All That Outer Space Allows

Apollo Quartet #4

by Ian Sales

It is 1965 and Ginny Eckhardt is a science fiction writer. She’s been published in the big science fiction magazines and is friends with many of the popular science fiction authors of the day. Her husband, Walden, has just been selected by NASA as one of the New Nineteen Apollo astronauts… which means Ginny will be a member of the Astronaut Wives Club.

Although the realities of spaceflight fascinate Ginny, her genders bars her from the United State space programme. Her science fiction offers little in the way of consolation—but perhaps there is something she can do about that…

Covering the years 1965 to 1972, when Walden Eckhardt lifts-off aboard Apollo 15 as the mission’s lunar module pilot, this is Ginny’s life: wife, science fiction writer, astronaut wife… because that is ALL THAT OUTER SPACE ALLOWS.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Novella, Alternate History

158 pages, Hardcover

First published April 27, 2015

Reviews

[Steven Poore · Rating 5 out of 5]

In which Ian Sales draws his alternate-historical space programme to a triumphant close, tying together all the loose threads from all three previous volumes and bringing Earth-75 back into the Alpha Timeline....

No, not really. In fact, not at all, apart from that part about it being triumphant. Because the Quartet as a whole is exactly that. Adventures in storytelling and literature as much as adventures in low-Earth orbit and science fiction, and All That Outer Space Allows is the final proof of that. As a recap, Adrift on the Sea of Rains was a taut, acronym-heavy exploration of one astronaut's head in the wake of nuclear holocaust, The Eye With Which the Universe Beholds Itself staggered with the weight of its own premise, half brilliant, half boggling, and Then Will the Great Ocean Wash Deep Above combined counter-factual history, meticulous research and an eye for subtle apocalypses to brilliant effect.

That third volume also paved the way to All That Outer Space Allows. Here, the main character is Virginia (Ginny) Eckardt, an astronaut's wife who also writes science fiction (under the pen-name VG Parker). SF is dismissed in this version of the 1960s as "women's fiction" - while women dream of the stars, men build the science to get to the moon. But while the other volumes of the Quartet are excellent stories in their own right, they weren't as personal as ATOSA is. That's because ATOSA isn't just a story about Ginny. It's a story about Ian Sales telling Ginny's story, as she walks the thin line between astronaut's wife and SF writer, inspired by, supporting, and yet needing break free from the space programme that her husband is part of.

Ginny is based upon Mary Irwin, real-life astronaut's wife, but in creating her mark upon this variant world - her biography, her letters, even her most famous story The Spaceships Men Don't See - Sales has made her into someone far more tangible than merely an alternate replacement. ATOSA not only acknowledges the part women have played in our own science fiction, it celebrates it on the same level as it does the space programme itself.

Clearly it has required a different approach to make ATOSA work as well as it does - the authorial intrusions jar at first because you're not looking for them. In each of the other three books Sales is a remote presence, there in the footnotes and appendices, but here he's conversational and fervent, as intense a personality as Ginny and her husband. Other intrusions - the presence of Ginny's fiction, the altered biographies, the NASA press releases - are formatted as though they have been lifted straight from the original sources and more than compensate for any rough jumps.

And as for tying it all together? You have to pay attention, but VG Parker's fiction includes a novella entitled Hard Vacuum, which echoes the opening of Adrift on the Sea of Rains - is Sales writing Parker, or has Parker created Sales...?

A definite and unassailable five stars then. And a novel that I will cheerfully place at the top of any awards shortlist you care to rehabilitate.

[Eric Mesa · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's very interesting to be reading this (well, listening as an audiobook) at the same time as The Calculating Stars as both of them tackle women's issues, the Baby Boomer Era America, and space travel. But whereas I'm really enjoying The Calculating Stars, I really did not like this book.

First complaint - this book often would switch out of the narrative into a meta-narrative that compared the main character to the person she's replacing in our timeline. I don't know if that's meant to be a brilliant strategy since our protagonist is a science fiction writer or if it's footnotes that were not called out as footnotes, but it REALLY pulled me hard out of the story. And the first couple times it happened I didn't really get what was going on.

Second complaint - nothing happens in this story. I've slowly become more accepting of stories where it's about the journey and not the destination, but this one just seemed to not really go anywhere or have real growth for the protagonist. That's probably because she's a real life person with a couple details changed and real life does not follow narrative structures well.

