Weir, Andy ; The Martian ; Informal Buddy Read ; Start Date Dec 7, 2014

[[deleted user]]

I've just finished Ch 10.

(view spoiler)[I'm so happy that Mark can finally communicate with NASA. Annie (or whatever her name is) the media relations person is driving me mad. If I was one of the people working on getting Mark home I think I'd just blow up at her. Getting a photo is not important.

That boobs line is legendary. (hide spoiler)]

[Becca]

50% through, about chapter 16 -

(view spoiler)[Loving it! I am a total sucker for sci-fi books/movies that deal with Mars, I don't even know what it is :P Me and my husband will watch EVERY Mars movie there is :P

I am wondering how this book is going to move.. I'm 50% through and they just made the plans for the Hermes to pick up the Chinese probe of food.. over a year away! So far the time has been moving pretty steadily, and he's only be there like 100 something days? It seems like time will have to move a lot faster if we are going to see him rescued at all.

I was very excited when they proposed the plan for Hermes to come back. The entire book so far I was just like... surely there is some way for them to turn around or something! Ok, so turning around is probably not an option, but it just seemed so tragic that they were out there, it just felt like they should be able to help somehow. So I'm excited to see how that goes :] (hide spoiler)]

[Becca]

Pigletto wrote: "I've just finished Ch 10.

(view spoiler)[HAHA, yes the boob comment made me crack up! There have been so many moments of me cackling with laughter at this book XD I love it! (hide spoiler)]

[RachelvlehcaR]

I finished the book and will come back to chit chat about it. :)

[RachelvlehcaR]

Pigletto wrote: "I've just finished Ch 10."

I love that part!

[[deleted user]]

Finished Ch 14

(view spoiler)[Argh! I can't believe the HAB has collapsed. What will Mark do now? (hide spoiler)]

[Karsten]

Pigletto wrote: "Finished Ch 14

[spoilers removed]"

That part of the book was really painful. I had so much hope until then, but I suppose you had to know something would be going wrong that early in the book.

[Snowtulip]

I know, there were nail biting moments!

[RachelvlehcaR]

There was a lot of nail biting moments. The whole concept of being left alone on Mars. Little food, little tools, no people, major lack of resources. Nightmare.

[Fernando]

I just finished reading the book last night and thought it was an amazing read.

(view spoiler)[ I was hoping that at the end they would go more into his interaction with the crew on their return trip back to Earth. (hide spoiler)]

[Erin]

ok so I am done with the book, so my spoilers will be whole book spoilers.

(view spoiler)[
- I love love love Mark. I know his brand of humor is attempted by many authors, but it is hard to hit right on. Andy Weir definitely did it right. He is just obnoxious enough to be funny, and I laughed out loud a lot while reading. Notable spots were space pirates, hating potatoes, and talking to NASA.
- I was really dissatisfied with the ending. It was all "Yes, we got him!" and then it was over. I didn't want him to go back, but I needed something more. Maybe he has a quirk he picked up on Mars. Maybe he still won't eat potatoes, or maybe he finds wide open spaces a little disconcerting. I dunno... something to show what Mark is like without Mars.
- The NASA bits were really great, as were the Hermes bits. I liked that the book was focused on Mark, but I also liked that we got these little glimpses into other people's heads. I also liked that these glimpses were Mark-centric.
- I was really torn between wanting a happy ending and wanting a tragic one. As the book went on I wanted a happy ending more and more.
- Is no one going to talk about the Hermes crew's proposed cannibalism to make sure Johannsen would survive if they missed the probe???!!!
- King of Mars.
- I am really curious about what happened to Ares 4 (the mission who's MAV Mark destroyed). Did it happen? Did they send a new MAV?
(hide spoiler)]

I probably have more thoughts, but I can't think of them right now...

[[deleted user]]

Finished ch 18

(view spoiler)[So, Mark's patched up the HAB but now pathfinder is broken. He's going to find it hard not being able to talk to get messages from Earth.

I love that the Hermes crew are going to go back to Earth for him. But not as much as I love pirate ninjas. I think at school science would seem more interesting if the terminology used was things like pirate ninjas. (hide spoiler)]

[RachelvlehcaR]

Erin wrote: "ok so I am done with the book, so my spoilers will be whole book spoilers."

(view spoiler)[ I loved the faces they gave when they smelt him. All that time, over a year! without a show. The smell must have been horrible. (hide spoiler)]

[Kelly]

Ok. Finally got back to this book :) My husband agrees with you all that it's good.

