The Martian in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jul 13, 2015 Jenny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

Mark Watney swears like a sailor. I guess he's a space sailor, but if you're sensitive to the swears consider yourself warned. ...more

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Jul 16, 2014 Molly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recommended, borrowed, realistic-fiction, sci-fi, 4-and-a-half-stars, read-in-2014, summer-2014

This is NOT your typical survival story! And yet, I'm not sure how to categorize it. I mean, the subject is a mission to Mars, so it should clearly be in the realm of science fiction. But if anything, it's almost like realistic sci fi, if that's a thing. After reading 172 Hours on the Moon earlier this summer, for the first 60 pages or so, I kept expecting monsters. But Weir's novel has no (actual) Martians, or doppelgängers, or lizard vampires (who else remembers that Christopher Pike classic A This is NOT your typical survival story! And yet, I'm not sure how to categorize it. I mean, the subject is a mission to Mars, so it should clearly be in the realm of science fiction. But if anything, it's almost like realistic sci fi, if that's a thing. After reading 172 Hours on the Moon earlier this summer, for the first 60 pages or so, I kept expecting monsters. But Weir's novel has no (actual) Martians, or doppelgängers, or lizard vampires (who else remembers that Christopher Pike classic A Season of Passage? Holla!). But if you think about it, the odds of a single human surviving on Mars, after being abandoned by the rest of his crew, with no way to contact earth, are pretty slim. That's really all the suspense you need.

We open on Sol 6 (a Martian Sol is about 40ish minutes longer than an Earth day, evidently), with astronaut Mark Watney. He's just made his way back to the Hab (the mission home base of sorts) after being injured in a sandstorm. The entire crew had evacuated the Hab on NASA's orders -- the storm was too strong to wait out so the mission was aborted -- but en route to the launch pad, the crew are separated when Watney gets hit (and impaled) with some flying debris. It knocks him out and off course, leaving the crew no choice but to continue without him. When Watney comes to, he's injured but alive...then he realizes he's stranded. He has the Hab, with all of its food and life support systems, but no way to contact Earth, and no way to get home.

The first few chapters consist solely of Watney's journal entries as he comes to terms with the situation and tries to figure out how to survive. As it turns out, assuming NASA doesn't cancel it, there's another mission coming to Mars...in three years. Still, it gives Watney something to shoot for, and a reason to work out how to survive. If the novel had been only the journal, I think it may have become tedious, but eventually we pick up with NASA on the ground, and that's when this novel became impossible to put down. It's all a race against various clocks. At first it's frustrating, because NASA can see Watney via satellite, but he doesn't realize they can see him, and without any means of communication, there's no way to help. Meanwhile, the dejected crew are making their way back to Earth, thinking they left one of their own behind to die.

This is a great plot-driven narrative. There isn't a ton of character development (even Watney isn't super-fleshed out), but it didn't bother me because I just wanted to find out what would happen next. Both Watney and the earthbound NASA scientists experience a series of near-catastrophic setbacks, and there were quite a few times when I wondered if Weir actually meant to kill off his protagonist. Yes, we're reading from the diary Watney typed while on Mars, but any subsequent mission could have recovered it after his death. The actions have actual stakes here, unlike quite a few "action" stories I've read recently.

Weir definitely did his research here. Watney is a botanist and engineer, so he's trained to fix shit and figure out how to ghetto-rig other shit, and damn does he go into detail about it. There's a lot of math and chemistry and probably some physics involved in many of Watney's entries, which didn't really do much for me personally. However, I much prefer actual explanations (which I can skim) to "it's science! Or something!" which is kind of what you get in 172 Hours on the Moon. Like I said, even though it's science fiction, everything felt realistic.

I've read this in a couple of other reviews and I agree wholeheartedly: this would make a kick ass movie. And admittedly, at times it does feel a bit like a movie treatment (I think it's the lack of character development). Watney's voice is entertaining and sarcastic, and with the right sort of charismatic actor, you'd have blockbuster gold. I kept picturing Jack Black for some reason, but I think he'd be too old. Who's the 25 year old equivalent of Jack Black? Josh Gad?

All in all, this is a highly entertaining thrill ride of a novel. It's one that you want to keep reading, and read as fast as possible, just to find what disaster is coming next (actually this might make an even better miniseries...think of the cliffhangers!). It's sort of the book equivalent of a summer popcorn movie. Engaging, entertaining, not too mentally taxing (if you skim the science stuff), and ultimately satisfying. Kind of a perfect summer read! ...more

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Oct 02, 2014 Kerry rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, audible

This was fine. Exactly as advertised: like that scene in Apollo 13 where they have to figure out the filter thing; or like My Side of the Mountain on Mars. Dude was a dork, but he's a freaking astronaut nerd, so that's to be expected. I think he was probably less annoying in audiobook form. The narrator did an excellent job. ...more

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Feb 25, 2014 Deedee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-and-fantasy-book-club, beyond-reality-science-fiction, scifi-and-fantasy-club-read, science-fiction, mars, john-w-campbell-memorial-award-nom, whitney-4-and-5-star, read-in-2014, indie-next-2014, read-2014-fsf-and-horror

This is a 4 star read for the general reader.
This is a 5 star read for anyone who has taken and passed college freshman courses in Chemistry and/or Botany and/or Physics and/or Introduction to Engineering.

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