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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)
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.
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)
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.
dClauzel: Deux histoires autour du voyage vers Mars : comment y aller, et aussi comment en repartir. Problématiques scientifiques, difficultés d’ingénierie, et troubles politiques.
CGlanovsky: Both are extensively researched, mathematically-grounded descriptions of kluged solutions to "real-world" problems by web comic authors with backgrounds in STEM careers.
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)
Andy Weir's The Martian does not shy away from the deeply nerdy aspect of being an astronaut. Mark Watney, and the rest of the crew of the Ares 3 (the third manned mission to Mars) are all big dorks. Mark, on top of his engineering baseline, is also a plant geek, and both of those skill sets prove absolutely crucial when there's a sudden, powerful windstorm on the red planet that requires the crew to get out of there in a hurry. A freak accident means that Mark is thought killed and left behind...only he's not actually dead. He's alive, and alone.
What follows is an epic struggle for survival, as Mark tries to figure out how to stay alive, and (when they become aware that he's alive at all), NASA tries to figure out how to get him home. Like most engineers, Mark is a skilled problem-solver, and it's only through a combination of his smarts, determination, and some blind luck that he's able to figure out how to meet the challenges his circumstances throw at him: he figures out how to grow food to supplement the insufficient stores he's left with, he has to come up with a way to travel long-distance across the surface, he has to establish ways to communicate with Earth, he has to deal with unpredictable weather...the list goes on and on. But if everything goes right, he just might make it after all.
This was one of those circumstances where I'd seen the movie first, and I have to say, I think the movie worked better. There are some circles where this is heresy, I know. But there's something that worked watching this story play out over two-ish hours onscreen better than spending several hours, over multiple days, reading it on the page. There's a formulaic-ness to the plotting that becomes very obvious: Mark encounters a problem, which he records in his mission log (these entries comprise most of the book), he comes up with a solution, he explains the solution and how he came up with it and the science behind it, and then there's the next problem...lather, rinse, repeat. By the end, I was skimming through the science bits, because they were meant to show how smart and innovative Mark is rather than advance the story, but because I'd been reading a couple hundred pages of it, I already knew that Mark was smart and innovative.
Which brings me to my other issue with the book: the character of Mark. In a lot of ways, he's a good lead character: the aforementioned intelligence and innovation, a good sense of humor, a distinctive "voice". He's easy to root for. But I found him a little too high-spirited to be really realistic. He's perpetually ready to take on the next challenge, but for a person painted as a naturally social, outgoing fellow, it strained my credulity beyond belief that he never particularly struggled with depression, despite months and months of enforced solitude. Every real obstacle that comes his way is external, and I wanted to see a little more internal development.
I know I've just laid out two major issues with characterization and plot, but honestly this book isn't bad. It's pretty good. But given its immense popularity, I was expecting something a lot closer to greatness, and I did not find greatness here. Is this an entertaining sci-fi read, and worth getting to? Sure! It's easy to read and engaging and builds suspense nicely even though the ultimate ending is predictable. But don't expect anything particularly special. ( )
This was a very readable book. The idea seemed original and following Mark Watney's long struggle for survival proved to be very entertaining. The style was old school SF, with not much attention paid to character development, but it's OK because it is not really needed here. The story is about an astronaut trying to survive in Mars after being stranded because of an accident that leaves everyone on Earth believing he is dead, and the plot is not needlessly bloated with other stuff. It is narrated in first person and some people may be put off by Mark's upbeat attitude and bad puns, but it worked for me. ( )
This BOOK! Oh, my gosh, people! My son kept nagging me to read it, and I kept on not reading it - and then I saw the movie. Yes, to my shame, I saw the movie before I read the book. Then I immediately read the book twice through and told everybody how good it is. It's desperation, and adventure, and regret, and hope all wrapped up together with humor topping it off. Listen to my son - and now me - and read it first chance you get. ( )
I thought watching the movie first might have spoiled the book. It didn't.
Edit reread 2020: For those who didn't like the smart-ass comments throughout the book, I say thank goodness for the comic relief! Otherwise it would have been (a) often boring when too technical and (b) unrelievedly stressful when tense. I laughed and loved it. ( )
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.
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.
It's true, you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl.
Teddy swiveled his chair and looked out the windows to the sky beyond. Night was edging in. "What must it be like?" he pondered. "He's stuck out there. He thinks he's totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man's psychology?"
