The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Published 2018 · 512 pages · 110,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Science Fiction
How hard is The Calculating Stars to read?
The Calculating Stars scores 23 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
- Accessible prose with period-accurate vocabulary and some aerospace terminology.
- Sentence structure: 25 out of 100
- Abstraction: 22 out of 100
- Concrete narrative. Political and social ideas embedded in character and plot.
- Information density: 42 out of 100
- Moderate density. Period detail and aerospace content add texture.
- Narrative indirection: 18 out of 100
- Linear first-person narrative. Straightforward chronology.
- Symbolic density: 18 out of 100
- The meteorite as catalyst. Space as freedom. Minimal symbolic layering.
- Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
- Elma is sincere and emotionally open. The novel is warm, not ironic.
- Resolution withholding: 28 out of 100
- Will Elma make the astronaut program? The political and personal stakes build to a clear climax.
- Structural complexity: 18 out of 100
- Linear narrative. Clean, well-paced structure.
How The Calculating Stars is regarded
The Calculating Stars holds a literary regard score of 58 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.