The Martian in Audiobook Junkies

Mar 28, 2015 Carmel (Rabid Reads) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-2015, audio, favourites

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

My reading horizons consist of Paranormal, Paranormal, and more Paranormal. So, when The Bookaholic Cat fervently recommended this SciFi audiobook to me, I was skeptical. However, past experience has taught me not to ignore my fellow bloggers, and that served me well once again because THE MARTIAN was outstanding! This genre isn’t my forte, and Math was always my weakest subject in school, but pair them with Andy Weir’s writing & R.C. Bray’s narration, and soon you too wi Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

My reading horizons consist of Paranormal, Paranormal, and more Paranormal. So, when The Bookaholic Cat fervently recommended this SciFi audiobook to me, I was skeptical. However, past experience has taught me not to ignore my fellow bloggers, and that served me well once again because THE MARTIAN was outstanding! This genre isn’t my forte, and Math was always my weakest subject in school, but pair them with Andy Weir’s writing & R.C. Bray’s narration, and soon you too will be endorsing this title with zeal.

This story is told via a series of log entries from Mark Watney’s POV, with intermittent JPL/NASA, Hermes, etc narratives. It was funny, dire, hopeful, scientific, and so much more. The protagonist makes good use of his mechanical engineering & botanist background which lead to a lot of technical jargon that even laymen like me could appreciate. The hero’s fight for survival was one that every human can relate to, and his ability to laugh in the face of adversity was oftentimes the difference between life & death.

You’d think that a novel that’s restricted to a habitat, a rover, and a deserted planet as locales, and one character all by his lonesome would get tedious in the long run, but if you’re Weir that’s all you need. Mark Watney made this book for me with his sarcastic sense of humour, and MacGyver-like ingenuity. His last name really should have been Murphy because anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment. From magic duct tape, to pondering the accurateness of Aquaman, to solving terminal velocity à la Iron Man; you will fall in love with Watney.

I can’t say with utmost certainty, but I’m 99.9% positive that the calculations would have bored me to tears if it weren’t for R.C. Bray’s enthusiastic performance. The protagonist celebrates victories with yays, and setbacks with boos, and those emotions came through loud and clear in Bray’s tone. Saving Mark eventually became a world-wide effort, and as a result, the narrator had to cycle through tons of accents including Hindu, German & Chinese, and he aced them all. Unless you’re a whiz, I’d recommend listening over reading to most.

THE MARTIAN was passed on to me, and now it’s my turn to do the same for you. You’re welcome. ...more

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Sep 22, 2015 Tiara rated it really liked it

Shelves: z-2015-audiobook-challenge, book-turned-media-and-vice-versa, science-fiction, audiobook, z-narrator-rc-bray

Review to come.

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 05, 2016 Darcy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, audio-book, space-drama

I finally grabbed this one from the library, wanted to see what all the hype was about. I liked Mark, couldn't believe everything that happened to him. If it wasn't for bad luck he'd have none. But with that said, I found the parts with him a bit boring, a little too technical for me. I did love Mark's humor and how he dealt with his horrible situation. I found myself more interested with what was happening back on Earth, how everyone reacted, how they were so invested to save Mark. ...more

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Jun 10, 2015 Megan (ReadingRover) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: x-goodreads-challenge-15

I freakin loved this book. For a guy who was left behind on a desolate planet with virtually no chance of survival he definitely had a good sense of humor. I don't think anyone else would have made it as long as Mark Watney did. He had a very special set of skills lol just like the guy in the Taken movies only different skills. If he wasn't a botanist and an engineer he would never have made it as far as he did. I would have died day one. I would never have made it up to space but whatever. The ...more

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Apr 03, 2015 Lupdilup rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Audiobook rating 4.5 stars - story - 4.0 Stars- Narration 5.0 Stars
It's not easy to keep me engross amidst mathematic calculations, but listening to this tale of survivable and the ingenuity of Mark Watney was enthralling. The perfectly achieved tension, mixed with Mark's down to earth and humorous attitude kept my ears glued to my phone and made me cheer out-loud its conclusion, thanks to the excellent interpretation by narrator R. C. Bray.

...more

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Apr 14, 2015 Jen (That's What I'm Talking About) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, favorites, my-favorite-books, sci-fi

Okay friends… here is the scoop. I’ve been hearing RAVES about The Martian, particularly in audiobook format, for months, and to be honest, when people rave that much, I tend to get disappointed. So I waited and then cautiously started listening a couple weeks ago. What did I think? THE BOOK IS WORTHY OF THE HYPE!! I was immediately engrossed and emotionally invested in the tale of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars. While he’s not the first person to step foot on Mars (he’s the 17th), h Okay friends… here is the scoop. I’ve been hearing RAVES about The Martian, particularly in audiobook format, for months, and to be honest, when people rave that much, I tend to get disappointed. So I waited and then cautiously started listening a couple weeks ago. What did I think? THE BOOK IS WORTHY OF THE HYPE!! I was immediately engrossed and emotionally invested in the tale of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars. While he’s not the first person to step foot on Mars (he’s the 17th), he’s the first to survive by himself and live on the planet for more than a month.