Side note: The first line made me laugh because there's a joke in the usability world about the whole stardate notation from Star Trek where making him manually recite the stardate is ridiculous for a computer who should know the date better than the captain.

http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questi...

[Kelly]

Chapter 1-7
(view spoiler)[
Heh. He sounds just like a geek engineer. It sounds exactly like the kind of conversations we get into off topic at work. Then I go and look and the author is a software engineer.

I think it probably helps that he's an engineer and can just focus only on the problem at hand. If he wasn't able to do that then he'd probably be going nuts.

I'm glad the people on Earth found him pretty quickly though. I'm going to be very upset if they go to his landing spot right when he's at theirs.
(hide spoiler)]

[Snowtulip]

Kelly wrote: "Ok. Finally got back to this book :) My husband agrees with you all that it's good.

Side note: The first line made me laugh because there's a joke in the usability world about the whole stardate n..."

Glad you got it back Kelly! I bought 4 copies of the book yesterday to give as Christmas gifts...I needed to share my love.

[Kelly]

Chapter 8
(view spoiler)[
I love that they're on earth trying to figure out what he's up to. It's like a giant reality TV Show.

Of course the engineer in me says it's ridiculous to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to rescue one person but I know that's not how these things work.
(hide spoiler)]

[Erin]

I bought this book for my brother for Christmas... I just loved it so much.

[Becca]

Kelly wrote: "Chapter 8

(view spoiler)[ I had the same thoughts but I do think it's accurate. I believe people would come together to save a person in this situation especially since the whole world was invested in his story. I feel like someone being trapped on Mars would capture our imagination so much more than any other situation we could find on earth.

This reminds me of how blown away I always am with how much people will sacrifice themselves when helping people. I'm reminded of how the entire country and world pulled together after 911. I will always remember how proud I was of how we all pulled together in the face of tragedy. :) I think it's totally in our nature. (hide spoiler)]

[K~Terror]

I know I'm late but have heard so many great things about this book that I want to make it my first read of 2015 ~ so plan to be here January 1 if anyone else is reading late too! (Like Emma) :)

[Snowtulip]

It's a great way to start the New Year Kristin :D

[Emma (M)]

Ok, it's the 1st January, so time for me to get started :)

[K~Terror]

I guess it's midnight somewhere! Haha! I still have a little less than 8 hours before my Jan 1. I'll start reading at least a chapter after we get home from our party though!

[Srividya]

Its 1st of Jan here as well and I have just started it! :D

[K~Terror]

Stupid US time Zones

[Emma (M)]

Chapters 1-5

Well that was an interesting start to the book, lots of chemistry and math! Even though neither of those sujects are my forte, I still enjoyed the first 5 chapters, even though some of it went over my head. The lead characters dry humour is fantastic, especially given his situation. However, (view spoiler)[the fact that he is a botanist and mechanical engineer was very, very lucky, given those are the skills he seems to need to survive! (hide spoiler)]

Thus far I am really enoying the book. I am so rooting for him to make it off Mars alive!

[K~Terror]

Emma - I've read through the first 5 chapters too and agreed with your comments! It's amazing (view spoiler)[ how focused Mark is in his planning to survive his predicament. I would be freaking out. I love his sense of humor too. Even though I didn't understand half of what he was saying, I enjoyed how he was saying it. Ha! (hide spoiler)]

[Srividya]

Emma and Kristin - I also finished up to Chapter 5 and agree with both of you. The humour in this book is just awesome. It has me in splits, which is so wrong considering that he is in a dangerous position. (view spoiler)[Yes it is lucky that he is a botanist and mechanical engineer, else it would have been really difficult for him. I am quite enjoying this refresher course in organic chemistry, which was a favourite subject of mine before I went off in a different direction. (hide spoiler)]

[V_Nerdbooks]

I'm really liking this one, when it 1st started and he started talking about hydrogen and oxygen etc I though hmm, but it has started to have a good storyline now, and Mark is very funny.

I hink I'm a little ahead of you, I'm up to (view spoiler)[they know that he is alive on Mars and have informed the press, they are talking about going to get him. (hide spoiler)]

[K~Terror]

Srividya wrote: "Emma and Kristin - I also finished up to Chapter 5 and agree with both of you. The humour in this book is just awesome. It has me in splits, which is so wrong considering that he is in a dangerous ..."

