World Space Week

4th to 10th October sees World Space Week, but this was something I knew nothing about until today! So here is my run down of the most well known novels to be set in Space!

Star Wars

The most obvious series of books set in Space (to me anyway) are the Star Wars books and believe me, there are hundreds of them! All based on George Lucas’ original film trilogy, the books go back to Dawn of the Jedi and Lost Tribe of the Sith, right through to events way after The Force Awakens. The major difference between the film franchise and the books, is that The Force Awakens changed the children of Luke Skywalker and Leia and Han Solo; which really confused me and quickly led to annoyance.

The post The Force Awakens Skywalker family tree looked something like this:

Luke Skywalker had 1 son - Ben Skywalker

Leia and Han Solo gad 3 children - Jaina Solo, Jacen Solo and Anakin Solo

But was changed in The Force Awakens to:

Luke Skywalker has no children

Leia and Han Solo have 1 son - Ben Solo

Which took me a really, really long time to get my head around.

The Star Wars books are aimed at a wide range of reading abilities, from children learning to read right through to adults. Some are concerned with politics, some with mechanics and war. Personally, I find it easier to read those book which feature characters from the films, as I find them easier to relate to and visualise.

For the full list of novels set in the Star Wars universe, in chronological order, copy and paste http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_books into your browser.

The Martian

I must admit, I haven’t actually read The Martian by Andy Weir, but I have seen the film. The film starring Matt Damon is based on Weir’s novel. Synopsis below:

“A mission to Mars.

A freak accident.

One man's struggle to survive.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength–he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive.

But Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.”

I enjoyed the film, which was a surprise to me (in the nicest way possible), as I didn’t think I would enjoy a film which for 90% only featured on one character but historically I really do struggle with books that have the same format and that’s putting me off slightly. Goodreads readers have given The Martian a total of 4.39 stars out of 5 and has been reviewed 56,122 times.

The Martian was originally self-published in 2011 and after much public demand made into an Amazon kindle edition and sold for 99 cents, but seemed to really take off when Crown Publishing purchased the rights to the book for just over $100,000 and republished in 2014. Andy Weir’s Father was a particle physicist, which prompted Weir to thoroughly research the book making it as realistic as possible. In March 2014 The Martian debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List at number twelve in the hardcover fiction category.