JP Schiller: Lit of Horror, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi

Babel-17 (5 Points) Alright, there is a ton to unpack here. Firstly, I was completely blown away to learn that this book had been written in the 1960s, and went into the reading believing that it was a contemporary work from the writing alone! (Sure the beauty of the main character being described as "Oriental," children playing marbles, and the phrases like "coal scuttle" should have given it away, but I'm fairly bad at distinguishing these things.) Overall the book was a bit in an out for me and felt very much that I was trying to decipher the language of the novel just as much as the main protagonist was trying to learn about Babel-17. While I found the world-building and spectrum of alien characters to be incredibly fascinating, it was also all very terribly confusing. Which lead me to think that this book was published closer to our current time with its explorative and innovative writing techniques. It definitely didn't feel like a realistic science fi...

 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: Thi...