A History of Hazardous Objects

by Yxta Maya Murray

Laura de León is a radar astronomer who studies Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs) such as threatening asteroids and comets at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. In Los Angeles in 2020, several crises are coalescing. The first strain of SARS-CoV-2 triggers the lockdowns, the city roils with protests of Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd and the police killing of Breonna Taylor, while the Bobcat Fire sweeps across the San Fernando Valley. In the midst of these emergencies, Laura is struggling to keep her family alive.



Simultaneously, Laura is trying to write the history section of a Congressional report titled the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan. This report will advise Congress that it must develop a system to detect and deflect PHOs, and the section Laura is working on cites several historical meteorite impacts as proof that the Earth is now undefended against a significant impact event.



A story about family, love, risk, and science, A History of Hazardous Objects contemplates how experiencing trauma and pain may help us secure a safer and more just world.

 

227 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2024

About the author

Yxta Maya Murray is a professor at Loyola Law School.

Reviews

[Ailey | Bisexual Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This novella is out from University of Nevada Press now.

Full Rating: 4.5 stars rounded up

Yxta Maya Murray’s A History of Hazardous Objects is a brief yet powerful meditation on science, mythology, trauma, and survival in a world besieged by crisis. Set in 2020, the novella follows Laura, a Mexican American astrophysicist, as she grapples with the simultaneous pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter uprisings, and the looming possibility of asteroid impact. Laura’s career revolves around tracking Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs) like asteroids and comets, but her life is also shaped by the mystical stories her mother told about cosmic destruction. Caught between science and myth, Laura struggles to protect her family from both earthly and celestial threats while navigating personal loss and societal upheaval.

Murray’s writing is emotionally charged and lyrical, with moments of fragmented, poetic reflection that mirror Laura’s fractured mental state. The narrative deftly shifts between the practicalities of Laura’s day-to-day life—caring for her husband, son, and elderly mother—and the larger existential questions she faces. These questions are symbolized by the asteroids she studies and the crises unfolding around her, making the novella a profound exploration of fear and resilience. The story blends historical and scientific fact with Laura’s imaginative retellings of the lives of real-life scientists, creating a tension between the objective and the fantastical that reflects the uncertainty of living in a world on the brink of collapse.

At its core, A History of Hazardous Objects explores how trauma and catastrophe shape human understanding and connection. As Laura delves deeper into her research on asteroids, she begins to see the scientists she admires as figures shaped by their own personal losses, much like herself. This realization underscores one of the book’s central themes: that suffering can lead to insight, and that understanding the world’s dangers—both cosmic and human—might ultimately help us protect one another. The tension between hope and despair is palpable throughout the novella, with hope often depicted as risky, yet necessary for survival.

Though the novella is ambitious in its scope, some elements, like the opening chapter and Laura’s imaginative vignettes, feel disjointed at times. Still, by the end, Murray ties these threads together in a way that feels both poignant and meaningful. A History of Hazardous Objects is a thought-provoking, experimental work that challenges readers to reflect on the relationship between trauma, discovery, and the fragile beauty of human connection. I will definitely be seeking out more of Murray’s work after this insightful little book!

📖 Recommended For: Fans of introspective, lyrical prose, readers interested in the intersection of science and mythology, those drawn to stories about navigating crises on both personal and societal levels, and admirers of speculative fiction with emotional depth.

🔑 Key Themes: Survival and Resilience, Fear and Uncertainty, Trauma and Scientific Discovery, Family and Connection, Mythology and Cosmic Threats.

Content / Trigger Warnings: Domestic Abuse (moderate), Mental Illness (moderate), Violence (moderate), Blood (minor), Sexual Content (minor), Medical Content (severe), Police Brutality (Severe), Cancer (moderate), Suicidal Thoughts (minor), Fire (moderate), Sexual Abuse (minor), Alcohol (minor), Miscarriage (minor), Pandemic (severe), War (minor), Misogyny (minor), Vomit (minor).

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of eBook

At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, astronomer Laura de León studies asteroids, comets, and other celestial objects that might become a threat to Earth. She’s been tasked with writing the history portion of a report for Congress on “National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy,” including an action plan that addresses dealing with these Potentially Hazardous Objects while citing historical meteorite impacts to support her contention that these prove that Earth has no defense against an impact event.

At the same time, Laura is dealing with a family crisis: her husband, Paul, is suffering with cancer; her son, Tomas, is dealing with identity issues. But there are larger concerns: the quarantine as a result of the Covid pandemic and the state of the world at large.

Will Laura find a way to write a scientific report that is not so poetic and lyrical? Can she make inroads in dealing with her mother? And what about the issues faced by her family?

=========

Laura’s emotions and dealings with her family while dealing with Covid-related matters lie at the heart of this story. Issues such as women's roles in science and dealing with concerns facing a woman of color play a role as well. Intriguing characters, the captivating backdrop of the celestial explorations and how myths might play a role, and a highly-relatable pandemic setting all work together to keep the pages turning.

