The Calculating Stars读后感锦集

《The Calculating Stars》是一本由Mary Robinette Kowal著作，Tor Books出版的平装图书，本书定价：116元，页数：432，特精心收集的读后感，希望对大家能有帮助。

　　《The Calculating Stars》精选点评：

●好久没有想一口气读下去的小说了。还挺喜欢alternate reality的叙事方式的，有种世界线的确可以这样发展下去的感觉。发现自己越来越喜欢主角是relatable heroine的作品了，不过丈夫的人设过于完美了吧，反而远没有时旅里的Henry那样迷人。

●我觉得这本书很适合影视化诶，可以直接代入《超时空接触》里Jodie Foster的形象。而且书里也有炸弹情节但是没得逞。期待后续……

●床戏过多 过于啰嗦 果然很女性视角 科学的小黄文 如果有故事情节就更好了

●这种居然是 2018 星云奖？第一章写的很精彩，身临其境的紧张和震撼感。之后就变成了漫无止境的日常生活念念碎，感觉像是枪手代笔写的一样，只有每一章开头的新闻摘要还在继续跟进主线剧情的进展，第一章辛苦建立起来的紧张感逐渐消磨殆尽。如果想了解五十年代美国黑人和女性在工作社会上受到的歧视，以及当时人类“计算机”的情况，也许还算是相关的（暂不评价这方面描写得是否好），但是若是想看科幻......摊手，深感受骗。

●故事太过朴实了，照本宣科地把美国登月时期的历史扒下来，加一点玛丽苏风格的个人体验，读起来像是Hidden Figures和网飞纪录片Mercury 13的结合体，然而关于女性在性别歧视下的挣扎又不如前两者刻画得深刻。作者亲自阅读的有声书又过于风情并茂了，动不动委屈万分，哽咽难言，甚至声泪俱下的腔调几乎令人发指.. 几次想弃书.. 业余十八流演员的台词功力又让本书的玛丽苏色彩加深了几层。一个家境良好，的白人犹太女性，才智超群，但又性情柔弱，时不时散发着人性光辉，时不时和她的完美丈夫前戏一下.. 这本书获奖真是个谜。

●不太行。也许是我依然无法理解美国历史语境下那个时代的文化，但是一边说着拯救全人类，一边把社会主义阵营彻底排除在外（理由还不是对面不陪美帝玩），只保留一个台湾移民来代表亚裔，未免太过傲慢。当然，且不论价值观的问题（还涉及到双标），作品的问题也非常明显。特技表演（在这之前还能看）过后，几乎看不出女主角有做过任何实质性的努力，一切几乎就是顺理成章地依着她的天赋走，而除此之外的社会变化、那些曾经陪她支持她发起运动的人的命运，几乎都轻描淡写一笔带过。而且完全没有末日逼近应有的紧张感。和《星空清理者》差了n多个电影版《流浪地球》。

●星云奖得主真的名不虚传 我一个半星期疯狂翻完了 作者的笔力太强了 在宇宙科幻和末日设定的背景下还能同时覆盖在五六十年代的种族 性别 暴力 政治等各方面问题 宇宙探索的美妙浪漫与深不见底unfathomable 的残酷相得益彰 对人与人之间的关系 交流 dynamics 也有很好的推动与探讨 非常细腻relatable 没有一个人物是一张纸片儿 每一个人都能做出你意料之外但又情理之中的举动 每一个人都有非常圆满的backstory 很适合翻拍成迷你剧或电影了 期待有这么一天。

