Review – The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronaut, Book 3) by Mary Robinette Kowal (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 423 pages
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: August 18, 2015
ASIN: B00ZP64F28
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Wayfarers series
Source: Bought ebook for Kindle
Rating: 5/5 stars
“ The Earth is coming to the boiling point as the climate disaster of the Meteor strike becomes more and more clear, but the political situation is already overheated. Riots and sabotage plague the space program. The IAC’s goal of getting as many people as possible off Earth before it becomes uninhabitable is being threatened.
Elma York is on her way to Mars, but the Moon colony is still being established. Her friend and fellow Lady Astronaut Nicole Wargin is thrilled to be one of those pioneer settlers, using her considerable flight and political skills to keep the program on track. But she is less happy that her husband, the Governor of Kansas, is considering a run for President.”
Series Info/Source: This is the third book in the Lady Astronaut series. I borrowed this as an ebook from the library.
Thoughts: I wasn’t quite sure how to feel when we left Elma and Nathaniel behind for this book and instead pivoted to Nicole and her husband. However, it ended up being my absolute favorite book in this series so far. Things started a bit shaky for me with all the politics (I don’t enjoy political stories), however once Nicole gets back up onto the Moon things really get intense.
We find out a lot about Nicole’s history in this book and she is way more interesting of a character than I was expecting. Although I generally dislike politicians, I ended up loving her sweet but driven husband. Of course there was also her old cat, I love when cats are included.
This story mainly revolves around the Earth First group and their increasingly violent acts of terrorism. Nicole gets pulled in to serve as a secret agent to uncover the source behind the acts of terrorism happening in the IAC. Much of the story is a bit of a “who dun it” but on the moon with many more complications.
This story happens while Elma is traveling to Mars, so we get a lot of events filled in that happened during that time. We find out exactly what happened to Nathaniel while Elma was gone and what really happened on Earth during the communication blackout with Earth.
There were parts of this story that made me cry and parts that made me laugh. Nicole goes through so much and is so tough. I loved that the fate of her cat was also addressed, because you don’t want to forget the cat!
My Summary (5/5): Overall I absolutely loved this book. The characters are amazing and the alternate historical world created here is absolutely stunning. I was just incredibly engaged, entertained, and impressed by the whole story. I can’t wait for the next book to be released. I am also planning on picking up some other series by Kowal, what a great writer!
