Russ Allbery: Review: The Martian Contingency

Review: The Martian Contingency, by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Martian Contingency is the fourth book of the mostly-realistic
science fiction alternate history series that began with the novelette
“The Lady Astronaut of Mars” and the
novel The Calculating Stars. It returns
to Elma York as the main character, covering her second trip to Mars after
the events of The Fated Sky. It’s
helpful to remember the events of the previous two books to follow some of
the plot.

Elma is back on Mars, this time as second in command. The immediate goal
of the second Mars mission is to open more domes and land additional crew
currently in orbit, creating the first permanent human settlement on Mars.
The long-term goal is to set up Mars as a refuge in case the greenhouse
effect caused by the meteor strike in The Calculating Stars
continues to spiral out of control. Elma is anxious and not looking
forward to being partly in charge, particularly since her position is
partly due to her fame with the public (and connection with the American
president). She’d rather just be a pilot. But she’ll do what the mission
needs from her, and at least this time her husband is with her on Mars.

As one might expect from earlier installments of this series, The
Martian Contingency starts with the details and rhythms of life in a
dangerous, highly technical, and mission-driven scientific environment:
hard science fiction of the type most closely modeled on NASA and real
space missions. Given that this is aimed at permanent Mars colonies that
would theoretically have to be independent of Earth, it requires a huge
amount of suspension of disbelief for the premise, but Kowal at least
tries for verisimilitude in the small details. I am not an expert in early
space program technology (Kowal’s alternate history diverges into a
greatly accelerated space program in the 1950s and, for example, uses
female mathematicians for most calculations), so I don’t know how
successful this is, but it feels crunchy and believable.

As with the previous books, though, this is not just a day in the life of
an astronaut. There’s something wrong, something that happened during the
first Mars expedition while Elma was in orbit and left odd physical clues,
and no one is willing to talk about it. Elma is just starting to poke
around before the politics at home go off the rails (again), exacerbated
by a cringe-worthy social error by Elma herself, and she once again has to
navigate egregious sexism and political meddling in a highly dangerous
environment a long way from home.

It is a little surprising that I like this series as much as I do. I don’t
particularly care for pseudo-realistic science fiction, although I admit
there is something deeply satisfying about reading about people following
checklists properly. The idea of permanent Mars colonies as an escape from
a doomed Earth is unbelievable and deeply silly, but Kowal locked herself
into that alternate future with “The Lady Astronaut of Mars,” which is
still set in the future of all of the books so far. A primary conflict in
each of the books comes from the egregious sexism and racism of a culture
based on 1950s American attitudes towards both, and the amount of progress
Elma can make against either is limited, contingent, and constantly
compromised.

And yet. At its best, this series is excellent competence porn, both in
the spirit of the Apollo 13 movie and for the navigation of social
and political obstacles and idiocy. Elma is highly competent in a
believable and sympathetic way, with strengths, weaknesses, and an ongoing
struggle with anxiety. There is something rewarding in watching people
solve problems and eventually triumph by being professional, careful,
principled, and creative. It’s enough to make a good book, even if I am
not that interested in the setting and technology.

As with the rest of the series, this will not be for everyone. You have to
be up for reading about a lot of truly awful sexism and racism without the
payoff of a complete triumph. This is a system that Elma navigates, not
overthrows, and that’s not going to be enough for some readers. You also
have to accept the premise of a Mars colony, which in an otherwise hard
science fiction novel is a bit much despite Kowal’s attempts to
acknowledge some of the difficulties. But if you don’t mind that
drawbacks, this series continues to be an opportunity to read about people
being quietly and professionally competent.

This is not my favorite entry, mostly because Elma makes a rather
humiliating mistake that’s central to the plot and has a lot of
after-effects (and therefore a lot of time in the spotlight), and because
there is rather a lot of discussion of sexuality that felt childish to me.
The intent was to try to capture the way people in the 1950s talked about
sex, and perhaps Kowal was successful in that, but I didn’t enjoy the
experience. But I still found myself pulled into the plot and happily
rooting for the characters, even though a reader of “The Lady Astronaut of
Mars” has a pretty good idea of how everything will turn out.

If you liked the series so far, recommended, although I doubt it will be
the favorite entry for most readers. If you did not like the earlier books
of the series, this one will not change your mind.

Content notes: Way, way too much detailed discussion of an injury to a
fingernail than I wanted to read, as well as some other rather explicit
description of physical injury. Reproductive health care through the lens
of the 1950s, so, uh, yeah. A whole lot of sexism, racism, and other forms
of discrimination that is mostly worked around rather than confronted.

Rating: 7 out of 10