●Astronomy评选2018年度最佳科幻小说榜上排名第一。已阅第一章，已然被故事所吸引。

《The Calculating Stars》读后感(一)：既是科盲，何必难为自己去写“科”幻，又来难为我们科幻读者

小说的预设还是挺吸引人的：陨石撞地球引发的连锁反应将导致地球几十年后无法生存；时间又设定在二战结后不久的五十年代初，前计算机时代如何加速发展太空科技？

小说中也确实有几段比较精彩的技术描写。但这几段就象是老王（王晋康）拿几篇短篇拼凑长篇那样，未承前也不启后，游离于主线之外。这个疑问直到我昨晚读到Acknowledge部分才得澄清。原来，作者咨询过的专家可真不少：二战王牌飞行员、执行过实际任务的宇航员、NASA任务总指挥等等。但她本人没有一丁点儿科学基础，不象Neal Stephenson那样咨询专家是为了完善《七夏娃》的细节，而是直接让人家捉刀来写这几段。这些专家不可能一直跟着你，写完这一段就走人了，所以在书中其他地方作者无法写出象样的呼应，干脆就不呼应了。这是一部以女权为主题的小说，写作时作者却明目张胆地利用自己的女生特权（woman's perk），算不算自打自脸呢？

书中第二段象样的技术描写（失速脱离），是为了表现女主角的高超飞行技术。但她的技术是哪来的呢？二战中她虽在空军服役，上司严禁女性参与战斗，她只是负责运输和战斗机的转场。一次不带弹的单机转场任务（我就不说在战时、敌空军可达区域，进行无护航的单机转场，而且还不带弹，是有多愚蠢了吧）中，“她遭遇三架敌战斗机的伏击——她果断超低空飞入河谷，诱使一架敌机误击落另一架敌机，又诱使它撞崖，第三架敌机则掉队没跟上”。你这是告诉我，一辆跑长途的卡车司机被扔到F1赛场上，立即击败了三位F1职业车手？？？

BTW，别说我剧透，这个空战没细节，书中只有我前面那句话。我都可以想象出这样的场景：友情支持的飞行员帮她写了一段失速之后就走人，作者突然觉得还得再加上一段二战经历，厚着脸皮给人家再打了个电话之后，咬了一晚上的笔头，也就只能憋出引号里那一句。

女主还是个数学天才，这也是书名的含义。在一开头，拥有将军女儿特权的她，开着小飞机带上做NASA总指挥的丈夫去数百英里外的小木屋度假。窗外一道强光，但收音机节目未断，所以她判断不是核攻击；之后响声传来，她根据声光时间差，心算出距离，并根据距离推算出是陨石坠落且其规模很大。她进一步心算出震波和（空气）冲击波的抵达时间，驾车避开这两波灾难返回机场……凭心而论，这个开头还是不错的，要不我也不会掉进这个坑里。

在此之后，女主利用气象局的哥哥提供的一点额外数据，首先计算出陨石会在几十年后带来物种灭绝级别的灾难。这一点就太扯了。全世界那么多科学家都是吃干饭的吗？

前计算机时代，computer不是一种机器，而是一个职业（这个梗，NS在《编码宝典》接近末尾时也提过）。而这个女主这个王牌“计算师”，灾后在IAC（国际航空联合会——变更历史线之后NASA的对应物）继续负责计算宇航轨道。但她不甘于此位，希望做个Lady Astronaut（这个四部曲的名字）。

她这两个身份（且不说这些设置的合理性）本来是够格的，但她还有个缺点：严重的焦虑症，在紧张时会呕吐甚至晕厥。在第N次误以为她怀孕之后，她丈夫终于逼她去开了镇静药，需长期服用。嘿，女性应该进入太空，这我承认——但具体到这样一个身体条件的女性，这合适吗？飞船出了一点状况就会把自己头盔吐成一个脏鱼缸，或者服用镇静药之后反应迟钝得开车都不够格？

再回到主题。书中的宇航是迫在眉睫的生死大计，而现实中的宇航只是放眼长远的科学探索。如此基础的差别对策略竟然没有一点儿影响，书中的女宇航员跟现实一样受歧视，而且原因也类似，实在是无法接受。你的目的是殖民，殖民就得男女搭配（书中没提基因技术），怎么可能不发展女宇航员呢？这个问题作者自己也提了几次，但没有作出好的解释。

