From the Bookshelf of Baltimore County Public Library Summer Reading BCPL SRC …

The Martian

Andy Weir

Start date: June 15, 2015

Finish date: June 15, 2015

Discussion: 2015 Summer Reading

Why we're reading this: Is this a good book? Just consider its history: self-published ebook, to the most popular sci-fi book on …more
[close] Is this a good book? Just consider its history: self-published ebook, to the most popular sci-fi book on Amazon, then picked up by a print publisher and a Hollywood studio in the same week. The movie arrives October 2, 2015.

"Apollo 13 meets Castaway," as one Goodreads reviewer put it, only begins to tell the story. While Weir keeps his descriptions of the science at a pretty high level, he has worked it all out behind the scenes, with only a few minor concessions to "future technology,' like more flexible space suits. He even claims to have actual dates worked out for all the events in the story, and wrote custom orbital dynamics software to work out the timelines for the space travel. A geek after my own heart.

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Showing 2 of 4 topics — 199 comments total

2015 Summer Reading

Maze Runner-Movie vs. Novel
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last updated Feb 08, 2016 01:51PM

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last updated Aug 15, 2015 12:11PM

What Members Thought

Feb 19, 2014 Paula rated it it was amazing

Shelves: great-books-for-teens, your-neighborhood-librarian-s-fetis, adult-fiction, audio, favorites

Fracking amazing, excuse my nerd-speak.

All these people who say it's like Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe - that's about right. But without the baggage of Crusoe and not quite a breathless as Apollo 13. Maybe it's Apollo 13 meets oh, that fucking thing where Tom Hanks makes everything he needs out of a bunch of FedEx shipments and talks to a volleyball. Cast Away. Although that's a lot of Tom Hanks, and the young scientist/astronaut in this movie is more like a Nicholas Hoult or - whoa - Mayim B Fracking amazing, excuse my nerd-speak.

All these people who say it's like Apollo 13 meets Robinson Crusoe - that's about right. But without the baggage of Crusoe and not quite a breathless as Apollo 13. Maybe it's Apollo 13 meets oh, that fucking thing where Tom Hanks makes everything he needs out of a bunch of FedEx shipments and talks to a volleyball. Cast Away. Although that's a lot of Tom Hanks, and the young scientist/astronaut in this movie is more like a Nicholas Hoult or - whoa - Mayim Bialek.

It is all problem-solving and suspense and truly, truly unprecedented situations. Our stranded astronaut, Mark, is smart and handy and has a great sense of humor. He patches, he repurposes, he makes jokes about using his shit as fertilizer. He has a couple of moments of "I'M GONNA DIEEE!!" but then he always goes, "Oh wait, how about if I..." Totally the guy you'd want to be stranded on Mars with. It's left to the mission specialists and NASA administrators on the ground to get all emotional, and we love them for that, too. Totally the guys you'd want minding the comm if you were stranded on Mars with Nicholas Hoult.

I can't believe that despite the bleak premise, this is such an upbeat book, and I kind of can't believe that I love it so much - upbeat is not usually my thing. But it was so engrossing I started it at about 10 last night and read straight through til 8 this morning.

PLUS - and this is a big plus - to all appearances, THE SCIENCE WORKS. Gonna be so good for teenage Mythbusters fans, once and future JPLers, and the kind of people who cried all the way through From the Earth to the Moon. That was me.

LibraryReads review:
Maybe it's because the Moon landing is one of my first memories, but space travel - real space travel, or real-ish space travel, always makes me catch my breath. It's so unlikely, so exciting, so inspiring that so many people can work together to pull off this amazing feat.

The Martian gathers a very realistic depiction of the huge gang of nerds, jocks, and administrators that it takes to initiate and run a space mission with a tour de force main character who acts independently and in isolation to pull off the MOST unlikely of feats. I swear, I shed a tear.

Third pass:
NOW we are listening to this book on audio - I thought my 11-year-old and 12-year-old boys would enjoy it, and holy god was I right. They cannot be torn away. We had to unearth an old CD player so that we could play the discs in the living room, and they spent all last night and this morning laying on the floor, rapt.

There's a fair amount of profanity, which, ok, they giggle at. But it is situationally appropriate - if YOU found yourself stranded on Mars, wouldn't YOUR first words be "I AM FUCKED"?

They are loving the astronaut's sarcastic optimism in the face of outrageous odds and they are fully invested in the human drama of the NASA scientists attempting to make contact with Mark and bring him home. In fact, they have already told me that they'll be fine with listening to it again on a road trip we are taking next week. "I'm not catching all of this chemistry and technical stuff, so it'll be good to listen to it again."

The reader is quite good. I was a little worried at first he was using a big, sort of butch HERO voice, but as the book has progressed he is sounding more and more natural. I think that might be a choice on his part - as Mark spends more time in isolation, his log entries become more idiosyncratic and open. My only quibble is - oh my god don't do an accent unless you are STUPENDOUS at accents. NASA administrator Venkat Kapoor sounds like a Latino Yoda sometimes. And I don't even think that character was born in South Asia.

The book celebrates intelligence, ingenuity, and perseverance, and shows that nerds can be heroes too. A-plus. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 21, 2014 Matt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: e-reader, overdrive

Best book I've read all year. Essentially MacGyver on Mars: an amazing story of the spirit of human survival against all odds. Mark Watney - abandoned space biologist, engineer, and all-around smartass - has to find a way to stay alive on Mars for over a year using only his wits and the materials at hand. Super nerdy, super awesome. I could not put this book down! ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 23, 2015 Laura Novobilsky rated it it was amazing

Loved it and stayed up way too late because I just had to find out what happened. Admittedly, I skimmed over some of the paragraphs full of math, physics and other technical scientific stuff, but that in no way took away from the rest of the story. Really liked Watney's character and loved how the whole plot unfolded. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 01, 2015 Stephanie rated it really liked it

Very good -- definitely enjoyed the science and the protagonist's humor. The audio version was well done. I could have done with a bit more backstory to give the characters' stories more development of outside space, but that's probably just me. It would have made the book more memorable to me. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2014 Arlene Caruso rated it liked it

Ok so I didn't love this which was particularly disappointing since everyone who knows me said, "OMG you especially will enjoy this book!" I didn't especially tho. The audiobook was marvelous and was why I initially gave the book 4 stars. But as I wrote the review, I realized that it wasn't enough for me. Part of the problem with the book is that I felt like I knew exactly how it was going to go from the beginning and I was right. I hate it when that happens. I wasn't at all worried about the pr ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2015 Joy rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, fiction, 2015-reads

Who would think a science fiction book about a really terrible life and death situation would have me laughing so much? I blazed through reading because I had to know how things were going to end. Surprising, fascinating, and funny.

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Oct 21, 2015 Mike rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

It's very easy to believe that this book exists. It's very hard to believe that it was a best seller. There's so much technical information. So much. But I loved it. Somehow it was totally engaging. ...more

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Jan 12, 2015 Em rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars.

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Oct 12, 2015 Marissa rated it it was amazing

Excellent book - grabbed you from the beginning. Andy Weir is very funny and I love the way he explained and described things. His humor was one of the best parts of his writing. The plot was really good and at the end I was on the edge of my seat to find out what was going to happen.

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