Third complaint - It almost seems malicious that in this quartet, the two books (the last one and this one) that are about women are not great stories. And this one, in particular seems to stand out when put in this quartet. In other words, were it just a novella I probably would have been fonder of the story. But let's go over the quartet: First book - a version of the Apollo program where they invented a device that can make people travel between dimensions. The crew is trapped on the moon and needs to find a dimension that has human space travel to go to and get help. Second book - a version of the space program where we went up with a manned mission to Mars and eventually colonies on other planets. Pretty good science fiction that reminds me of the older pulp novels. So far we have alternate universes that are pretty different than ours with exciting stories and twists. Then we get to book 3. It's our world except when the scientist proves that women would be better astronauts than men, they get to be the astronauts that go to space. But the B plot involves the Bermuda Triangle and there's never any real resolution and it doesn't tie to the female plot. Now story four. It's our world with our Apollo program and the ONLY thing that's changed is that science fiction is only written by women. WTF? Why couldn't the women have the exciting plots? And how do the latter two novellas - particularly this one - fit in along with the first two. It's like being on a Hollywood set. The first part you see is awesome and glamorous, but there's nothing behind the sets.

One good thing- the narrator was great, especially at conveying emotion.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anregende Novelle um eine Teilzeit-SF Autorin und Astronautin-Ehefrau in den 1960ern, die von ihrem Mann nur als Anhängsel betrachtet wird und selbst von Reisen ins All träumt, die ihr Mann erlebt, sie selbst aber nur schreibend erträumen darf. Fängt das Zeitkolorit durch unzählige Details brillant ein, sowohl, was die SF-Magazine, als auch, was die NASA-Ebene angeht. Allerdings etwas lang und dröge geraten, zumal auch dieser Autor den Fehler begeht, ein feministisches Sujet nicht interessant genug zu gestalten, weil er es per se für jeden für interessant hält. Trotz dieses Irrtums und einiger Längen für geduldige Leser lesenswert und stimulierend.

[Leonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the four novellas that comprise the Apollo Quartet, I loved this one the most. Ginny was vividly emotional in her dual roles as repressed Air Force / Astronaut Wife, seen as an accessory to one of those "All American Heroes" we hear most about, and as imaginative SF fan and writer, sharing her creative life. I loved the weaving of real people with the Eckhardts, and the fact that the two people that they replaced were not forgotten. I loved the author's asides as well - a little tip of the hat to Vonnegut, perhaps? I hope so. All in all - simply wonderful.

[Xavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comment of the Apollo Quartet in english: http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/201...

Un comentario de los 4 relatos en español: http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/201...

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like previous books in his Apollo Quartet the author does not take a straightforward approach in this short novel. It is ostensibly the life story of Ginny Eckhardt, wife of Apollo astronaut Walden Eckhardt (a character based on actual Apollo 15 Lunar Module pilot Jim Irwin.) On the quiet, though, Ginny is a writer of Science Fiction, and the book, as well as delineating the lot of an astronaut’s wife in the 1960s, describes the evolution of Ginny’s idea to write an alternative history of the US space programme in which women were the astronauts. She knows they are at least as capable as the men, if not more so. However, her personal life as first an Air Force wife, and then an astronaut’s after Walden is picked in the latest round of recruits, becomes increasingly circumscribed. This is how it was in the 1960s. Ginny’s mother, along with others of her generation, had been quickly levered back into the home after working during the Second World War, and forever resented it. Ginny herself had made sure to obtain a degree before marrying but has no opportunity to use it. (The role of astronaut’s wife is as prop and support, adornment, rather than a person in her own right.) Given her inner thoughts, the solidarity she feels with other female writers of SF in the 1960s and of the position of women generally, Ginny’s attitudes to this might have been expressed more forcefully, she seems too willing to conform to the role set - even if she does resolve to find out as much technical detail of the Apollo Programme as possible in order to enhance her fiction. We are told she loves Walden, but we don’t really feel it, and Walden gives little back in the way of emotional support, not even wondering how the sanctuary of his room manages to stay tidy and clean.

