HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Martian by Andy Weir
Loading...

The Martian (edition 2014)

by Andy Weir (Author)

Series: Mark Watney (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
17,9891239274 (4.28)3 / 996
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 while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he 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 isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit--he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?… (more)
Member:BBleil
Title:The Martian
Authors:Andy Weir (Author)
Info:Broadway Books (2014), Edition: Reprint, 387 pages
Collections:Read but unowned
Rating:***1/2
Tags:Fiction, Book Club Selection

Work Information

The Martian by Andy Weir

  1. 141
    Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (fichtennadel)
  2. 80
    Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (sboyte)
    sboyte: One is fiction and one is nonfiction, but the subject matter is similar and I think both will appeal to anyone who enjoys science with a dash of humor.
  3. 60
    A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke (pnorth)
  4. 71
    The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (timspalding)
  5. 71
    The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (rakerman)
    rakerman: In The Mysterious Island, a small group lands on an island with no technology other than a watch and proceed to rebuild Victorian industrial civilization. The scientific details of creating each new device and system are carefully described. In The Martian, similar care is taken to describe the modified systems and devices needed to sustain the astronaut on Mars.… (more)
  6. 40
    Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (hoddybook)
    hoddybook: Engineering solutions in stressful conditions.
  7. 30
    The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (g33kgrrl)
    g33kgrrl: Disaster hits and you have to engineer the impossible in a low-resource setting. In Kowal's book, it's getting a habitable off-world environment using 1950s tech before earth becomes unlivable. Highly recommended.
  8. 30
    Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (sturlington)
    sturlington: Mr. Penumbra's reminded me in tone and its reverence for tech, geeks, and pop culture of both The Martian and Ready Player One.
  9. 31
    Failure is not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Eugene Kranz (bertilak)
  10. 20
    Voyage by Stephen Baxter (dClauzel)
    dClauzel: Deux histoires autour du voyage vers Mars : comment y aller, et aussi comment en repartir. Problématiques scientifiques, difficultés d’ingénierie, et troubles politiques.
  11. 20
    How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe (CGlanovsky)
    CGlanovsky: Both are extensively researched, mathematically-grounded descriptions of kluged solutions to "real-world" problems by web comic authors with backgrounds in STEM careers.
  12. 20
    The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal (Aquila)
  13. 20
    The Explorer by James Smythe (jonathankws)
  14. 10
    Mars Crossing by Geoffrey A. Landis (Anonymous user)
  15. 10
    Apollo: The Race to the Moon by Charles Murray (lturpin42)
  16. 32
    Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (electronicmemory)
    electronicmemory: Andy Weir and James S. A. Corey met at a book signing and agreed that The Expanse series and The Martian set in the same time-line. So, if you're a fan of The Martian and want to find out what happened after Mars was colonized, read Leviathan Wakes. If you're a fan of The Expanse series, and want to read about the very first Martian colonist, read The Martian. For proof, check a 3 Oct 2015 tweet by @JamesSACorey for confirmation. One of The Expanse books also references a Martian ship named the 'Mark Watney'.… (more)
  17. 10
    The Patriots of Mars: The God That Failed by Jeff Faria (heatherlove)
  18. 32
    Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell (misericordia)
    misericordia: If you want to understand what a Steely Eyed Missile Man is, read Lost Moon.
  19. 10
    Year Zero by Rob Reid (TomWaitsTables)
  20. 11
    Dragonfly: NASA And The Crisis Aboard Mir by Bryan Burrough (misericordia)
    misericordia: For more reference to how NASA really works read Dragonfly

(see all 22 recommendations)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

Group TopicMessagesLast Message 
 The Martian: The movie is out!19 unread / 19MaureenRoy, February 2016
 The Martian: Sand storm!9 unread / 9pollux, August 2015
 Science Fiction Fans: The Martian by Andy Weir - reading in Dec 201421 unread / 212wonderY, December 2014

» See also 996 mentions

English (1,215)  German (7)  French (3)  Italian (2)  Dutch (2)  Hungarian (2)  Spanish (2)  Danish (1)  Turkish (1)  Catalan (1)  All languages (1,236)
Showing 1-5 of 1215 (next | show all)
Excellent sci-fi. Well-written to be digestible, brilliantly thought out and features a witty protagonist. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat while feeling entirely natural, and gives a good understanding of the basic science underlying everything without burying the reader in the nitty-gritty technical details. Excellent book, and one of the ones that will stick on my shelf. ( )
  VerixSilvercrow | Mar 27, 2024 |
Fantastic, my sort of book, couldn't put it down. Maybe because I'm an engineer and I like physics and fixing or making things but Andy Weir could not have done better. ( )
  Craftybilda | Mar 26, 2024 |
From the description of this book, it might seem like a short story, but it isn't. Andy Weir puts together a great story that reminded me of Martin Caidin's Marooned which was also made into a movie. The interesting thing is how he uses the protagonist's log entries to narrate his time on Mars, and mixes it with more normal third person narration for others in the story.
There's lots of science and McGyver-ist survival action, and Mark Watney (likely the first man to die on Mars) approaches most of it with a humor that will win you over. When I finished this book I decided to use Watney's figures of speech, like "dumb-assery", in a sentence at least once a week. ( )
  tjrourke | Mar 23, 2024 |
The Martian by Andy Weir is a fabulous space ride with its story. Although the whole affair was a bit too technical for me, as I am not from a science background, But hats off to the author for the amount of detail written in the book. I have already watched the movie, but still, listening to the book was a new kind of experience.

Mark Watney was the only character on which I was focused. With every page, the thrill increases and our hope rises. I was amazed with all those minute details that bound the story together to the end. It was a little bit difficult for me to understand all those hardware and software details. Still, the book successfully entertains us to the climax. Definitely, the book deserves 5 stars. ( )
  Sucharita1986 | Mar 20, 2024 |
I haven't been this caught up in a book in a long time. This Science is accurate, the plot believable and the characters authentic. I couldn't put the book down.

Highly recommended if you are a fan of hard Sci-Fi. ( )
  JohnGorski | Mar 19, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 1215 (next | show all)
The Martian is technically a “hard science fiction” book – a subgenre of science fiction so firmly rooted in science that the story wouldn’t work without it. And certainly, Weir’s first work is science-heavy; he even mentioned in an interview that the book was an exercise in whether he could make a fictional narrative out of the scientific premise of the novel. The answer, obviously, is “yes,” and The Martian is an intriguing exercise in the way that science itself can create plot.
 

» Add other authors (14 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Weir, Andyprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bray, R. C.Narratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Haynes, FredMapsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Langowski, JürgenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moerdijk, HenkTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rendfleisch, ElizabethDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Savic, NenadTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wheaton, WilNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
White, EricCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Awards

Distinctions

Notable Lists

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
For Mom
who calls me "Pickle,"
and Dad,
who calls me "Dude."
First words
I'm pretty much fucked.
Quotations
Also, I have duct tape. Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store. Turns out even NASA can't improve on duct tape.
I need to ask myself, "What would an Apollo astronaut do?" He'd drink three whiskey sours, drive his Corvette to the launchpad, then fly to the moon in a command module smaller than my Rover. Man, those guys were cool.
Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped.
As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.
Hurray for standardized valve systems!
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
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 while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he 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 isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit--he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary
In a desert-sea

With little chance to survive

He will overcome

LibraryThing Early Reviewers Alum

Andy Weir's book The Martian was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.28)
0.5 4
1 45
1.5 6
2 157
2.5 35
3 637
3.5 180
4 2080
4.5 380
5 2866

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,187,847 books! | Top bar: Always visible