I’m going to warn readers right up front that the story is uber-scientific. If you don’t like science speak, I strong urge you to see the movie instead (I haven’t seen it, but I hear it’s a pretty good one). I don’t know that I have ever recommended a movie over a book, but The Martian is really full of details. A large percentage of the book shares the intricate details of how Mark solves the problems presented, thus allowing him to survive. As a wanna be chemistry major turned engineer, I found the science utterly fascinating. I loved listening to how he figures everything out - even his failures are profoundly interesting.

But what makes The Martian so great is that Mark’s journey is gripping. I wasn’t this nervous reading a book since Jurassic Park, which is still one of my all time favorites. The story is so realistic and heart-poundingly engaging. And Mark is the perfect character to be stuck on Mars, in fact, NASA even mentions that a couple of times. Yet no matter how clever Mark is, it's his humor that steals the show over and over (and beware, his language is definitely for mature readers). While Mark Watney is the star of the title, each of the characters are three-dimensional and relatable on some level. I highly urge you to avoid spoilers, leaving you desperate to know if Mark and the crew survive, because it’s anybody’s guess right up until he very end of the book.

One thing that is different about how The Martian plays out is that the author uses multiple perspectives and varying methods to share the story. The first several chapters are all told in Mark’s first person voice, written as his journal entries. Then in addition to the journal entries, the author provides third person POVs from different characters on Earth, an omniscient viewpoint of Mark’s crew members, email communications, and even the perspective of inanimate objects. While it was a bit unbalanced and a little unsettling for me at times, the mix works really well to convey a bigger picture and the entire story. The only time the storytelling bothered me was when the book jumped back in time for a while.

Now for the best part: the narration by R.C. Bray absolutely makes this story come to life. His voice embodies the passion, frustrations, and humor that defines Mark Watney. The tale felt so real that I found myself looking at NASA tweets for updates on Mark Watney. Seriously. Additionally, Mr. Bray gets high marks for his accented characters and infusing his performance with the perfect amount of emotion each scene.

Overall, The Martian in audiobook format is near perfection when it comes to storytelling and narration. I found myself smiling, crying, and on edge over and over again as I listened to Mark’s tale. I was so emotionally tied to Mark that every exciting moment brought tears to my eyes. I credit the author’s narrative of events back on Earth for bringing to life what it would feel like to be part of the entire process of trying to save Mark. It’s such an amazing tale, I plan to listen to it again very soon.

My Rating: A+
Narration: A+ ...more

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Sep 26, 2015 Susan rated it it was amazing

