The Martian

This has been a seriously fun book to read. If you are, in any way, a nerd, engineer, geek, space nut, adventure nerd, survivalist, or any other sort of human you should read this. Non-humans might also like it—I can't speak for them.

You know that scene in Apollo 13 where they throw the box of assorted supplies on the table and tell the engineers that they have 6 hours to solve the problem? This entire book is a series of those problem-solving/life-saving adventures. It's really good.

And it helps that the protagonist shares the same cynical sarcastic sense of humor that I have. There's also that. So if you like me and my sense of humor—and who doesn't?—then you'll feel right at home.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

When what was originally meant to be a month-long Mars mission is aborted on day six due to a nasty dust storm, astronaut Mark Watney is injured, and his shipmates, believing him to be dead, reluctantly leave him behind and get out while they can. Turns out he's still very much alive, but staying that way is going to be a heck of a challenge, especially considering that he now has no way to contact Earth.

25 pages in, as Watney was telling us all the details of his plan to make water from hydrazine fuel and doing endless calculations about how much of everything he'd need and how long it would last him, I started feeling confused. "Wait, how is this book so popular?," I thought. "Why do even people who don't generally read SF seem to be show more into this? I'm a giant science nerd, and even I'm only mildly interested in all of this!" But then, as the novel went on, a funny thing happened. Even though it continued being more of the same -- lots of Martian MacGyvering, lots of arithmetic -- the story got really gripping.

It seems like it shouldn't have been, really. It should have felt like yet another so-so, tediously technical Tale of Hard SF Space Competence. Seriously, the writing's nothing special, the dialog (in the sections that have dialog, anyway) is stilted, and there's very little human drama at all, no powerful emotional sense of what it would be like to be stranded alone on an alien world. Watney's not a guy we learn much of anything about, beyond the fact that he's a) amazingly resourceful, and b) a total smartass, and his troubles are all physical, not psychological. He ought to seem like an impossible-to-care-about cardboard cutout of a space hero, like a million hard SF characters before him. (And I use the word the word "characters" loosely.) And yet... I wasn't just interested in the science-y problem-solving here, although that was pretty cool if you're into science-y problem solving. I actually cared about this guy, and I felt genuine suspense every time he faced an even-more-dangerous-than-usual situation.

I'm not entirely sure how Weir pulls that off, but it involves a good sense of humor and a surprising ability to summarize a lot of technical details in an accessible way. I'm still a little surprised that this has become something of a genre-transcending hit but, hey, maybe I shouldn't be. After all, Apollo 13 was a highly successful movie, and I think this novel is all about capturing that exact "failure is not an option"/"figuring out how to put the square peg in the round hole" spirit. show less

“Things didn’t go exactly as planned, but I’m not dead, so it’s a win.“

Mark Watney’s wry evaluation is essentially the summation of his attempts to survive on Mars. After a devastating and unexpected Martian hurricane-force storm wrecks havoc on the Martian crew, NASA calls for an ‘abort mission.’ As Mark is heading to the vehicle that will provide escape from Mars and return the crew to earth, he’s impaled by flying debris, loses consciousness and is presumed dead as the object impaled his suit bio-computer. Ironically, his injury was caused by a piece of antenna that would have enabled him to let his team–or Earth–know he was still alive. What follows is Mark’s log entry of his strategies to survive on Mars and show more signal Earth that he is still alive.

I tend to avoid most ‘serious’ Hollywood movies because the emotional manipulation is so overt. For similar reasons, I was hesitant to pick up The Martian. A man abandoned on Mars? Cue scenes of astronaut training, sobbing family, distance camera shots of the Earth marble from Mars. But Weir did something interesting, and instead of heading for the maudlin center of a man’s isolation, he focused on the technical problem-solving by an intelligent, clever engineer with a juvenile sense of humor.

I was pleased to find that The Martian worked for me, despite a few story-telling bumps. The overall structure has a couple of rocky (get it?) moments, with jumps in time and place. Although the primary story is taken from Mark’s mission logs, there are scenes centered on NASA as well as Mark’s crew members. One flashback of the crew felt particularly misplaced, but will undoubtedly fit right into the movie version. In terms of language, Mark’s voice is colloquial, and even when he’s talking science and engineering, his problem-solving relatively understandable for the reader. Mark’s skills and necessary solutions draw upon experience in botany, Morse code, computers, plumbing, chemistry, balancing loads, ramp-building–there’s likely something here most people can relate to:

“Problem is (follow me closely here, the science is pretty complicated), if I cut a hole in the Hab, the air won’t stay inside anymore.“

There’s even some science humor sprinkled in among the poop jokes:

“All my brilliant plans foiled by thermodynamics. Damn you, Entropy.“

What really sold me was Mark’s humor, as well as the focus on survival in an unusual environment. There’s a running joke regarding his attempts to entertain himself, only somewhat relieved after rooting through his crewmates’ possessions and discovering data discs filled with 70s memorabilia. Another ongoing gag centers on being the only human on Mars. Instead of despairing, Mark cracks jokes. It felt believable, an almost required personality trait for one of those daredevils we call ‘astronauts,’ and a very adaptive way of coping in small group situations. For some, the lack of overt emotional exploration might disappoint, but it worked well both to off-set the technical aspects, and to avoid the trope-ridden isolation angst. He does let a couple of moments of isolation and frustration shine through, more moving because of how rare they are.