He turned back to Venkat. "I wonder what he's thinking right now."
LOG ENTRY: SOL 61
How come Aquaman can control whales? They're mammals! Makes no sense.
Venkat pinched the bridge of his nose. "How could we overlook this?"
Chuck shrugged. "Never occurred to us. We never thought someone would be on Mars without an MAV."
"I mean, come on!" Morris said. "What are the odds?"
Chuck turned to him. "One in three, based on empirical data. That's pretty bad if you think about it."
After setting up the solar panels today, I went for a little walk. I never left sight of the rover; the last thing I want to do is get lost on foot. But I couldn’t stomach crawling back into that cramped, smelly rat’s nest. Not right away. It’s a strange feeling. Everywhere I go. I’m the first. Step outside to rover? First guy ever to be there! Climb a hill? First guy to climb that hill! Kick a rock? That rock hadn’t moved in a million years! I’m the first guy to drive long-distance on Mars. The first guy to spend more than thirty-one sols on Mars. The first guy to grow crops on Mars. First, first, first! I wasn’t expecting to be first at anything. I was the fifth crewman out of the MDV when we landed, making me the seventeenth person to set foot on Mars. The egress order had been determined years earlier. A month before launch, we all got tattoos of our “ Mars numbers” Johanssen almost refused to get her “15” because she was afraid it would hurt. Here’s a woman who had survived the centrifuge, the vomit comet, hard-landing drills and 10k runs. A woman who fixed a simulated MDV computer failure while being spun around upside-down. But she was afraid of a tattoo needle. Man, I miss those guys. Jesus Christ, I’d give anything for a five-minute conversation with anyone. Anyone, anywhere. About anything. I’ m the first person to be alone on an entire planet. Okay, enough moping. I am having a conversation with someone: whoever reads this log. It’s a bit one-sided but it’ll have to do. I might die, but damn it, someone will know what I had to say. And the whole point of this trip is to get a radio. I could be reconnected with mankind before I even die. So here’s another first: Tomorrow I’ll be the first person to recover a Mars probe.
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?
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4
What follows is an epic struggle for survival, as Mark tries to figure out how to stay alive, and (when they become aware that he's alive at all), NASA tries to figure out how to get him home. Like most engineers, Mark is a skilled problem-solver, and it's only through a combination of his smarts, determination, and some blind luck that he's able to figure out how to meet the challenges his circumstances throw at him: he figures out how to grow food to supplement the insufficient stores he's left with, he has to come up with a way to travel long-distance across the surface, he has to establish ways to communicate with Earth, he has to deal with unpredictable weather...the list goes on and on. But if everything goes right, he just might make it after all.
This was one of those circumstances where I'd seen the movie first, and I have to say, I think the movie worked better. There are some circles where this is heresy, I know. But there's something that worked watching this story play out over two-ish hours onscreen better than spending several hours, over multiple days, reading it on the page. There's a formulaic-ness to the plotting that becomes very obvious: Mark encounters a problem, which he records in his mission log (these entries comprise most of the book), he comes up with a solution, he explains the solution and how he came up with it and the science behind it, and then there's the next problem...lather, rinse, repeat. By the end, I was skimming through the science bits, because they were meant to show how smart and innovative Mark is rather than advance the story, but because I'd been reading a couple hundred pages of it, I already knew that Mark was smart and innovative.
Which brings me to my other issue with the book: the character of Mark. In a lot of ways, he's a good lead character: the aforementioned intelligence and innovation, a good sense of humor, a distinctive "voice". He's easy to root for. But I found him a little too high-spirited to be really realistic. He's perpetually ready to take on the next challenge, but for a person painted as a naturally social, outgoing fellow, it strained my credulity beyond belief that he never particularly struggled with depression, despite months and months of enforced solitude. Every real obstacle that comes his way is external, and I wanted to see a little more internal development.
I know I've just laid out two major issues with characterization and plot, but honestly this book isn't bad. It's pretty good. But given its immense popularity, I was expecting something a lot closer to greatness, and I did not find greatness here. Is this an entertaining sci-fi read, and worth getting to? Sure! It's easy to read and engaging and builds suspense nicely even though the ultimate ending is predictable. But don't expect anything particularly special. (