After Seeing Interstellar, I HAD To Read These.

I saw Interstellar shortly after it came out and I was BLOWN AWAY by this movie. I haven't been this impacted with a movie since I saw Inception (which may be my top favorite movie of all time), and I think Interstellar has definitely made it in my favorites list. I CANNOT wait to see this movie again. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it.

If you don't know what Interstellar is about, it's essentially about space. In the movie, the Earth is not going to sustain human life much longer, so some astronauts go on a mission to find another planet that can sustain life. It's an AMAZING movie.

After watching Interstellar, I had a major craving to read some space books. I've picked up two so far and thought I'd do mini-reviews of them.

These Broken Stars takes place as a ship is in progress to another planet and ends up crashing onto a foreign planet. Lilac, the daughter of a powerful man, and Tarver, a soldier, are the only two survivors of the crash. Lilac and Tarver try to survive and find help on the planet. 

This book was very different than what I had thought it was going to be. I've heard this book referred to as a titanic type story but in space. I would say this is somewhat accurate, because there's a crash and obviously some romance happens between Lilac and Tarver. But with the Titanic story, the sinking of the ship is the climax and here the ship crashes in the first couple chapters, it's the beginning of the story, not the end. This is essentially a story of Lilac and Tarver trying to survive on the planet, as well as what they find out while on the planet which makes the story into an adventure...A space adventure!

I really, really, REALLY, liked this book. ALOT. I love the world that was created on the planet. I love the different aspects that popped up, and the different possibilities they encountered while on the planet. This becomes so much more than a survival story by the end and that was something that I didn't expect to find and was pleasantly surprised to find it. I read this one really fast because I just couldn't stop, it was SO GOOD. 

Rating: 4.5 stars. 

The Martian takes place on Mars after astronaut and botanist, Mark Watney is thought to be dead by his crew and left on Mars during a sand storm. Mark's left alone on Mars with no way to contact anyone to let them know he's alive. As he realizes this, Mark tries to find out how he can survive until the next trip to Mars destined to be arriving in a few YEARS. 

Going into this one, I was already nervous, someone stranded on a planet, with no way to let anyone know they are there..YIKES! There was so much research that went into this book and I really appreciate that the author did that. The book gets a bit scientific at times as Mark figures out how he can make water, grow plants and try to sustain himself. Mark is one of the most unique main characters that I've ever encountered, he's incredibly smart, resourceful and funny, seriously I actually laughed out loud while reading this book. You wouldn't think that guy would be funny when he's left stranded on Mars, but this guy is positively humorous. This is a FANTASTIC survival story.

Rating: 5 stars. 

And I'm STILL craving some space books, I'd love to hear your recs of your favorite space reads :)