It’s a solid four stars, and clearly headed towards movie status. An enjoyable, quick read instead of the emotional existential tear-jerker I was expecting, with a positive message about humanity. However, when the movie version is finally made, I won’t need to see it–I’ve already seen Castaway and The Terminal. Adding Apollo 13 is unnecessary. show less

Coming rather late to this hugely successful reworking of the Robinson Crusoe idea, about an astronaut stranded on Mars after his fellow crew members leave him behind, presumed dead, under the pressure of an emergency evacuation. I found myself enjoying Mark Watney’s struggle to repurpose the technology available to him to try to survive long enough to stand a chance of being rescued, but irritated by the bland and generic minor characters who all seem to be from science fiction’s Central Casting, each defined by little else than a professional role, a name, and no more than two adjectives. You have to wonder why he wanted to return from the harsh and vivid world of Mars to the boring corporate greyness of the planet he came from. show more But that’s always an issue with castaway stories show less

Audiobook performed by R.C. Bray
4****

When a major dust storm threatens the Ares 3 mission to Mars, the team of astronauts are ordered to evacuate the planet. En route to their MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle = rocket), the high winds rip a satellite dish off the habitat, sending an antenna directly into Mark Watney, tearing a hole in his spacesuit and knocking him sideways. Unable to find him in the storm, and getting a “flat line” readout from his spacesuit, the rest of the team barely manages to leave before the storm wrecks the MAV. But Mark isn’t dead.

WOW. This is a great story with a great cast of characters. I just loved Mark Watney – his dry humor, his strength of character, his determination and inventiveness. I cheered with show more him at every little (and big) success, and was anxious at every set back (some of which were just plain disastrous). Weir’s writing completely captured me and transported me to a different planet. I have no clue if the science is accurate, and I don’t care. The novel grabbed me from the beginning and never let go!

R C Bray does a superb job performing the audio version. He has great pacing and is a skilled voice artist, giving the various characters sufficiently unique voices to easily differentiate them. I found myself driving the “long way” around trying to get just one more track listened to before heading into the garage. show less

This review and others posted over at my blog.

I received this book for free from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Mark Watney is accidentally abandoned on Mars during an emergency evacuation and thought to be dead for weeks. But Mark survived and is scratching out a living as the lone man on Mars based on his ingenuity and remaining resources. But can he survive long enough for those back on Earth to try to put together a rescue mission – will that mission even be possible?

What I like:
This is another book where I just want to say “Oh my gourd, go read it!” and just let you experience everything for yourself. I was hooked from page one and show more instantly appreciated Mark’s wit and sarcasm. I present you with the opening sentences:

“I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion. Fucked.”

Well, that got my attention!

Mark makes this book – considering more than half of it is his personal log of his new life trying to survive on Mars, this is an important part. I instantly liked him as a character and while he’s a smartass, he’s also very smart. He’s primarily a botanist, and his skills actually help him to survive. He’s crafty with his resources and I don’t want to give away much, but I’ll say that he bounces back well from any mishaps. That’s another great part – Mark is not some super genius who flawlessly carves out his life on Mars. He miscalculates, he makes stupid mistakes and he gets knocked down. There’s a lot of science and math in this book and I’ll be honest, I have no damn clue if it’s accurate, and I don’t care. It felt accurate and that was enough for me. Surprisingly enough, while I didn’t understand most of Mark’s calculations, I didn’t feel bored or lost while he was working through them – it genuinely felt like a man keeping a log of just how he planned to try to survive on Mars for as long as he possibly could. Those of you who are actually knowledgeable about spacemath and sciencejunk might actually enjoy this book even more.

Part way through, we’re given insight into the lives of people back on Earth, as well as Mark’s other crew members. At first, I thought it might disrupt the journal-like flow of Mark’s logs, but it actually added essential detail to the story and there wasn’t a single page in this book I didn’t enjoy.

Here are a few more quotes that made me chuckle:

“I used a sophisticated method to remove sections of plastic (hammer), then carefully removed the solid foam insulation (hammer again).”

“Now that NASA can talk to me, they won’t shut the hell up.”

What I didn’t like:
Hmmm…uh……let’s see…..

Oh! I know. I have the paperback edition, and they designed the cover to have a shorter edge, so you can see the page beneath it, which they also made to be the same color as the cover background. So, why do that? It’s ugly and I don’t think it lends to the design.

Yep…that’s it.

~

Seriously, if you’re at all interested in a realistic sci-fi read (meaning no aliens and space fights, etc) then check out this book. I had a hard time putting this down and I enjoyed waffling back and forth between how I thought the book ended. Mark is an excellent main character who kept me laughing, despite what I consider to be a harrowing experience. I also hear (according to IMDB) they’re making this into a movie and if it’s done right I think it will be fantastic. show less

Pure fun. From the moment that Mark Watney regains consciousness to discover himself stranded on Mars, the clock is ticking and the pages are turning. On the one hand he is marooned millions of miles from earth with limited food, water, and oxygen. On the other hand, he's not dead. So at least he has something to work with. Plus he is a botanist and an engineer, which is a fortunate set of skills given his situation. Indeed, as he wryly notes, he is the best botanist on the whole planet. And that self-deprecating sense of humour is going to be one of his key assets as he sets about saving himself. Of course he'll eventually need a fair bit of help from lots of people on earth, but for the moment he's got to get busy farming.

There isn't show more a lot of soul searching in this latter day Crusoe tale. But there is plenty of science. Science and duct tape. Which will solve most of our problems after all. There is also an overriding optimism, which probably explains why these astronauts were out there exploring Mars in the first place.

The writing is crisp and well-paced. It's not great literature but it does bring the science back to science fiction and that's got its own charms. Recommended for the botanist-engineer-astronaut hiding in all of us. Enjoy! show less