The Martian by Andy Weir Set in a hopefully not too distant future, humans are sending manned missions to Mars. This is the story of one man, Mark Watney, who got to spend more time than he expected on the desolate, deadly planet. Alone.
Watney was part of a team that landed on Mars and erected a habitat. Unfortunately, Mars kicked up a sandstorm that threatened their ability to leave in the future, so the captain ordered an emergency abort to the mission. As they made their way from the habitat The Martian by Andy Weir Set in a hopefully not too distant future, humans are sending manned missions to Mars. This is the story of one man, Mark Watney, who got to spend more time than he expected on the desolate, deadly planet. Alone.
Watney was part of a team that landed on Mars and erected a habitat. Unfortunately, Mars kicked up a sandstorm that threatened their ability to leave in the future, so the captain ordered an emergency abort to the mission. As they made their way from the habitat through the sandstorm to the escape vessel, equipment came lose, slamming into Watney and sweeping him off into the sandstorm. His vital readings went dead and his crew was forced to abandon his body. Later, safely aboard their orbiting ship, they wept. Watney woke up and took stock of things. And the odds were definitely not in his favor. But through determination, an inability to give up hope, and, dare I say it, boredom, Watney comes up with a plan that may or may not get him off Mars…..eventually.
This has been one of the best hard science fiction novels I have had the pleasure to read in some years. Watney is both a mechanical engineer and a botanist. He’s the guy who fixes stuff when it breaks and also does the plant experiments. He also swears a lot. Right off, I wanted to be his best friend. Watney was easy to connect with and immediately I was sucked into his story and I wanted him to beat all the odds and safely make it home to Earth.
Mars itself was like a character. We got to know her whims and moods, her terrain and climate. She had a myriad of ways she attempted to snuff the puny human known as Mark Watney off the face of the planet. Indeed, there were times Watney outright cursed Mars. I really love it when the setting becomes so integral to the story, shaping the plot. That’s exactly how it went with this tale.
Of course, it’s not just Mars gunning for Watney. Nope. There are a fair share of attempts by that pesky thing called Human Error. It was bound to happen, both on Mars by Watney and back home on Earth by NASA as they attempt to rescue Watney. Honestly, there were so many reasons why Watney would not survive this book, I truly did not know until the very end whether he would or not.
So not only do we have Watney’s tale, but we also have his crew on their ship (which is returning to Earth) and the folks back home at NASA. While this story is primarily Watney’s tale, he’s not alone and we get to see how all these people pull together to attempt to save him, a lone man on a foreign planet. Watching how this giant team of folks struggled to assist Watney was great. There’s a little bit of politicking, but mostly just people starting off with ‘It’s not possible!’ and going to ‘We’ll damn well find a way!’.
While Watney’s struggle is a persistent background throughout, there is also humor. Watney has it and definitely needs it in order to survive the ordeal. Much of the story is told through his daily log entries and often it is just us readers who get to hear Watney’s jokes. The humor lightened the mood but also made the death traps much more serious.
I’ve read that other people found the technical bits a little daunting. This is hard science fiction and the story is told by scientists all around. So, yes, there are plenty of measurements and technical babble here and there as Watney tries to figure out how to survive on Mars. As a biologist, this aspect of the story really gave it weight, letting me know that the author took his own work seriously. I truly liked it as this showed how important science was to the story.
When I finished this book, I literally hugged it.
Narration: R. C. Bray is a very talented man. He had this perfect voice for Watney, no matter his mood or circumstance. There were a few foreign accents as well (German, Chinese, Indian) and he did all of these smoothly. His female character voices were quite believable. Watney, and others, go through several different emotions throughout this story and Bray did a great job of getting those emotions across to the listener. ...more

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Sep 28, 2015 GraceMyBookSnack rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, audiobook

Review also posted on My Book Snack

Awesome on audio! Mark Watney rules as a space pirate!

The Martian is one book that I’ve been hearing about all year from book friends, and I immediately knew it was something I wanted to read even though I don’t read much science fiction. I knew this was exactly the type of read my husband likes, so we ended up reading The Martian at the same time. He read the book, while I listened to the audiobook. It was a fantastic read for both of us!

Right at the beginning ...more

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Sep 15, 2020 Melindeeloo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It took a little bit to get used to the reader - I'd seen the movie first so Matt Daiman was Mark Watney in my head - but the book is every bit as engaging as the movie, but with even more calamities for our intrepid hero. Thank goodness his fellow astronaut had the foresight to leave behind an ascii table and that mark had the ability to science the s**t out things. This is really an ode to science geeks and very fun. ...more

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Oct 16, 2015 Summer rated it liked it

Shelves: kindle, 2015

Hoo boy, this book needed another round of editing. My first impression that Mark read like a 14 year old girl, but that's an unfairly gendered comparison. More accurately, he reads immature and juvenile, which clearly seemed to be the author trying too hard. If an author writes a solid character, as Mark mostly was, there doesn't need to be a gimmick to keep readers invested.

Pretty immediately (wasn't there a "Yay!" on the first or second page?), I noticed that Weir sounded like a self-pubbed ...more

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Sep 13, 2015 Susan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: eternal, audiobook, sf

Set in a hopefully not too distant future, humans are sending manned missions to Mars. This is the story of one man, Mark Watney, who got to spend more time than he expected on the desolate, deadly planet. Alone.

Watney was part of a team that landed on Mars and erected a habitat. Unfortunately, Mars kicked up a sandstorm that threatened their ability to leave in the future, so the captain ordered an emergency abort to the mission. As they made their way from the habitat through the sandstorm to Set in a hopefully not too distant future, humans are sending manned missions to Mars. This is the story of one man, Mark Watney, who got to spend more time than he expected on the desolate, deadly planet. Alone.

Watney was part of a team that landed on Mars and erected a habitat. Unfortunately, Mars kicked up a sandstorm that threatened their ability to leave in the future, so the captain ordered an emergency abort to the mission. As they made their way from the habitat through the sandstorm to the escape vessel, equipment came lose, slamming into Watney and sweeping him off into the sandstorm. His vital readings went dead and his crew was forced to abandon his body. Later, safely aboard their orbiting ship, they wept. Watney woke up and took stock of things. And the odds were definitely not in his favor. But through determination, an inability to give up hope, and, dare I say it, boredom, Watney comes up with a plan that may or may not get him off Mars…..eventually.

