#447 - The Magical Mission to Mars
by Ashima Mathur
“The Magical Mission to Mars” by Ashima Mathur. Published by Ashima Mathur. A milestone book written and illustrated using the Artificial Intelligence model ChatGPT and Midjourney software about the journey of a boy towards fulfilling his dreams.
The protagonist of the story is a seven year old boy called Anay. He lived in a small charming town in India with his parents. His favourite subject was space. He often dreamed of travelling to and having adventures of different kinds in space. He would always be found on his rooftop terrace in the evenings observing the sky through his telescope. His love for space was thanks to his grandfather who told him plenty of stories about early days of space exploration making him wonder about the brave astronauts.
Anay’s dream to follow brave explorers to space grew bigger as he became older. He confided about his dreams of becoming an astronaut and setting out to stars, and even Mars maybe, to his best friend Neev. When Neev told him that it wasn’t going to be an easy path to pursue, doubts began to creep in Anay’s mind. But his parents supported him wholeheartedly when he spoke to them about his dream. They got him an appointment with his school counsellor to take advice on how to prepare for this exciting journey and career. As the title suggests, Anay does get to become an astronaut and go in his dream mission to Mars. Read the book to know what happens on this incredible and memorable journey of a lifetime.
When I came to know about this book, what made me interested in getting this was the fact that it was created using a brand new technology which is supposedly going to revolutionise the world in several ways. In fact this was a topic I had been discussing with my husband just before I got a mail about this book. The timing seemed quite coincidental and the topic sounded very interesting. As to the book, my nine year old was impressed by the quality of the book especially its illustrations which looked like real life photographs. He was eager to know how Mars would be. The story was nice but I wished there had been more depth in it. In the sense, it felt like Anay was on a fast forward mode to achieve his dream and it came true in a very straightforward manner. There were no obstacles, hindrances or any kind of setbacks. Anay seemed too perfect a person somehow at least to me. Everything seemed to fall perfectly in place for him in whatever he did. No mistakes, hitches, worries or challenges at all anywhere along the mission. The other characters in the book too, I felt, could have been developed a lot more.
Having said this, it is a nice feel good story and a good way to imagine how Mars might be. Maybe it’s the AI tooling which has to improve or maybe it’s how we use these tools or a combination of both. On the other hand, the illustrations were just fabulous and must have taken a lot of effort and time to get them using Midjourney with multiple iterations of prompts. The author mentions she created 4,000 images which she had to sift through to choose the final ones. The book is an innovative and honest attempt despite its shortcomings. It gives a peek into what could be possible for just one person to achieve with these tooling. Especially as the tooling improves, which is bound to happen at breakneck speed, and people’s understanding of how to use these tools gets better and better.
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 6/7 and above.
Disclaimer - We received this book from the author, Ashima Mathur, for review. Thank you to Archana Upadhyay for arranging to send across the book!