The novel “The Relentless Moon” by Mary Robinette Kowal was published for the first time in 2020. It’s the third novel in the Lady Astronaut series and follows “The Fated Sky“.
While an expedition is on its way to Mars, the situation on Earth continues to worsen. The ongoing ecological catastrophe is causing increasingly extreme weather events and many people are afraid of being abandoned to their fate, adding to the social and political chaos.
The space program continues to be developed by the International Aerospace Coalition but the increase in accidents leads to suspicions of sabotage. Nicole Wargin is sent to the Artemis Moon base but she and the rest of the spaceship’s crew barely manage to get to the Moon alive. Her situation is more complex because her husband Kenneth is the Governor of Kansas and this puts her under even more scrutiny than her fellow astronauts.
After two novels narrated in the first person by Elma York, there’s a change in “The Relentless Moon” with the narration by Nicole Wargin, another of the women admitted into the group of astronauts after the start of the space program. This choice is due to the fact that the events of this novel partially overlap with those narrated in “The Fated Sky” and through Nicole what happens on Earth and the Moon is told.
The initial part of this novel shows above all the problems that Nicole has in managing her exposure connected to her husband Kenneth’s political activity. It seems that Mary Robinette Kowal prefers protagonists with some kind of fragility since after Elma York’s anxiety disorder we find Nicole’s anorexia. Take it or leave it.
Honestly, Nicole Wargin’s personal problems were not what interested me but in this series, the social and political developments are also important and Nicole’s story is useful to see them from the inside. These are events that have various ramifications and consequences going far beyond the protagonist’s personal sphere.
The events reprise some themes already developed in the previous novels of this series. First of all, the very quick climate changes are remarked by the news of extreme events. In some ways, these are news that remind us of those of our timeline and perhaps increase the sense of familiarity Mary Robinette Kowal also includes the problem of anti-vaccination movements, which in the novel concerns the polio vaccine in a period in which polio is still a very serious health problem.
The themes developed are important but as long as Nicole Wargin remains on Earth the plot does little more than pick up some narrative threads started in the previous novels. The point is to tell what happens on Earth during the expedition to Mars and to get to know the new protagonist better.
To say that the novel really takes off with the protagonist’s mission to the Moon would be trivial but in my opinion, it’s true. In the alternative history of this series, the space program began early and space travel to the Moon in 1963 is decidedly dangerous, even more so if someone wants to sabotage the trips, a type of activity extended to the Moon base.
In some ways, “The Relentless Moon” becomes a spy story where Nicole Wargin is at the center of the effort to find the saboteur, or saboteurs before they are forced to abandon the Moonbase. The tension rises because I think Mary Robinette Kowal builds this part of the plot well with a sense of danger for the people on the Moon base, even whoever is sabotaging them.
“The Relentless Moon” has an ending that provides closure to the novel’s specific plot but not to the Lady Astronaut series. Mary Robinette Kowal continued the series by developing other parts of the larger story. If you’re interested in an uchronia where a space program was developed heavily in advance of our timeline while society is the same with its flaws brutally exposed, I recommend reading it. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