In common with other instalments of the Apollo Quartet Sales gives us (in boxes lined-off on the pages) technical and biographical information. So here we have a table of contents from Galaxy magazine, Vol 26, issue 3, February 1968 (which contained Ginny’s story “The Spaceships Men Don’t See” as by V G Parker;) comments on the position and relative scarcity of female SF writers of the time; biographical details from a NASA press release of the 19 newly recruited astronauts of 1966; a letter to Ginny from another woman SF writer signed YouKay; the utterly male Hugo Awards Winners listings for 1966; a historical overview of Ginny’s writing career; the complete text of “The Spaceships Men Don’t See” (a nice piece of literary ventriloquism by Sales, though it reads more like a 1950s piece;) a specification for Lunar Module Cockpit Simulation training; a letter to the editor of Galaxy bemoaning “Mr” Parker’s contribution to that Feb 1966 issue; another NASA spec, this time for the Lunar Module; one-sentence extracts from SF stories by women each commenting on some aspect of the female experience; a Wikipedia biography of Walden Eckhardt’s life; the Nasa specs for spacesuit materials; a short transcript of Neil Armstrong’s early exchanges with ground control just after he set foot on the Moon’s surface that first time; the launch schedule for Apollo 15 (Walden’s mission;) a NASA description of the Apollo 15 landing site; V G Parker’s entry from the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

This is an Altered History, though. In Ginny’s world, SF is written, edited and read mainly by women and denigrated more (if that’s possible) because of that. At several points Sales addresses the reader directly by interpolating comments on his choices as a writer when composing the story and on the subject of Science Fiction as an enterprise, especially on how it generally does not reflect the harsh realities of space travel. Worth reading in and of itself All That Outer Space Allows also acts as a kind of primer in the history of women writers of SF in the world the reader knows.

[Kieran Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting fictionalisation of the Apollo Program from the POV of the wife of an Apollo-15 crewmember (irl Jim Irwin) who publishes science fiction tales under a pen name. Not knowing much about SF or its female exponents, it took me a while to cotton on that in this version of history, it's a female-centric genre, written and consumed mostly by women.

Sales doesn't so much break the fourth wall as methodically grind it into micron-thick particles of moondust. His intrusions into the text subvert the narrative to the extent that it ends up being more like an essay than a story. The lack of an ending — or maybe the historical story arc — have a similar effect. It's painstakingly researched, but sometimes the research shows through gaudily:

"This is no science fiction spaceship launch, this is the real thing. There are very few examples she can recall from movies, Hollywood has yet to embrace science fiction, despite such 1920s classics as Metropolis and Frau im Mond".

This excerpt covers my other gripe too, which is Sales' terminal addiction to the comma splice. A sentence without one comes as a shock, like an underdog suddenly landing a counterpunch. Still, I enjoyed this short novel for its fresh perspective and real-feeling period atmosphere. From other reviews it sounds like a familiarity with the first three books in the Quartet would increase my enjoyment of it.

[Ren Bedasbad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth book of the Apollo Quartet brings the series together by taken the insight from the author. The story is about an astronaut's wife that is also a science fiction author. It deals with the hardships of being in the limelight while also doing something that is not socially acceptable at the time, while also longing for something that is close but still not attainable. The story and main protagonist are very good. It is a good ending to the series.

[Christ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Out of all four books in the Apollo Quartet this was the most dull. There's no plot or real conflict. No character growth occurs, and although there are events, no real progress is made.

[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm grateful to the author for sending me a preview e-book copy of this. I ordered the hardback from his website as soon as it was available - from which you'll not be surprised to hear that I really, really enjoyed it.

This is the fourth part of the Apollo quartet, which draws on the real US space programme to explore alternate realities and counterfactuals. The books have become increasing wide ranging. The first saw a group of astronauts in a prolonged Apollo programme stranded on the Moon, while the second reached out to Mars and beyond with the neatest and most logical solution to the Fermi paradox I've ever seem. The third part returned to Earth and branched out to look as deep sea exploration, a comparable endeavour to landing humans on the Moon, but also at the 1960s US female astronaut programme, a little known part of the space effort that wasn't allowed to get far in the face of all that Right-Stuff 50s and 60s testosterone.

