Jeffrey's Reviews > The Martian

There are pluses and minuses to this kind of in-your-face writing style. The constant frenetic language works well for the kind of problem-solving genre, man against nature, beat the odds, off-beat humor, daily blog entry, stylistic choices made.

But, frankly, it gets tiresome after a while. The first perspective change back to Earth is a welcome relief.

Andy Weir wrote a nice little piece about the genre ( http://boingboing.net/2014/02/11/them... ) explaining his view of the whole thing.

The problem is that while most of the problems he writes about I can relate to (losing air pressure, getting burnt up, freezing to death, getting blown up, dying by stupidity, etc); but most of his solutions I can't (mixing a certain chemical a certain way and defying NASA engineers with a flippant curse word and flipping the bird in the direction of earth, but missing entirely and actually flipping off the entire Antares Empire, and boy are they pissed about it. Or coming up with a convenient solution that doesn't work but having stumbled upon another convenient solution that does. or knowing the actual contents of human detritus left all over the surface of Mars filled with useful goodies--okay it's not as bad as the Swiss Family Robinson but the element of hey, I've got problem Y and I need..points the finger at nearest metal object..something that's in that lander! to do X!)

After a while the pattern emerges. Which repeats over and over.

But, you say, you gave the book four stars and all you are doing is complaining about it. What the heck?

First, Andy Weir is a great action writer. There is true tension here even though I assume he makes it home somehow. I'm never left feeling that there won't be sacrifice.

Second, the story is actually fun. There's a real push and pull between Earth with it's immense resources and thousands of geniuses watching and waiting and impotent, while one man alone, acts. There's a kind of sympathetic harmony there as I, the reader, end up being just another space voyeur. Like the NASA characters in the book.

Third, there's a bigger story/question going on here. I'm trying to keep this review relatively spoiler free, so skip this next little bit if you want: There's a sequence where a discussion takes place with a Chinese Space Agency official/Scientist lamenting the loss for humanity all of the effort of humanitarianism costs. It's going to be a great scene in the movie where the cautious NASA official gets totally destroyed verbally by the guys wanting to do everything and risk everything to save the Martian, everyone will stand up and cheer, they will mentally curse the bureaucrats and the milquetoasts and demand that we do whatever it takes, whatever the cost, whatever. Guess what? The Chinese guy is right. The Cautious NASA guy is right. Remember that when you read the book/watch the upcoming block buster.

Fourth, one of the purposes of a story, in my opinion, is to explore possibilities that the reader hasn't thought of. This is especially true in a real world sense of Science Fiction and especially Hard SF. People are planning commercial ventures to Mars right now. (Inspiration Mars, Mars One, Mars to Stay, etc) What challenges will they face? We don't know all problems, but Andy Weir certainly inspires anyone who reads his book to think about some possibilities and incorporate solutions.

Re: thirds and fourths, Come on, dude, you are reading too much into Andy Weir's fun action story, that if there there is any justice in the world is already being optioned by Hollywood for an obscene amount of money, can't you just enjoy it for what it is? I submit the following: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/thee...

Last thoughts, We need to get off this rock. Science is awesome. Sometimes self-pubs don't suck.