I have descended from my ivory tower and read a fiction book that was written in the 2000s…and I had such a fun time doing it! Andy Weir weaves science into his stories so well, and I loved the relationship between Grace and Rocky. Finally, as far as tropes go, humans and aliens trying to teach each other their respective languages is one of my favorites.
There was even division within my own brain, though. I couldn’t put it down and I recommended it to several other people (who mostly loved it) and yet I also thought the writing was amateurish. I’m just a sucker for stuff like >!Ryland’s relationship with Rocky!<