The Martian Contingency

I hadn’t realized this was out until my library app recommended it.

The author’s note at the end mentions she structured the novel around a calendar, which wasn’t obvious while reading, but I get it afterwards. It outside of that, there’s a lot less plot structure. This is almost a slice of life novel, but on mars. There’s sort of a central mystery in here, but that almost feels like back of the book bait more than what the novel is really about.

We find our heroine just landed on Mars with the 2nd mission, and naturally, nothing goes quite according to plan, both due to machinations from Earth and also from within the mission crew…

This (for me) was one of the better of the series. Kowal always packs a ton of social/political awareness stuff into her books and sometimes it can be frustrating because it really doesn't actually fit very well. In this case, it did fit well and didn't overwhelm the plot or characters as I've seen it do in past Lady Astronaut novels, so that was a huge plus.

In the end, this was a very enjoyable read overall and recommended.