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The Martian

Andy Weir

Start date: October 1, 2015

Finish date: October 1, 2015

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Dec 14, 2016 Barrett Lafortune rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

The Martian is a really fun survival book. It tells the survival story of Mark Watney, an astronaut who is stranded on Mars. Despite the isolation and hopelessness of the situation, this is actually a very light story with plenty of humour.

My favourite aspect of this book is how the author imagines we might send astronauts to Mars in the not-too-distant future. I really enjoyed how well-researched the story is and that it strives for scientific accuracy. The Author stretched our current technol The Martian is a really fun survival book. It tells the survival story of Mark Watney, an astronaut who is stranded on Mars. Despite the isolation and hopelessness of the situation, this is actually a very light story with plenty of humour.

My favourite aspect of this book is how the author imagines we might send astronauts to Mars in the not-too-distant future. I really enjoyed how well-researched the story is and that it strives for scientific accuracy. The Author stretched our current technologies, but thankfully didn't invent anything magical like a warp drive.

I really enjoyed when the book brought up an issue I had never thought of. Navigating on a planet with no maps, no GPS, and no magnetosphere is really hard! Another example is trying to grow crops when there is nearly no atmosphere and sterile soil. These issues (and Watney's solutions to them) made the book really thought-provoking.

The writing is pretty basic and I found every character except Watney to be pretty interchangeable. Even Watney is pretty basic and I would have enjoyed more reflection on his situation. He mostly drifted between being a smart-ass and being a completely logical Macgyver. However, to me this book was all about exploring the idea of surviving on Mars, and the characters were less important. As an idea book, The Martian is definitely successful.

P.S. I did spot two science issues with the book.
1. The Martian atmosphere is less than 1% the density of Earth's. Even with 200km/hr winds, there is no way such a thin atmosphere would have the force to push around astronauts and spaceships the way its described in the book. But whatever, the author just needed a plot device to strand Watney on Mars so its not a huge deal.

2. The Curiosity rover found tons of frozen water in the Martian soil. Without spoiling anything, Watney goes through a hugely complex series of steps to create extra water on Mars. I think Andy Weir started writing the Martian years before this was discovered, so I can forgive this one. If you ever get stranded on Mars, don't do what Watney did. Just fill a bucket with dirt and then bring it indoors. The ice will melt and you'll have water! ...more

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