The Martian in The Sword and Laser

Dec 01, 2014 Eric rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, favorites

I am pretty late to this party, only reading this book after seeing the movie trailer for the upcoming Matt Damon/Ridley Scott adaptation. So while I could add to the considerable praise this novel has gotten, it would be a bit unnecessary.

I'll just say that this is now one of my five favorite books of all time. I have seen some valid criticisms, so note that I am not saying this is objectively the perfect novel. What I am saying is that the narrative voice spoke to me, the science was endlessl ...more

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Nov 21, 2014 John Wiswell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Nobody told me that The Martian was funny! It's the harrowing story of Mark Watney, an astronaut on one of humanity's first visits Mars, who was stranded by a terrible accident. His team thinks he's dead and have left him behind, unwittingly, to survive with the remains of his craft. Immediately Watney realizes even if he can hack communications together with NASA, he'll starve to death before help can get here. And if he can find food, he may die of thirst, or in freak storm, or from the slight Nobody told me that The Martian was funny! It's the harrowing story of Mark Watney, an astronaut on one of humanity's first visits Mars, who was stranded by a terrible accident. His team thinks he's dead and have left him behind, unwittingly, to survive with the remains of his craft. Immediately Watney realizes even if he can hack communications together with NASA, he'll starve to death before help can get here. And if he can find food, he may die of thirst, or in freak storm, or from the slightest leak in any part of his suit.

Yeah, so this book's hilarious. It's a Castaway-style survivor story that thrives not on the peril Watney lives through, but how flippant and weird he is as he logs his progress. The novel opens in the way many more survivor stories should:

"I'm pretty much fucked.

That's my considered opinion.

Fucked."

He's profane, and also disarmingly odd in his jokes. He ponders writing a review of a device ruined in the wreckage, "Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.” When NASA finally gets in contact, he disregards most of their advice on raising crops because, after all, he's the best botanist on the planet. There's an inanely beautiful end to a NASA chapter:

“He’s stuck out there. He thinks he’s totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man’s psychology?” He turned back to Venkat. “I wonder what he’s thinking right now.”

Which leads to the beginning of Watney's next log:

"LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.”

By the way, that he gets in touch with NASA is not a spoiler. He strives for it, but gets their attention in the first hundred pages, essentially at the end of the first act. We need NASA's point of view to tell us all the things they're struggling with, like the impossible hope of sending something from earth that could reach Mars before Watney would die, the shock of earth as it turns out the first astronaut to die on Mars isn't dead. It's also vital to point this out because NASA's half of the book is by far the weaker half. None of the personalities we meet are in nearly as dire a condition, nor are nearly as endearing as, Mark Watney. Every time you're on earth, you're wishing you were back on Mars with that funny guy who is probably desperately trying to fix a catastrophe. That two astronauts are hooking up, or that an overqualified woman is ordered to essentially cam-stalk Watney, doesn't cut it.

Which brings me to the novel's other great strength: the science is remarkable. The hypothetical tech we see deployed for Mars travel seems reasonable, and many of Watney's solutions are remarkably plausible. Because he has a few potatoes (sent up with the crew for Thanksgiving dinner), he merely needs to create a micro-atmosphere and find water. Water on Mars? Or water vapor from a chemical reaction with one of his surviving tanks. The engineering ingenuity is brilliant, all the way to deep in the novel when a storm's shape is mapped by how badly the solar cells it's blocking are depleted.

If you're me, you don't read for the problems. This is what sets The Martian apart: it's a Castaway-story that thrives on the charming personality of the guy who might not survive the ordeal. Threats to his life are secondary to Mark Watney realizing how much like Iron Man he is right now. ...more

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Jan 01, 2015 Brittany rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sciencefiction

This is an entirely charming book. More charming in the chapters that are diary entries and less charming in the bits where Weir tries to write a normal third-person novel, but that's fine.

Watney, the astronaut left behind on the moon, is a lot of fun to hang out with. I understand the complaints that he's ridiculously upbeat and mentally buoyant and skilled in exactly the skills he needs for survival. That's all pretty true, but this would have been a terrible novel if it were just the abandone ...more

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Aug 13, 2014 Brian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-audiobook-itunes, recommended-audiobook

(4.5) I recommend the audiobook edition for this!

Because most of the narrative is first-person recording (presumably voice?) of the day's activities, struggles, failures, humorous/hopeless moments, it really lends itself well to audiobook by a single reader. And this reader does an excellent job.

I loved the mixture of methodical computation of options, probabilities, incremental survivability and humor Weir uses here. I've heard that the two things that survivors have are the ability to focus on ...more

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Aug 13, 2014 Matt rated it liked it

I found it hard to critique this book without a few minor spoilers, so read at your own risk.

I've never been a big fan of fiction written as a series of log or diary entries. I think it really limits the prose and story telling potential. I also don't think it usually adds to the realism effect much because it is written trying to ultimately tell a story, not necessarily how diary entries would really be written. What it could do is indirectly show the main character's shifting state of mind, pe ...more

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May 24, 2014 Oblomov rated it really liked it

The Martian is a classic castaway story, a man alone in a inhospitable location with limited resources, battling the elements to survive long enough until rescue can arrive. The twist in this case is that he is a astronaut accidentally marooned on Mars when a sandstorm forced the abandonment of the mission.

Was in many respects not thrilled by the writing style, but found myself forgiving the style due to the combination of tension and scientific rigor.

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Dec 08, 2014 travelgirlut rated it really liked it

I was skeptical that a book about a guy stranded on Mars could really have enough content to be interesting. And I tend to not like books that are full of hype and loaded with rave reviews. But I needed something to read and my library had this in stock, so I grabbed it. And boy, was I pleasantly surprised. I was very entertained by this. There's quite a bit of scientific/mathematical stuff that goes on in this book, but it was interspersed so well throughout the story that it just worked. Thoug ...more

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Jan 06, 2015 Serena rated it it was amazing

I was skeptical about this book being at all interesting based on it's background but I found it highly enjoyable and couldn't put it down once I started.

So Exciting! ...more

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Oct 28, 2014 Maire rated it really liked it

Shelves: things-i-recommend

I really enjoyed this much more than expected. If I can find it, I may re-read this as an audio book.

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Jun 05, 2014 Elizabeth added it

Perhaps more of a very exciting information manual. However, if you like Swiss Family Robinson and/or the Army Survival Guide, (I happen to be a fan of both), you will probably also like the pages of descriptions of how to rewire oxygen scrubbers to produce extra H20 to water potato plants to supply necessary calories while waiting in a NASA habitat on Mars for a rescue that may be 4 years away.

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