This has been one of the best hard science fiction novels I have had the pleasure to read in some years. Watney is both a mechanical engineer and a botanist. He’s the guy who fixes stuff when it breaks and also does the plant experiments. He also swears a lot. Right off, I wanted to be his best friend. Watney was easy to connect with and immediately I was sucked into his story and I wanted him to beat all the odds and safely make it home to Earth.

Mars itself was like a character. We got to know her whims and moods, her terrain and climate. She had a myriad of ways she attempted to snuff the puny human known as Mark Watney off the face of the planet. Indeed, there were times Watney outright cursed Mars. I really love it when the setting becomes so integral to the story, shaping the plot. That’s exactly how it went with this tale.

Of course, it’s not just Mars gunning for Watney. Nope. There are a fair share of attempts by that pesky thing called Human Error. It was bound to happen, both on Mars by Watney and back home on Earth by NASA as they attempt to rescue Watney. Honestly, there were so many reasons why Watney would not survive this book, I truly did not know until the very end whether he would or not.

So not only do we have Watney’s tale, but we also have his crew on their ship (which is returning to Earth) and the folks back home at NASA. While this story is primarily Watney’s tale, he’s not alone and we get to see how all these people pull together to attempt to save him, a lone man on a foreign planet. Watching how this giant team of folks struggled to assist Watney was great. There’s a little bit of politicking, but mostly just people starting off with ‘It’s not possible!’ and going to ‘We’ll damn well find a way!’.

While Watney’s struggle is a persistent background throughout, there is also humor. Watney has it and definitely needs it in order to survive the ordeal. Much of the story is told through his daily log entries and often it is just us readers who get to hear Watney’s jokes. The humor lightened the mood but also made the death traps much more serious.

I’ve read that other people found the technical bits a little daunting. This is hard science fiction and the story is told by scientists all around. So, yes, there are plenty of measurements and technical babble here and there as Watney tries to figure out how to survive on Mars. As a biologist, this aspect of the story really gave it weight, letting me know that the author took his own work seriously. I truly liked it as this showed how important science was to the story.

When I finished this book, I literally hugged it.

Narration: R. C. Bray is a very talented man. He had this perfect voice for Watney, no matter his mood or circumstance. There were a few foreign accents as well (German, Chinese, Indian) and he did all of these smoothly. His female character voices were quite believable. Watney, and others, go through several different emotions throughout this story and Bray did a great job of getting those emotions across to the listener. ...more

Like · see review

Jul 11, 2015 Brian's Book Blog rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Best Sci-Fi I’ve Read in a Long Time!

Wow, just wow. This is easily one of the best science fiction novels I’ve read in a long time. It’s fresh and unique with a quirky point of view. I’ve seen some reviews that his point of view was childish, but it made me laugh really hard throughout the book (and considering how much goes wrong you needed a good laugh). And at one point they even explain his personality evaluation and explain that he was the life of the group — always the one to make the ...more

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Sep 14, 2015 Nichole ~Bookaholic~ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, sci-fi-fantasy, fiction, xx_2015, xx_2015-audiobook-challenge

Wow....awesome listen.....

I was not sure what to expect going into this one......after listening to Seveneves I was hesitant to start another sci-fi, but I am glad I listened.....

While at times a bit technical it was tolerable. I did not think I would like the format of "log entries" but it really worked for this. I liked Watney's humor and resourcefulness and once the rescue plans were in place I found myself at the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next....and at the end I was grip ...more

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Aug 27, 2015 Liza rated it it was amazing

One of the best books I've read/listened to this year. Yes it contains lots of technical information, but it didn't take me out of the story. I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie in October, and am more excited to see the movie now than I was before reading the book. I really enjoyed Andy Weir's voice and hope The Martian isn't his last book. ...more

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Dec 04, 2015 Sarah Stevens rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, sarah-s-reviews

Through a series of unfortunate events, Mark Watney's crew leaves Mars without him and he is stranded.

Miraculously, he happens to be a botanist and a mechanical engineer and have exactly what he needs, nothing more or less, to survive until he can be rescued.

Things I liked about this book:

The narrator

Mark's excellent sense of humor

The adventure aspect of it

The way he puzzles through things and never gives up

the perspective changes where we get to see what NASA is doing on the other side of eve ...more

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Aug 23, 2015 Chris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: suspense, read-in-2015

I love this book. Watney has a great sense of humor and really kept the book moving along. I highly recommend this one and I look forward to checking out the movie

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