总之，这就是一个火候不足的大杂烩。麻烦作者下次直接写纪实小说，《美国航天史中的女权状况考察》之类的，别去打扰人家正经的科学家也别来打扰我们科幻读者了。

《The Calculating Stars》读后感(二)：我不喜欢拿政治正确说事，但这回确实无话可说

以读养写地看了不下三十年的雨果奖获奖/提名长篇了，多少也读到过一些自己非常不认可的作品。但是除了冗长乏味的《弯月王国》之外，能让人如此失望的作品，这还是第一本。

《计算之星》各大平台给出的中文简介很误导。故事里没有阴谋，也没有调查。作者想要描述的，其实就是五十年代美国航天领域的性别和肤色歧视问题，具体可以参考《隐藏人物》或《水星13号计划》。

作品的世界观还是很厉害的。一颗陨石命中华府，毁灭了整个东海岸，蒸发的水蒸气引发的温室效应会在未来五十年内让地球变得难以生存。于是，联合国本着“鸡蛋不能放在一个篮子”里的原则，启动了外星殖民计划。不得不说，这个alternate history的故事还是有它的美妙之处的，最奇妙的要数computer这个词的早期含义：在50年代，IBM的计算机还在使用穿孔卡片，并不可靠。所以computer实际上是人肉计算员，而这个部门里有很多女性角色（职业会被称作computress），故事的主人公Elma Wexler就是其中之一。

Elma Wexler的身份是斯坦福天才，心算能力堪比冯·诺依曼，在陨石撞击以后迅速通过环境特征判定不是核武器而是陨石撞击，然后又从加州的弟弟那里获得了气象数据，迅速估算出陨石的尺寸并推算出未来五十年的气候变化趋势。二战期间，她还以女子航空勤务飞行队（WASP）成员的身份参加了二战，虽然主要工作是运输物资，但是有次她遭遇了三架敌机，然后在没有弹药的情况下仅靠机动和地形击败了敌人，堪称王牌飞行员。此外，女主还有一个完美男人般的丈夫，对外是NASA（故事里叫IAC）的首席工程师，对内是居家好男人。

这样的履历显然不利于营造冲突，而作者写出来的东西正是我最担心的套路。科瓦尔显然没有处理大格局的能力，所以投机取巧地把社会运动的成果都浓缩到女主角一人的身上，其他配角的成长轻描淡写，反派们更是刻板印象的集合体，写到这里我都想同情一下身为头号反派的那位首席航天员Parker了——每次作者看似想让这个角色立体起来，却马上让他做出一些非常恶毒的表现的时候，身为读者，我都非常想爆粗口。

而雪上加霜的是，对Wexler本人的刻画也是失败的。她本人确实有一个弱点，即从大学时期流传下来的焦虑症。克服这个心理疾病本来应当成为人物弧光的一部分，但是作者却屡屡在最不该出现的地方抖出这个弱点。比方说飞行表演以后，当她受邀参加电台节目的时候，她却因为上述原因退缩了，而且一而再再而三地退缩。

这就把本书引向了一个灾难性的发展——虽然Wexler本人是反女性歧视派的领袖，甚至被喜欢她的那些人称为Lady Astronaut，但是她为此做了什么呢？一开始的特技飞行表演桥段确实不错，至少是在为变革社会而做出的努力。但是从这以后，她除了树立了“谁都不能阻止我成为航天员”的志向之外，就没再主动做过什么，就连上电视节目也是被朋友们软磨硬泡地弄去的。

而在这个基础上，作者引入的那些政治正确色彩的设计又让灾难更上了一个台阶——Wexler是一名犹太裔白人女性，受过极其优秀的教育，是典型的社会精英；在灾难中，她结交了一对黑人飞行员夫妇，他们把她引荐给了黑人自己的飞行员俱乐部，还借了专业飞机给她来支持她的特技飞行表演。但是当轮到女主该主动去亲自做些什么的时候，她却不仅退缩了，还表露出了一定程度的健忘：当IAC宣布接纳女性提交的申请，却标准极高时，她说可以去商量一下，这事却石沉大海了。而当一名俱乐部成员指出入选的女性都是白人，而且都有或多或少的裙带关系的时候。黑人们义愤填膺，要去把这事纳入到马丁·路德·金的运动中去，到这时，女主却又以自白的方式表露出了对她们的行为可能影响到现有女航天员的职业生涯的担忧，质疑了自己对黑人运动的认可程度。

