Potatoes on Mars

 The Martian (6 Points)

What are the three things I enjoy about survival stories? One, I like a character that stares the statistically chances of death in the face, shrugs their shoulders, and continues trying to live. Two, I enjoy a setting where the environment actively work against the main characters survival, but still hold hope to save the main character as well. Three, the reuniting of an isolated character back into society with other humans that provides the audience with relief as well a delivering satisfaction. Other key factors to the enjoyment of survival stories is creating realistic scenarios (or at least making it sound believable enough to the audience that they can suspend their disbelief) for the character to survive, as well as how admirable a main character reacts under pressure. This story pretty much had it all, as well as an incredibly funny and relatable main character who the audience roots for from beginning to end.

But let's get to the Sci-Fi of it: This story takes place in the year 2035, after being published in 2011. It's almost scarily perfect how we have progress 10 years past it's publishing and I have read the book before any of the believability may become true or false. Of course, much of the book is based off of many scientific accuracies as it was the goal of the author to be as probable as possible. As someone who is as far from scientific as possible, it was very easy to be convinced of the science that permeated every inch of this book. Most of the logs are in-depth and detailed plans of how Watney, the main character dubbed "The Martian," intends to try and survive long term on Mars until NASA can send the next ARES mission to Mars. To keep the science from getting to repetitive and boring, Watney uses his wit and humor to be a smart-ass throughout the duration of the book, so the audience never truly feel hopeless or depressed by his situation. They also include events occurring back at Houston and Earth in general, as well and Watney's returning team on the HERMES as the book progresses, allowing for brief respite and new perspective on the events taking place as time passes.

It might seem silly, as I truly don't have much scientific knowledge in literally anything related to the book, but I didn't really view this book as an extreme science fiction novel, more so as a fictional autobiography that just happened to take place in space. Whether that is because I feel more close to the year 2035 than 2011 right now, or because the novel was very accomplished in convincing me of the science and technology being real; it could be a mixture of both. Either way, this novel marked a very fun week for me and a book I would absolutely love to return to in 2035!