Review of Rosemary Claire Smith's 'Next Frontier' Novelette

This seems to be my year -- by which I mean all of 2021 and 2022 -- for alternate history. The second season of For All Mankind in February 2021, Ronald D. Moore's masterful alternate history about the race to the Moon in the 1960s, and ensuing decades, was even better than the first. My 90-minute interview with Rufus Sewell in July 2021 about The Man in the High Castle series on Apple TV+ got me even deeper into that one-of-a-kind stunning story. And just this month, a favorite story that I've written was published -- "It's Real Life," my alternate history about The Beatles.

So I was well prepared to catch up in my reading with Rosemary Claire Smith's "The Next Frontier" in the July/August issue of Analog Magazine. And the novelette exceeded my high expectations, delivering a memorable mix of alternate history about our species reaching the Moon, heart-throbbing detailed astronaut action in space, keen social valence, and even a scene that brought tears to my eyes.

Here's the set-up, with just some introductory spoilers: Natalya Orlova has defected from the Soviet space program, and has joined Armstrong, Aldrin, Bean, et al as possible to likely candidates for our American missions to the Moon. Jackie Kennedy has become co-director of NASA (I just love that!), and she's far tougher than the media allowed us to see in our reality. Bobby Kennedy survived the attempted assassination in June 1968 (with just a scar on his head) -- another facet of this alternate history that I love -- and is locked in a tight race with Nixon for the U. S. Presidency.

If that doesn't tempt you to read this story, I guess alternate history is not your thing. Smith's novelette makes important statements about the role of women in getting our species off this planet (similar in that regard to For All Mankind), as well as the realpolitik of space travel. Highly recommended, to say the least, not just to read but as the best novelette for the AnLab, Nebula, and Hugo Awards this year.