好吧，至此我们也可以假设科瓦尔也许就是有意要塑造一个有时代局限性的小女人，尽管这已经极大拉低了本作的格调。那在航天员选拔考试里作假又算什么？为了自己的航天梦，就有隐瞒自己心理疾病和服药史的资格了吗？当身体出现异常，不接受手术就无法继续当航天员的Parker为了让Wexler闭嘴，用她的瞒报要挟她带他去治病的时候。作者是在什么心态下，才能让所有人都站到Wexler这边，去声讨Parker的？至此，我已经彻底无法理解作者的逻辑，似乎在一些原则性问题面前，全人类的未来都是可以让步的。

此外，作者做出的一些假设是否合理也着实有待商榷。全书虽然以美国受到重创，地球失去未来为背景，却几乎看不出有什么危机感。参与殖民计划的研究者该度假度假，该串门串门，该开派对开派对。要知道，故事的起点可是冷战的前期，而此时美国忽然遭受重创，再怎么说，在后面的展开里也应该有一些苏联的戏份和国际冲突。而作者竟然莫名其妙地就把苏联解体了，然后以饥荒（大概是暗指）为由又把中国排除在外，最终把整个社会主义阵营都排除在联合国之外——要知道，阿尔及利亚这种在当时还是列强殖民地的国家都被纳入计划了。在这个背景下，全人类的未来体现在什么地方呢？而在如此反历史的背景下，作者却又精准地把握了历史细节，引入了一个台湾裔的妹子来代表亚裔，还特地用一段对话来强调她是Taiwanese而非Chinese，其意在何？至少我是无法理解的。

事实上，我并不反对适当的社会关怀，女性主义、少数族裔、性少数群体的相关作品亦不乏优秀之作，像托马斯·赫维尔特的《玻璃男孩》、勒古恩的《地海》《黑暗的左手》、冯达·麦金泰尔的《梦蛇》、玛格丽特·阿特伍德的《使女的故事》，但是在《计算之星》里我看不到上述作品中表露出的诚实，只看到了虚伪了傲慢，如果说该作有什么可取之处，大概就是它精准地捕捉到了政治正确的精髓——视野狭窄，缺乏诚意。

一个充满荒诞色彩的事情是，该作似乎很快便将再下一城——2019年侧面奖最佳长篇提名，该作也赫然在列。如果《计算之星》能获奖，便将成为继《犹太警察工会》以后的又一个星云奖、雨果奖、轨迹奖、侧面奖大满贯得主。然而，迈克尔·夏邦能在《月光狂想曲》中把一场针对冯·布劳恩的复仇彻底无意义化，将其转变为两名失意老人的茫然会面，从而抛出更加深刻的问题。科瓦尔的《计算之星》里那位面对冯·布劳恩时满心愤恨的Wexler能做到吗？

在大会集市上兴高采烈地买下本书时，我期待它能达到《星空清理者》般的高度。但是显然，和裹挟在大国博弈之间的日本相比，养尊处优的美国社会显然已经缺乏能孕育出类似水准作品的土壤。如果这种水准的作品也能得到雨果奖的认可的话，那这个圈子的精神面貌确实是有些问题。

《The Calculating Stars》读后感(三)：瑪麗蘇統治宇宙

#書# 2018《The Calculating Stars》5+1=6/10 作者：Mary Robinette Kowal 出版社：Tor Books 副標題：Lady Astronaut 出版時間：2018-7 頁數：432

