From the Bookshelf of The Sword and Laser…

The Martian

Andy Weir

Start date: May 1, 2014

Finish date: May 31, 2014

Why we're reading this: Veronica and Tom were so excited hearing about this book at the reading last month, they decided to make …more
[close] Veronica and Tom were so excited hearing about this book at the reading last month, they decided to make it a pick!

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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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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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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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Jun 04, 2014 Joanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi

Near future, NASA mission to Mars, accident happens, guy gets stranded. This is basically Castaway on Mars but with more math and science. Which, I know, sounds tedious and boring but it's not because the guy, Mark, is funny as hell. The hard scifi is interspersed with humor and pop culture references that are too dated to feel dated (it makes sense in context I swear). The only minor dislike was the odd changing of tenses, it goes from first person to third person a few times and it took me out ...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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Feb 12, 2015 William rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, fiction

If you like quality story telling, science fiction, or just stories about Mars, you should read/listen to this book. It's a good one. ...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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Oct 10, 2015 Megan rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi-dystopian

UhhuhhhhHHhhhuhhh.

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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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