The Martian by Andy Weir

[scifinut]

Andy Weir's book The Martian is a stimulating, thought provoking adventure. Larry Niven said that it reads "like DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe as written by someone brighter." We follow Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer, as he attempts to exist on Mars after an accident separates him from his exploratory team and leaves him alone on the planet. Faced with the prospect of living on Mars for four years without the aid of outside resources, he must use all of his intellectual and creative faculties in a desperate effort to survive. A marvelous debut that takes the reader into the unknown and illuminates both the physical world and the human spirit.

[reginabally]

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
My rating: 5 stars

The Martian was first made available on Andy Weir's website for free and later on became a self-published title on Amazon Kindle. The book sold many copies on Amazon and later on the rights been purchased by Broadway Books (Crown Publishing Group) to publish printed copies.

This book has been awarded the Goodreads Choice Award 2014 - Best Science Fiction and also the ALA Alex Award (2015).

Disclaimer: This copy of eBook is obtained from the publisher via Blogging For Books in exchange for my honest review.

Plot

The book started with a log entry at Sol 6 (6th day in Mars), written by Mark Watney, our narrator in the Hab at Ares 3 on the Mars.

Ares Program is administered by NASA to send astronauts to the Mars mainly to study the surface of it and to collect rocks samples and other stuff back to the Earth for research. The digit behind the word Ares indicates the number of missions launched from the Earth to Mars, in another word, Mark is one of the crew members of 3rd batch of the Ares Program.

The Ares 3 mission is to be carried out at an area on the Mars called Acidalia Planitia. So most of the time, our hero of the story will wander around that area to figure out how to survive alone on the surface of that zero-surviving opportunity and freezing cold Mars.

The story mainly narrated in first-person POV when Mark is logging his statuses daily in the Hab. In Mark's log entries, he tells us his current situations and how bad it is. Then he'll use a lot of scientific terms (chemistry, physics, maths, etc) to explain further on the issues he is facing and also how is he going to solve them one by one.

Starting from Chapter 6, a new third-person POV added into the story to bring out the expert team members in JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) of NASA. In one particular satellite imagery of Mars, they found out Mark isn't dead yet. They immediately set up a very resourceful special unit for the rescue mission.

By looking at the unfamiliar and harsh environment on the Mars, I do expect there will be disasters happened to Mark. But when it happens, it's really a chest pounding and heart gripping moment! Sometimes it would be so tense until I nearly stop breathing. Once Mark has successfully overcome the obstacle, I found myself cheering for his success in conquering another catastrophe which would have killed him.

The astounding setting of the Mars is the result of the author's hard work in studying space research and anything related to the space like the orbit. Even though there are so much scientific terms used in the book, but they're actually easy to understand and read through. So don't worry, you'll survive reading this book even though you're not a science geek.

Another big plus is the writing of the author. Most of the time we would have misconception that a sci-fi book is boring (with lots of scientific terms) and so intense that you won't expect to find homour in it. But Andy Weir showed us otherwise.

This book will still have a lot (in fact, tons of) scientific terms. But with the great sense of homour in the narration of the main character, this book actually made me LOL in the middle of the night!


Character

Our hero of the story - Mark Watney is one of the crew members of Ares 3, the astronauts of the Mars mission. He is specialized in botany and mechanical engineering. Apart from his own specialties, NASA trained each of the crew members necessary skills for them to work on Mars and also survive on it.

Mark is a very optimistic man with very good problem solving skills. He has a great sense of humour and he is the main source of the comedy and he almost jokes in every logs he writes on Mars. But to me, his character could be a bit flat because he is way too optimistic. Even though sometimes he shows the sign of loneliness and eagerness to talk to someone, but he is just too perfect to be a human being who is almost always positive about his life on Mars.

One of my favourite quotes in the book, by Mark is:

“The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”

Of course there are more funny and memorable quotes in this book like the duct tape. Please don't ask me what is it, go get a copy and explore it yourself.

Conclusion

Andy Weir is a very brilliant writer who wrote an astonishing book that proves him a lifelong space nerd. I'm actually thrilled to know that he actually wrote a program to track constant-thrust trajectories (don't ask me what it is, I have no idea) in order to make the book more realistic. This is definitely the most realistic and most funny sci-fi book I've ever read.

The movie adaptation right has been purchased by the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and is expected to be in the cinema during November 2015. I really can't wait to watch the movie. In fact, when I read through the book, I have a feeling that I'm actually "watching" a blockbuster sci-fi movie!

Now, go get a copy to read if you haven't. You won't regret it.

This review is originally posted on my blog.

[gali]

I loved this book and recommend it as well.

[TreeRhino]