精簡版：單獨讀書筆記 Horrible！女權主義和種族歧視融入瑪麗蘇流水賬，橫掃9102世界科幻大獎，政治正確已經把雨果獎和星雲獎腐蝕到如此地步？ 作為歷史科幻，設定不算出彩：巨型隕石毀滅首府華盛頓，引發全球天氣劇變，人類可能因此滅絕，必須超高速發展航天，實現太空移民——把人類幾十年的太空探險壓縮到幾年完成，並且每一次意外都化險為夷——歷史完全為角色服務，體現不出人類在滅亡危機前的掙扎，而是神之選民，如有天助，這種網絡yy文級別的劇情也能拿獎？突破點在哪裡？創新的宇宙觀呢？ 400多頁不算短，但人物刻畫單薄，都是女主單一視角，缺乏溫度和立體感。連落筆最多的男主和男配，依然是平面紙片化。 男主（No. 1 花瓶）Nathaniel這完美丈夫，大權在握卻只花癡一人。寫了不少他的專業度和工作場景，但讓人記住卻是兩人調情時跳tone的搞笑小黃文——娛樂性過強，拉低了整本書的格調。 男配（其實他才是男主吧？）Parker更是讓人氣憤，刻板的霸道總裁套路，如此情商能成為地球第一個宇航員，就算書里人傻，不代表讀者也是那麼傻的啊！即使考慮到這是系列叢書第一本，也看到了人物反轉的包袱，但此角色刻畫依然是失敗，無說服力的。 光環四射的女主呢？作者反反復復嘮叨家教的嚴格和天才兒童的童年陰影，的確讓女主的演講恐懼症有可信度，但寫出第一句就已經讓人知道後面必然要反轉，這閱讀的樂趣何在？ 人物刻畫的紙片化，也導致了作者主力表達的女權主義和種族歧視的表面化。 從女孩沒有猶太成年禮，到女性打電話沒人認真對待，老調重彈。不過女性宇航員培訓需要化妝和擺姿勢給記者照相，屬於本書難得的幾個亮點——位高權重於此，依然要迎合社會喜好，這章節的衝突描述算是差強人意。 故事發生在種族隔離的五十年代，救災黑人抱團自救寥寥幾筆，卻比後面大段描寫明招暗篩有色人種女性宇航員批判力量更重，讓人更不是滋味。 本書政治正確的“聰明”處處可見。貼合二戰結束，強調猶太人的“That’s what we did. We survived. And we remembered.”“You live. You remember. This is what our people have always done.”，雖然套路，但不算太突兀。 可是三番五次強調Taiwanese不是Chinese，我不知道這是作者本義，還是被兩個台灣朋友引導，刻意得讓人皺眉，過猶不及啊！ 差評寫了那麼長，為什麼還給到5+1=6/10合格線？不得不說，開篇前三章隕石衝擊後的逃難，場面描述讓人如同身處其境，頗有戴著VR看好萊塢災難大片的現場感。單獨看這三章，會覺得獲獎名至實歸，可惜第四章開始進入瑪麗蘇流水賬，一落千丈…… 一本優秀的科幻小說，必然是有讓人深思的宇宙價值觀，《The Calculating Stars》無論從哪個角度看都是新瓶老酒，讀完除了覺得浪費時間，沒有任何收穫。 雨果獎和星雲獎為了補充過去沒給女性作者的獎杯，把標準拉到如此之低，這何嘗不是另外一種歧視？真是失望！

