The Relentless Moon

I have loved all three volumes in this series (the fourth one is coming out in March 2025), but I especially liked this one. This 3rd volume in the Lady Astronaut series does not actually feature the original lady astronaut, Elma York, who was the central character of the first two volumes (only very briefly at the end). In this one, the setting shifts to the Moon, and the central character is Kansas governor's (and presidential hopeful) wife, Nicole Wargin, who was present in the previous volumes, herself a pilot. At this point in the story, there is an established base on the moon, with regular flights back and for from Earth. However, there is political turmoil both on Earth and the moon, with successive catastrophes and sabotage. It's pretty fast-paced and very engaging.

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.

Took a while to get going, but once it did it didn't slow down. Heartwrenching, and full of great scenes of folks being good at what they do

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.

Another beautiful book in the series,told from another perspective in tangent with the last book. An amazing, and infuriatingly beautiful look at an alternate what if just like he rest.