Usually, when I'm facing the explanations and reasoning given through science fiction, I'm typically looking at what I like to refer to as "Scientific American" level of science referring to the magazine. It's the amount of hard facts that, granted, is aimed at someone who would be a bit above average in terms of general knowledge, but freedoms and allowances are given that would repel a professional in a related field while slip by unnoticed by the general audience. However, typically these freedoms taken are necessary to keep the general audience from losing interest. Balancing technical accuracy and lay interest is very difficult.
The Martian did a brilliant job of doing exactly that. Balancing every bit of the units of measure and engineering aspects to chemical makeup and reactions with the sort of minor complications that showed a massive amount of thought. More than that, the technical details were presented in a way that was accessible and frequently entertaining. The approach showed me an author who took genuine interest in the lesser demons in the details.
The author, Andy Weir's background reminded me very much of the author of popular blog and webcomic XKCD, Randall Munroe. Munroe formerly was a robotics engineer with NASA who quit to write his blog "What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions". Really, both men held very similar backgrounds, as well as similar avenues that led them to writing. Because of my familiarity with the highly complementary writing styles, I was able to take in Andy Weir's approach at first stride.
The problem driven approach parallel that I was able to observe in the writing was what led me to conclude that The Martian serves as a problem solving vehicle rather than an individualistic struggle or a study of the implications of a future scenario as many science fiction novels cling to. Because of the problem driven approach, The Martian serves as a type of novel that is indeed novel. I have never read a book where the primary motivation came in the solving of problems rather than the alternatives to story.
What I found was that Mark Watney, the main, and nearly only, character was an caricatured rendering of the author, something I've found is often taken to be the easiest character to write. It was the author himself that had gone through, in minute detail, the scenario that he was presented with and repeatedly invented and solved potential problems in theory to the point they took on the humorous, almost personal aspect we are presented with in the book. Assembling those problems into a panorama the audience was able to experience over the shoulder of very nearly the author with the feelings of accomplishment, puzzling, and supposition flowing back out to the audience is what I believe gave us such a brilliant, clever, and individual book that I don't believe we are likely to find many, if any, other works in the same vein.

[ashley_claire]

If I'm being honest, I had to start skimming most of the super detailed chemistry talk. I'm not an expert, and had no interest in reading about the balance of oxygen, hydrogen, etc. But even having to do that, I still really enjoyed the book. I'd be lying if I said I didn't start ignoring my children and husband during the last 50 pages of the book because I just had so much anxiety about how it was going to end and couldn't concentrate on anything else.

And it really does make you think about how much is too much when it comes to devoting resources to the rescue of just one person.

I think the movie will be amazing but I'm having a bit of a hard time picturing Matt Damon as a science geek.

[amybo82]

I was really impressed with this book! I mean, all along, I kind of had a feeling that I knew how it was going to end. Even so, I read each page with more and more anticipation. I thought the research and the science aspect of the book was so well done and well presented. I am not a huge science person, but I felt like I understood most of what Weir was talking about throughout the book. I absolutely couldn't put it down. I've recommended it to several people who have been equally impressed.

[Gravy]

I've recently become very interested in this book, ans the more I hear about it the more interested I get.
I hope I get the chance to read it soon.

[steampunk_girl]

I'm a little late to the party with reading and reviewing this but it was an astonishing novelization that kept me thinking of ways to get Mark out alive. Although I came up with none because I'm no scientist it kept me thinking. Would we (as planet Earth) really waste that much time, energy and money on one man? I mean let's get real - NASA surely wouldn't waste all that technology that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as the time it takes to make and charge them... Right? This leads to another interesting question even if NASA asked, well demanded him to not use the MAV or upgrade the rover he still could if he wasn't in something America built because of the international law rules. Anyways those thoughts just prove the book got me thinking and was amazing. I'd rate it 5 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone that is old enough to read curse words (I wouldn't recommend it to my 8 year old brother or these kids I babysit) and can sorta just grasp sciency theories and words.

[anonanemone]

I really recommend this book. Mark Watney is one of those people that seems to be able to find the humor in any situation, even if it isn't always the most mature humor. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way with this book! It seems like there were at least a dozen times or more that he should have died but was able to survive through sheer presence of mind and his own wits. I still haven't seen the movie yet but will probably get around to it eventually.

@ashley_claire check out the movie "Good Will Hunting"...

[ashley_claire]

Ah, can't believe I forgot about Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting. Okay so I can picture it now I still have yet to see The Martian, but my husband has finally been talked into reading it so hopefully we'll watch it soon.

[anonanemone]

We've both read, just waiting to get around to the movie

[phinkjourney]

We've both read, just waiting to get around to the movie

I loved the book and recommend it to any sci-fi fan. The level of science details and day to day realism get the reader very close to the main character. The film was a real disappointment, well produced and well cast but stripped of the books intimacy, for once the film could have been an hour longer to stay closer to a fantastic and modern off world human survival story.

[korahallen]

This book is on my list, I can't wait to read it!

[Ioana2104criss]

This book is awesome.I loved it

[MullyROI]

Andy Weir's "The Martian" is a the author's first foray into the world of fiction and promises to be a tour-de-force of technological optimism of the Robinson Crusoe variety. Our Martian, Mark Watson, unlike Crusoe finds himself stranded not on a remote desert island but rather a remote desert planet. The wise-cracking computer nerd and soon-to-be survivalist awakes on the planet's surface to find that his crew, mistakenly believing he died in a storm, have abandoned him and are en route home to Earth. Putting all his skills into action Watson is determined to survive on the Red Planet long enough for help to arrive.

Having read the book in German rather than its original English, I am hesitant to be too critical, however, while the book is certainly entertaining, its suffers from a few defects. While Watson's unbounded optimism combined with his gallows humour certainly cheers the reader into rooting for him, it does little to explore what would be the real psychological effects of such seemingly hopeless isolation, furthermore the jokes can often be cliched or ham-fisted and for these reasons the character falls somewhat flat. The trite plot also suffers from its simplicity and predictability.

All in all, while The Martian will never top any list of the best sci-fi, is a great extension of the survivor genre into space and an immensely enjoyable romp for anyone looking for a quick weekend read.


(Hi all, this is my first review, ever *jeeps*, so if you have any pointers or criticisms, please let me know ! )