詳細版：讀書筆記+相關摘錄 Horrible！女權主義和種族歧視融入瑪麗蘇流水賬，橫掃9102世界科幻大獎，政治正確已經把雨果獎和星雲獎腐蝕到如此地步？ 作為歷史科幻，設定不算出彩：巨型隕石毀滅首府華盛頓，引發全球天氣劇變，人類可能因此滅絕，必須超高速發展航天，實現太空移民——把人類幾十年的太空探險壓縮到幾年完成，並且每一次意外都化險為夷——歷史完全為角色服務，體現不出人類在滅亡危機前的掙扎，而是神之選民，如有天助，這種網絡yy文級別的劇情也能拿獎？突破點在哪裡？創新的宇宙觀呢？ 400多頁不算短，但人物刻畫單薄，都是女主單一視角，缺乏溫度和立體感。連落筆最多的男主和男配，依然是平面紙片化。 男主（No. 1 花瓶）Nathaniel這完美丈夫，大權在握卻只花癡一人。寫了不少他的專業度和工作場景，但讓人記住卻是兩人調情時跳tone的搞笑小黃文——娛樂性過強，拉低了整本書的格調。 He bent down to kiss my cheek and whispered, “Prime numbers are your friend.” He knew me so well. I whispered back, “Later I’ll have to see if you’re divisible.” A coughing laugh was my reward, and he blushed a little, which was always a bonus. “Only divisible by one.” Straightening, he gave me a wink and stepped back. “What other qualifications does your candidate possess？” The bed creaked beneath me as Nathaniel shifted to his knees. “It’s critical that suitable candidates have experience with rocketry.” “What type of experience？ Should I demonstrate my experience ensuring that the rocket is topped up and ready for launch？” Beneath my hands, his body seemed super-charged with heat. His shirt bunched under my touch as I found my way to his belt. Nathaniel leaned down, his breath hot against my cheek. “That would be acceptable.” “Acceptable!” I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him down against me. “I plan on being excellent.” 男配（其實他才是男主吧？）Parker更是讓人氣憤，刻板的霸道總裁套路，如此情商能成為地球第一個宇航員，就算書里人傻，不代表讀者也是那麼傻的啊！即使考慮到這是系列叢書第一本，也看到了人物反轉的包袱，但此角色刻畫依然是失敗，無說服力的。 “He was a pilot in the war. Commanded a squadron, and haaaaaated having women fly his planes. Hated it. And he was grabby. I wasn’t the first person to report you for harassing women.” “You’re the only one I know about.” Parker pushed back from the table, spreading his hands as if he could brush it all away. “And when they looked into it, you know what？ None of the girls had a problem with me. None of them.” A laugh came out of nowhere. “They were afraid of you. They were afraid they’d be grounded.” “And you weren’t？ Please.” “I wasn’t. Because, as you say, I was a general’s daughter.” It was just Parker and his shit-eating smugness. Yes. Yes. He was the first man into space. Yes. He was a damn good pilot and, in fact, very brave. But he was also a self-serving schmuck. When I came up alongside him, he put a hand on the doorknob and suddenly smiled as if we were the best of friends. The speed with which he turned on the charm left me chilled. Parker threw the door open, holding it for me to walk through. Of course he would hold the door and smile, now that there were witnesses. “I didn’t tell anyone.” Besides Nathaniel, of course. But he’d said he would tell me before he took any action. Parker’s face stayed blank, but he looked at the floor. “I did.” I was still about ten feet away from him, but that stopped me in my tracks. “But—” “I have bone spurs in my neck, likely from ejections during my test pilot days. They’re pressing on my spinal column.” He shrugged, as if that was somehow no big deal. “I know what you think of me, but believe it or not, I care more about the program than I do about my place in it. I would have been a danger.” Parker won’t go to the press on his own, because if it ever got out that he’d leaked the news, that would tarnish his reputation.” If I knew nothing else about Stetson Parker at this point, it was that he valued the idea of his own legacy. He also, I think, genuinely cared about the space program. 光環四射的女主呢？作者反反復復嘮叨家教的嚴格和天才兒童的童年陰影，的確讓女主的演講恐懼症有可信度，但寫出第一句就已經讓人知道後面必然要反轉，這閱讀的樂趣何在？ so I gathered myself and straightened. Daddy had always said that deportment was important for an officer and a lady. As I got out of the jeep, the stains on my clothes seemed to deepen. I could almost hear my mother saying, “Elma! What will people think？” My shoes were so dirty that the original color was gone. “Just let me take my boots off.” “Don’t you worry about that.” I sat on the steps to pull them off. Mama would have been ashamed of me if I had carried this much grime into anyone’s home. “I think… Mama was concerned about appearances because she had married up. I didn’t know that. I just knew that I had to be perfect. Always. And, and… I think what just happened is that—well…” And yet… and yet, going to high school when you are eleven years old. Being the only girl in a mathematics class. Repeatedly. Going to college at fourteen. Having everyone stare at you because you can do math in your head. Having boys hate you, hate you, because you never get questions wrong in class. Being used as a tool by professor after professor. “Look! Even this little girl knows the answer.” By the time I left college, I would do anything to avoid speaking in front of a group. Give me an unpowered landing and I was fine. Addressing a roomful of people？ Thank you, but no. 人物刻畫的紙片化，也導致了作者主力表達的女權主義和種族歧視的表面化。 從女孩沒有猶太成年禮，到女性打電話沒人認真對待，老調重彈。不過女性宇航員培訓需要化妝和擺姿勢給記者照相，屬於本書難得的幾個亮點——位高權重於此，依然要迎合社會喜好，這章節的衝突描述算是差強人意。 girls don’t get to have a bar mitzvah. It’s different now, but that’s the way the world worked in 1934. I cried. And he held me. That’s my big brother for you. In a nutshell. It was also the first time that I understood what being a girl meant. As we sat in the pews for Tommy’s bar mitzvah, I wanted to pull Rachel onto my lap and tell her that she could do anything she wanted, but it would be a lie. I called the mechanics again. And then again. One of them made vague promises about maybe looking into ordering a propeller, if he had time. If Nathaniel were home during the day, I would have asked him to make the call for me. My husband was a good man. He believed in me. And he also had a huge blind spot, because he didn’t see how people would ignore what I said until he repeated He licked his lips and shifted his weight. “There was some… concern about the stresses of space.” “Stresses. Women handle G-forces better than men. The WASPs established that during the war and—” I broke off at the sudden compression of his lips, as if he were biting back words. “You are kidding me. They think we’ll get hysterical in space？” I almost went out the door as I was. I was a physicist and a computer and a pilot, not a pinup girl. And yet… and yet, I could hear Mama saying, What will people think？ She had always been on me to “gussy up” a little. I knew what the rules were for women. “Goddamn it.” Turning back to my bag, I slammed it open and dug through it to find my own tube of lipstick. The pill case rattled in the bottom of the bag, and I hesitated over it. No. I needed my reflexes fast for this test. I’d survived the press conference, and for most of the trial, there would be thousands of gallons of water between me and the reporters. The silver lipstick tube gleamed in a corner of my bag. It was slick beneath my fingers. I pulled the lid off, twisted it, and applied a thick red coat to my lips. The makeup ladies at Mr. Wizard would be so proud. Jacira watched and shook her head. “No. This is not why my country sent me.” “It’s not why I’m here either.” I capped the tube and straightened. “But lipstick won’t keep me from doing my job.” I very deliberately stopped in front of the reporters to put my helmet on. Much like the other astronaut skills I was practicing, I had been trying to desensitize myself to the reporters. Today I focused on posing without seeming to pose. Who knew that astronauts had to do so much modeling？ In the 1950s a man with an advanced degree in mathematics was an engineer. A woman was a computer. There was a huge discrepancy in the pay rates for those two job titles, even though the women were the ones designing the algorithms that drove much of the space industry. Likewise, white workers were paid more for the same work. I wish that these historical battles did not still have to be fought, but neither of these two statistics has changed. 故事發生在種族隔離的五十年代，救災黑人抱團自救寥寥幾筆，卻比後面大段描寫明招暗篩有色人種女性宇航員批判力量更重，讓人更不是滋味。 “It’s just… plane after plane of white folks. Where are our people？ Who’s rescuing them？” How had I not noticed that？ I stopped with a hand on the refrigerator and ran through the refugees in my head, willing myself to see one spot of color amid the masses. “You know what would happen, even if the brass were to send us to our peoples’ neighborhoods. Say we pick them up, and then what？ Our people would be put in different camps.” She sighed. “I know… I know. I’ll bring it up in church. See if we can get a relief effort going ourselves.” The door opened and the first of the refugees stepped out, gaunt as a rake. And black. there was a line of black men, women, and children coming down the stairs. There were white people mixed in, and we saw more as the refugees kept deplaning. First in, last out. The black people had been the last ones they’d let on the plane. We used your plane to drop fliers on the black neighborhoods, telling them where to go to be picked up by the refugee planes. The NACA computing department had been all women, yes, but due to segregation laws in D.C., they had all been white women. “I was accepted into the WASPs during the second war. Until they realized I was black, and then they asked me to withdraw my application. What makes you think that the IAC is going to be any different？” 本書政治正確的“聰明”處處可見。貼合二戰結束，強調猶太人的“That’s what we did. We survived. And we remembered.”“You live. You remember. This is what our people have always done.”，雖然套路，但不算太突兀。 可是三番五次強調Taiwanese不是Chinese，我不知道這是作者本義，還是被兩個台灣朋友引導，刻意得讓人皺眉，過猶不及啊！ Across the small light-table from me, Huilang “Helen” Liu played chess with Reynard Carmouche, one of the French engineers, while we waited. Helen, the other computer girl, had joined the International Aerospace Coalition as part of the Taiwanese contingent. “Helen is Chinese.” He sorted his papers as Director Clemons answered a question about the range safety officer’s duties. “Taiwanese.” Helen, in fact, is very loosely based on Helen Yee Chow Ling. Many thanks to Vicky Hsu and Yung-Chiu Wang, who helped me with various Taiwanese expressions. I just have to trust that they haven’t snuck a dirty joke in. Yung-Chiu and I met at NASA social when we roomed together for a launch at the Kennedy Space Center. She was very patient about listening to me gush about sensory details. 差評寫了那麼長，為什麼還給到5+1=6/10合格線？不得不說，開篇前三章隕石衝擊後的逃難，場面描述讓人如同身處其境，頗有戴著VR看好萊塢災難大片的現場感。單獨看這三章，會覺得獲獎名至實歸，可惜第四章開始進入瑪麗蘇流水賬，一落千丈…… Do you remember where you were when the Meteor hit？ I’ve never understood why people phrase it as a question, because of course you remember. And then the world outside lit up. If you were anywhere within five hundred miles of Washington, D.C., at 9:53 a.m. on March 3rd, 1952, and facing a window, then you remember that light. Briefly red, and then so violently white that it washed out even the shadows. Outside the car, the air hissed and crackled. Nathaniel leaned out the window. “Shit.” “What？” I pulled my head out from under the dashboard and looked up, through the window, past the trees and the snow, and into the sky. Flame and smoke left contrails in the air. A meteor would have done some damage, exploding over the Earth’s surface. A meteorite, though？ It had actually hit the Earth and ejected material through the hole it had torn in the atmosphere. Ejecta. We were seeing pieces of the planet raining back down on us as fire. time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe. The shock of the explosion shattered the car windows. It roared on and on, vibrating through my chest like a rocket leaving a launchpad. The oscillations pressed against my skin, filling every part of my consciousness with roaring waves and then secondary and tertiary explosions. I clung to Nathaniel, and he clung to the steering wheel, as the car bucked and slid across the road. The world groaned and roared and wind howled through the empty window frames. When the sound died away, the car had moved halfway across the road. There was an arm on the road. No body. Just a bare arm. It ended at a rough and bloody shoulder. The specimen had probably been an adult Caucasian male in his thirties. The fingers were curled delicately up to the sky. 一本優秀的科幻小說，必然是有讓人深思的宇宙價值觀，《The Calculating Stars》無論從哪個角度看都是新瓶老酒，讀完除了覺得浪費時間，沒有任何收穫。 雨果獎和星雲獎為了補充過去沒給女性作者的獎杯，把標準拉到如此之低，這何嘗不是另外一種歧視？真是失望！

書目錄 CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Notice Dedication Epigraph Part I Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Part II Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Acknowledgments Historical Note Bibliography Tor Books by Mary Robinette Kowal About the Author Copyright