Is there a connection between trauma and discovery? Readers will have to decide for themselves as they contemplate the correlation between society and our personal lives.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Readers program and am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Darya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the first year of the pandemic, and Laura, a California-based astronomer, is experiencing some of the common struggles of the moment: the lockdown and the obsession with sanitation, the wildfires, the protests against social injustice, as well as some personal struggles: family health issues, raising a 16-year-old, and rebuilding a relationship with her mother. Behind all of this, she is having a hard time focusing on the work she is supposed to be doing professionally, which is writing the "History of Hazardous Objects" portion of a major report that will inform the U.S. government's policy for dealing with the potential threats posed by near-Earth space objects. She can hardly get herself to start, and when she does, she ends up with some imaginative poetic pieces instead of the dry scientific prose.

I really liked this novel, even though I realized that my ability to make sense of texts that are not designed as genre fiction is diminishing. Like good literature, this book is more than something I could pin down to a single meaning or "main idea" and then boast that I know for sure "what it was about." So I'll just point out a few aspects that I personally appreciated. The emotional swings between the anxiety of uncertainty about personal and public issues and the joy of rekindled family connections. The representation of women in science, and specifically a woman of color with an immigrant background. The catastrophism - explored on multiple levels, from the indigenous legends of the Yucatan, to the catastrophism inspired by the moment unprecedented on the memory of the generation, to the scientific calculations of the odds of a destructive asteroid impact, to the catastrophism that couldn't help but develop in people who witnessed the horrors and violence of the 20th century, as the protagonist explores in her imaginative snippets. I was also reminded of Signs Preceding the End of the World in its combination of the mythical worldviews of the indigenous cultures of Mexico with the stories of migration and border crossing to the US.

I don't have much experience with book clubs but this also reads as a potentially good pick for a book-club discussion.

I am thankful to Netgalley and University of Nevada Press for a free eARC of this title. The opinions above are my own.

[jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5, rounded to 4 stars - rtc, an honest review for a book i recieved through a goodreads giveaway

while there were certain aspects to the story that i thought were a little rough around the edges, i enjoyed the scientific analysis and comparison to the mythos introduced by laura's mother, how art and logic intersect, and the observations on how the worst of humanity "made it possible" for important discoveries to be made. all were fascinating to me. it is helped by it being placed within the end of the last election cycle, when COVID was still a prevalent concern, and it captures the hopelessness and anxiety of that tumultuous time very, very well. at the same time, while i praise it for capturing this well, it does make it a difficult read. living through laura's worries made me relive my own and i had to take a couple of breaks to get me out of that headspace. this is by no means a criticism of this aspect of the work, but a warning for a prospective reader to take the time to take care of yourself.

[Nuha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to University of Nevada Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Now available.

I have such a deep appreciation for Yxta Maya Murray - The World Doesn't Work That Way But It Could is one of my favorite collections. Though A History of Hazardous Objects is a different form, a long narrative rather than short stories, both share a perspective of seeing the world with deep inquisition, love, and care. What I loved most about this book is how it made the cosmos, often vast and unknowable, deeply human by exploring the lives of the scientists themselves. As our narrator delves deeper into the despair of the Universe and impending doom of Aphos, her personal world also implodes with COVID, rise in police brutality, and sickness. The personal and the cosmos are embedded in our cells, Murray seems to urge us, and we are intricately connected to the world we inhabit, to our past, and our future.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing novel! This was not on my radar or a typical read. Written by a Latina law professor, writer, art critic etc etc; this features a Latina woman astronomer in the L.A. area who is in the second half of 2020 trying to write a scientific report to be submitted to Congress. As she deals with family issues, Covid and social unrest, the report she writes; which we see parts of; takes a turn into a fever dream novel of sorts.
Here we have a wife, mother, and daughter struggling with keeping her family and indeed her sanity together.
One of the most surprising, creative and moving books I have read. Life in 2020 covered with such real emotion, and what it means to be a mother, wow.

[Zhelana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is weird. Like basically the plot is "2020" while we watch a family of people go through every major historical event that happened in 2020 experiencing all of it. But there really isn't much character development or much of a story. It's just that life, covid, protesting, and a weird subplot about near earth orbit asteroids happens to these people. They don't seem to have much agency and there isn't much of a story. It's literally just a reminder of all the awful things that happened in 2020, and who needs that?

[Paul Wagenbreth · Rating 4 out of 5]

No more mythological stories of chaos, the narrator of Yxta Maya Murray’s provocative “A History of Hazardous Objects” pleads with her mother at one point, and that was my reaction to the novel’s various such fables, even with their relevance to the novel’s cataclysmic concerns.
How much more cataclysmic can you get, after all, than the colossal meteorite that was supposed to have wiped out all the dinosaurs on the Earth millions of years ago or, at the time of the novel, another celestial body looking to be headed the Earth’s way sometime this century.
Almost as intriguing for me, though, as the celestial phenomena, for all their literally earth-shaking consequence, was the personal situation of the astronomer studying them, Laura de Leon, who in the course of the novel will come down with Covid, and her family, husband Paul, who is suffering from colon cancer, and son Tomas, who is grappling with the complexities of a gay romance.
Provocative, as I say, on both the larger and smaller scales, Murray’s novel, though with its decided scientific slant not for everyone, but made less intellectually intimidating by the focus on Laura’s family, which frankly I found more compelling than the astronomical phenomena, and even, in the novel’s final pages, quite moving.