In a sense, the final book continues this theme. It focuses on Ginny, the wife of a (fictional) astronaut who Sales slots into a real mission, Apollo 15. It is a very clever book, grappling both with 60s gender expectations (Ginny is expected to do everything to be a perfect helpmeet to her husband: it's hinted that his chance of getting on a mission will be reduced if she doesn't) and also with the development and history of the SF community. It is, therefore, very much a part of the current argument over diversity in SF and illustrates precisely how a book whose immediate preoccupation is not with spaceships, alien planets and derring-do can nevertheless reflect humanity's place and future in the universe.

I realise that saying a book is "clever" may be seen as damning it but I'm not doing that! It is well written and has a subtle, layered structure following Ginny's life as both astronaut's wife and SF writer. Because in this version of the 1960s, science fiction is mainly written by, and read by, women (and consequently despised, plus ca change...) to the extent that male authors may need to adopt a female writing name. So Ginny's cramped, controlled life contrasts with the leaps of her imagination and we seen her both plotting stories (some of which will have familiar echoes) and engaging in communication with the wider SF community. We even have one of her stories. (In pre-Internet days, this is done by post of course).

At the same time there is some commentary on Ginny's writing via inserted material but this is from yet another reality, in which, as in our world, SF is assumed a largely male preserve. I'd argue that despite the apparent absence of overt SF features, these layers - and there is also an authorial commentary which makes no bones about the fictional nature of the story, and even discusses the choices behind the plot (Ginny's husband was previously stationed in Germany, so she's unaware of certain things such as the Mercury female astronauts, for example).

There is a lot more than this to the book, indeed there is a remarkable amount in its 158 pages. It is in many respects a monument to the achievement of women as part of the science fiction community, and a rebuke to those who are pushing back against diversity in the genre today. But it's also beautifully written and closes off the arc of the Quartet stories in a truly satisfying way.

[Matt Mitrovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been reading a lot of conclusions lately. First, The Venusian Gambit by Michael J. Martinez and now All That Outer Space Allows by Ian Sales. This is the final book in his Apollo Quartet series and unlike the previous entries in the series (“Adrift on the Sea of Rains“, “The Eye with Which the Universe Beholds Itself” and “Then Will The Great Ocean Wash Deep Above“) it is actually a novel-length work, albeit a very short novel. So how does it hold up to its predecessors?

All That Outer Space Allows is more historical fiction than alternate history, thus once again differentiating itself from the rest of the series. It is told from the perspective of Ginny Eckhardt and is set in the 1960s at the start of the Apollo program. Ginny is married to test-pilot turned astronaut Walden who gets selected to join the program. From Ginny’s eyes we get the perspective from what its like not only to be a woman and a wife in the 1960s, but also what space exploration looks like to someone who has gotten closer than most of us ever will, but will still be denied participation because of her gender. This proves exceptionally difficult for Ginny who secretly writes science fiction under the pseudonym “Virginia G. Parker”. Thus we also see from her perspective how difficult and boring real space travel is compared to the cosmic adventures the protagonists of her stories go through.

As mentioned before, All That Outer Space Allows is a novel, but a very short novel. It is a quick read, but that doesn’t diminishes the quality. I found Ian’s literary style to still be enjoyable and the moments he broke the fourth wall to comment on the setting, characters and even his own previous works were both surprising and enjoyable. Plus the contrasts between the real world and science fiction really highlights the real divisions between fandom and those who actively work on getting us off this spinning ball we call home. Thankfully, as geek media continues to permeate popular culture, that barrier is getting narrower.

Perhaps the part of the book I liked the best was the slight tweaks Ian made to the history of science fiction. I hesitate to call this a true alternate history because few changes were made to history as we know it, but fandom’s history was changed significantly. In this world science fiction is considered “women’s literature” and thus the vast majority of creators and readers are women (even though male fans in the story reject the notion that women outnumber them). Ian, however, subtly made the argument that perhaps this was the real history after all. Throughout the novel we see Ginny hiding her true interests due to society’s displeasure, numerous references to female authors and we even see arguments about why we may not have seen more women at SF conventions. Considering this book came out during the current Hugo controversy it provides a thoughtful commentary on the debate, even if it never intended to.

Since I received an advanced review copy of All That Outer Space Allows, I can’t comment on the technicals of the book, since the final version you read may be different than the one I posses. Nevertheless, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of All That Outer Space Allows. It is a compelling read that not only comments on society in general, but on a particular group of people who dream of adventures around distant stars.

