Lady Astronaut series, which sits in a sweet spot between hard sci-fi and alternate history, namely if we had to start the space programme early after a massive global catastrophe, how would we have done it? The mixture of the scientific problem solving, the unspooling of an alternate timeline (and its politics) mixed with solid feminist adventure storytelling is absolute catnip to me. Nevertheless I was surprised to see this pop up as I thought the Fated Sky was the last in the series. And it sort of is, The Relentless Moon is based in the same universe, in 1963 during the Mars trip of the Fated Sky, where we join another female astronaut (astronette is penned a few times and is fun but clearly a gag) dealing with a few side issues - namely the Earth First anti-space movement. It is basically a spy/detective story in space, and whilst it might lack some of the pioneering gung ho drive of the previous two novels, it makes that up with a more in depth time restricted examination of an important turning point in its own universe..

Another thing to note is that it is a lot longer than the previous two books, despite potentially covering a lot less action and certainly less in universe development. That isn't to say it is short on incident, we start with riot, and intermittently have plane crashes, rocket explosions, a near fatal electric shock, a broken arm, a Polio outbreak and the aforementioned spy shenanigans where they have to discover the mole on the moon. This all is framed by a matter of fact slow drip of how this Moon colony has now expanded. Kowal is a utopian at heart, whilst here she admits to, and starts to toy with some of the worst aspects of human nature, her colonies and the spirit of survival have advanced her world well beyond where our one was at that stage. At the same time hers are also extremely flawed protagonists, who will lie about their own personal health issues to chase their own dreams, have prejudices and will follow them. In the previous books she has dealt with crippling anxiety, and drug use to manage that, here she dives into what (in the afterword) is clearly a very personal take on living with anorexia. Whilst catching a spy on the moon.

The Relentless Moon is a good name for the book because despite the relatively small canvas compared to the previous novels, it is a non-stop thriller. Its an attempt to more loosely play in the world she has created, and has an ending which I saw coming but delighted me nevertheless. She has managed to set up an scenario which allows her to have some proper real world conversations about progress, technology and humanity, whilst dealing with frailty, prejudice and small minded politics. She started it before Covid outbreak, but the polio epidemic she shows not only echoes it but also how precarious all systems are. I raced through it in five hours.

[NetGalley ARC]