The Martian in Around the Year in 52 Books

Oct 13, 2015 Ann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tone-suspenseful, epistolary-novel, science-fiction, exploration, nature-as-character, survival, space, scientists, writing-style-compelling, pace-fast-paced

Has Hell frozen over? Am I giving a sci-fi book five stars? Yes, because it is THAT enjoyable. Andy Weir manages to pack the book with science while also making it completely unnecessary to the story. That sounds contradictory, but he marries hard science with this wonderful pared-down simplification so anyone can understand the problem and the way it's going to be solved. It's the best of both worlds, and everyone goes home happy.

So many things are done well here! The pacing is great, the tone ...more

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Jan 06, 2015 SibylM rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

Well, two and a half stars, really. I love the idea for this book, and I was pulling for Watney all the way. But after a while I got disaster fatigue. What horrible thing will happen to him next and how will he MacGuyver his way out of it? And there's a reason I never watched MacGuyver - that's just not interesting to me. Plus, he was a bit of a Gary Stu with his phenomenal ability to escape every catastrophe and endlessly plucky attitude. This book seemed like it was more about the science than ...more

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Nov 07, 2014 Liz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, kindle-own, 2015-book-list, book-to-film-club

Amazing!

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Oct 08, 2015 Tanya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: format-audiobook, 2015

This was a fun listen as an audiobook. Not sure I would have picked it up to read, except that I got into a conversation with my daughter's teacher and he was searching for an audio version before heading out to see the movie. I felt that the humor provided a nice balance with the technical information. I am amazed at how the rescue plan can continue to evolve and how much MacGuyvering can occur if one is nerdy enough to have have that much relevant technical information. Some ideas and even phr ...more

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Sep 08, 2014 Jason McKinney rated it did not like it

After finishing this, I realized I was a little bit harsh with my earlier assessment because it does have a pretty exciting denouement. However, the last paragraph is some of the corniest shit I've read in some time.

In addition to my previous assessment about this being just one calamity after another (which is just super weak storytelling), my other problems with this were the snoozefest that resulted from the endless calculations (they were seriously some of the most boring descriptions I've e ...more

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Aug 01, 2015 Jesse rated it it was amazing

One of the 5 best action books I have read. "Gravity" on steroids! And with real science! ...more

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Jan 01, 2016 Nicole rated it really liked it

Very good book, I love the movie and wanted to read the book. Like normal the book is a lot better then the movie. Although the movie does follow the book a lot.

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