[fonz · Rating 4 out of 5]

La última pieza del Apollo´s Quartet es una novela corta en la que Sales abunda en uno de los temas del anterior relato, "Then Will the Great Ocean Wash Deep Above", un homenaje y una reivindicación del papel de las mujeres en la conquista del espacio, ampliado aquí al campo de la ciencia ficción.

Ginny es la frustrada y casi devastada esposa del Walden, un militar que acabará pisando la luna, una mujer cuyos sueños y aspiraciones se verán aplastados por la narrativa colonial de la NASA; sólo heroes solares rubios, de sonrisa impoluta pueden aspirar a pisar otros planetas, mientras Ginny, y por extensión, todas las mujeres que no aspiran a protagonizar un anuncio de electrodomésticos de los años 50, ha de interpretar el frustrante papel de esposa perfecta para el pueblo norteamericano, mientras sueña con alcanzar las estrellas. Así que el único medio de escape de Ginny es escribir ciencia ficción. Porque en esta línea temporal alternativa, la ciencia ficción es patrimonio casi exclusivo de las mujeres, un género tan "despreciable" como, digamos, la ciencia ficción en nuestro mundo. Una distracción banal y absurda de pistolas de rayos y robots que Walden apenas tolera en su mujer y que palidece ante las hazañas de la ingeniería y la tecnología, pero con la que Ginny convierte en arte la injusticia de su situación, su inmensa frustración y sus pisoteadas aspiraciones.

El resultado es una "novella" ambiciosa y complejísima, estupendamente escrita, que reivindica el papel de la mujer en la ciencia ficción, se exploran los motivos de la escasa relación del género con una carrera espacial que podría haber sido su principal alimento y que incluso se atreve con la metaficción (se trata tanto de como Ian Sales ha escrito el Apollo´s Quartet y porqué, como de la historia de Ginny), puesto que Sales incluye un relato completo de Ginny, biografías, índices modificados de la revista "Galaxy", el propio Sales interviente en el relato rompiendo la cuarta pared... Incluso Ginny escribe un relato, "Hard Vacuum", extremadamente similar a "Adrift in a Sea of Rains" pero protagonizado por mujeres, en una ingeniosa pirueta metaliteraria e irónica, que continua la tradición de los relatos anteriores.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read and very meta, since the author breaks the fourth wall quite a bit. This fits in that odd subgenre that skirts between "creative nonficton" and fiction, where the characters are all based on real people and lots of details are taken from history, but a few small things are changed. Like in this world, science fiction is 'women's fiction' and it is common that all the big names are women. "That Francis Herbert is obviously a man working under a pseudonym we all know it."

Captures a lot of what drew me into science fiction and that great, clunky, wild west world of pulp fiction that always seemed a more glamorous past than the present of my teenage fandom and its overhanging gloom of nuclear destruction and 1980s cynicism.

I digress. Book... good. Character good. I'm not sure if I'm interested in the other three books in the series, having skipped to the end because it sounded like my thing! Also I'm not quite sure the author goes deep enough. Is that a bad critique? We are presented everything and left to draw our own conclusions. Which, I suppose, is very... today.

[Marie-Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2 1/2 stars. For me, this was the least impressive and the least convincing of the four Apollo Quartet books. Despite the fact that the characters hewed closely to reality, I found them curiously cardboard, too stereotypical to have much depth or appeal. The conceit that science fiction was a woman's genre, somewhat similar to romance today, didn't work well in a world otherwise unaltered, and the occasional author-intrusions were crude and ineffective, slowing the story down, throwing the fictional characters out of focus, while adding nothing of any consequence.

A disappointing end to an otherwise worthy series.

[Gene · Rating 1 out of 5]

11/04/2017
I just can't handle this series anymore. What started as an interesting series of alternate history focused on the Apollo program as devolved into a self-referential meditation on life as an astronaut's wife. I think. This series had a lot of flaws (invasive acronym explanation, confusing multiple story lines, etc), but I think that the meta-ness of this last story has just put me over the edge.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A writerly exercise in telling a story which has been buried for too long.

[Odo · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5.0

[Martin Gehrke · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the author breaking the 4th wall, I found the lack of climax and its buildup, boring. The feminine viewpoint also was interesting, but for me again not enough to drive the plot.