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.
Opposing opinions about the writing aside (personally didn’t like how they treated translating alien language), I haven’t heard anyone talk about how incredibly traumatic Grace’s experience >!would seem to Rocky. Dude went to sleep with absolutely no one watching and woke up with the rest of his crew dead. His crew also dying in their sleep. Like the number one horror that could befall someone because they all slept unattended.!<