From the Bookshelf of On Paths Unknown…

No plans survive first contact with the enemy.

I’am always late to the party. Traditionally keeping I read historical fiction. So, naturally I am way off when it comes to that. Sometimes missing my mark by centuries. But hey! I can’t help that. But even when I venture to stay current, like my attempt with The Martian, somehow I inevitably end up missing the train (or sometimes completely railroaded). The original plan was to read it before the movie was released and like the rest of the world

No plans survive first contact with the enemy.

I’am always late to the party. Traditionally keeping I read historical fiction. So, naturally I am way off when it comes to that. Sometimes missing my mark by centuries. But hey! I can’t help that. But even when I venture to stay current, like my attempt with The Martian, somehow I inevitably end up missing the train (or sometimes completely railroaded). The original plan was to read it before the movie was released and like the rest of the world buy my ticket (or more accurately make my beau buy me one!) and judge the movie. But such plans were thwarted and here I am 35 sol days late. Yay!

It was a shock after traversing the bleak landscape of Dostoyevsky, to suddenly land up with the free usage of f*** . In classic literature, where things need to be proper you would usually come across something like ‘You show yourself poorly taught and finely fed’ instead of the less eloquent and more direct ‘You fat f***’. But hey, I am not that behind the times and can walk fine what with the missing stick up my you-know-what. And as Calvin very thoughtfully said that hard times were easier to endure with slang words, I think for a dude lost on a barren desert of iron oxide having to harvest his fecal matter in an attempt to survive, he certainly earned a few of the expletives he churns out.

Truthfully my expectations weren’t too high with this one. I have always managed to be wary of too much hype. I have been subjected to some painful hours what with my once in a blue moon pressing need to keep up with the trends. Often, truly good stuff tend to miss out on that ride. So, whereas I was almost close to missing out on watching ‘Olive Kitteridge’,’The Kennedy’s’,’Parade’s End’ , ‘Scream Queens’ seem to be almost impossible to escape. And of the books? Do I even have to mention?

The Martian is the story of Mark Watney. A Mechanical Engineer/Botanist, he gets stranded on Mars after his crew takes him for dead during an emergency evacuation on account of a storm. What the crew doesn’t know is that Mark is not really dead but riding on the wings on some very good luck, he survives a pole of antenna sticking into him. But when he comes to, his crew is enroute to earth and the very thing that had tried to kill him: the antenna, all communications between him and well, everyone else in the universe is gone. What follows is an incredible tale of this one man’s fight to survive against an alien planet.

Considering that the book is two-thirds inner monologue of our Martian Mark, one would think that it might get a tad monotonous. It is anything but. Mark is the kind of guy who you would like to have around you. He is funny, resourceful (which is a perquisite for surviving on Mars. Just so you know. In case you are planning a journey...never mind ) and good at thinking on his feet. So the drama is mostly kept at bay and the lack of pity party kept the storyline from sagging. Andy Weir takes a bold look at each possible problem and very engagingly explains out a solution. I couldn’t help but calculate some of the numericals initially. I couldn’t help it. Weir gave a line to the engineer in me and I fell for it. However initial doubts out of the way, I soon settled into the story and took him at his word, and found myself cheering Mark on.

(view spoiler)[It is always a good sign when you find yourself invested in the character. As I explained earlier I hadn’t expected to find this to be as good as I did. But the story reeled me in so much that when the chapter ended:
LISTENING FOR TELEMETRIC SIGNAL ...
LISTENING FOR TELEMETRIC SIGNAL ...
SIGNAL ACQUIRED
I had to stop reading because I was smiling so hard! Not to mention the message: Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man! (hide spoiler)]

The story is well paced and Mark’s humour at his condition is contagious. I found my hopes rising and falling with his. His adventures and misadventures kept me turning page after page. While his very sophisticated experiments like potato skin tea, his ‘discovery’ that he was a space pirate, needless to say very spirited. For a guy with limited food supply and only disco and seventies entertainment to keep him occupied, besides surviving, he is in tremendous good humour throughout the book.

Contrary to my previous apprehensions about this book, I ended up enjoying it a lot. At 400 pages plus, it still makes for a comparatively quick read. Full of little pockets of know how here and there, it is a stellar book on space survival. But even going for pure entertainment value, I would still rate it pretty high.

Next up, the movie!