He is hilarious! I bet you are getting a lot more out of his potato and dirt talk too!

[K~Terror]

V Audio Nerd wrote: "I'm really liking this one, when it 1st started and he started talking about hydrogen and oxygen etc I though hmm, but it has started to have a good storyline now, and Mark is very funny.

I hink ..."

Yep - you're ahead of me!! LOL! (You know I had to make sure...). I reread the first 5 chapters though. I'll be movin' & groovin' now.

[Snowtulip]

Mark is my book boyfriend, kind of odd that I select a non-romance novel for my book boyfriend, but he cracks me up!!

[Srividya]

Oh yes Kristin! I am enjoying his potato and dirt escapades!!

@Snowtulip - I agree with you about the book boyfriend part! I spent New Year's eve with him, I guess that says how I feel about him! ;)

[Emma (M)]

V Audio Nerd wrote: "I'm really liking this one, when it 1st started and he started talking about hydrogen and oxygen etc I though hmm, but it has started to have a good storyline now, and Mark is very funny.

I hink ..."

Yeah, I had to have a bit of a break from all the science talk by chapter five, so I am hoping it it's not like that the whole way through. But, even if it is, the humour is enough to keep it interesting.

[K~Terror]

I'm up to Chapter 10 & I have family just come over so am going to take a break now too.

(view spoiler)[ I am so happy they know Mark is alive but, wow, there are no easy answers on how to best help the guy.. And if they will be able to help him in time. Space travel issss soooooo slowwwwww... Can't imagine how the crew who left him feels thinking he is dead... Or how much worse they will feel when they find out they left him alive... And how they'll feel when they find out they with held that information until they got back.. It's all very heavy stuff to ponder.

Mark is incredible though. He is smart, funny and just keeps plugging along, come what may. I keep thinking about the morphine they have on board and I wonder how many others would have gone that route instead.. (hide spoiler)]

SnowTulip - I totally get why he's your book boyfriend!

[Snowtulip]

Srividya wrote: "Oh yes Kristin! I am enjoying his potato and dirt escapades!!

@Snowtulip - I agree with you about the book boyfriend part! I spent New Year's eve with him, I guess that says how I feel about him! ;)"

What more could we ask for Srividya, he's intelligent and funny!

[Snowtulip]

Kristin ~ Experiment in Terror Junkie wrote: "I'm up to Chapter 10 & I have family just come over so am going to take a break now too.

I am so happy they know Mark is alive but, wow, there are no easy answers on how to best help the guy.. ..."

Completely agree (view spoiler)[once he mentioned the morphine, I thought, well this is going to be the end of the book soon. You'd think someone would be calculating how death could be less painful vs. keep on living (who would have thought you can do what he's doing!). (hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

Snowtulip wrote: "Mark is my book boyfriend, kind of odd that I select a non-romance novel for my book boyfriend, but he cracks me up!!"

Well when he looks like this it helps too ;)

[K~Terror]

Damn..I sure got the wrong edition!

[Kelly]

Becca wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Chapter 8

I had the same thoughts but I do think it's accurate. I believe people would come together to save a person in this situation especially since the whole world was invested..."

(view spoiler)[
I think it's a nice sentiment and I'd be sad if we didn't want to save someone but practically speaking it's very silly. I suppose it's good we don't do everything practically though.
(hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

Kristin ~ Experiment in Terror Junkie wrote: "Damn..I sure got the wrong edition!"

Lol, he reminds me a bit of a young Val Kilmer

[Emma (M)]

Kelly wrote: I think it is a nice sentiment and I'd be sad if we didn't want to save someone but practically speaking it's very silly. I suppose it's good we don't do everything practically though.

I agree Kelly - as much as I desperately want NASA to save Mark, and the thought of being in his position is just sickening, it struck me that so much money and time would be spent trying to save one man, when there are thousands of people dying from starvation every day on planet Earth - and they don't even have the option of taking an overdose of morphine. I do think the optics of just leaving someone to starve to death on Mars would be pretty bad publicity for NASA and would be a big incentive for them to invest all the resources in a rescue mission. Media attention has so much influence these days. So, I would not be surprised if this was the reaction to a similar situation if it happened in in real life - I would certainly hope for his rescue if it did happen.

[V_Nerdbooks]

I'm probably behind you guys now, had our last gig :•( very emotional !
New years day is the big one here, so everyone is a little drunk.........including myself lol
Just took my stepson home because he is BLOTTO and am currently cooking chips (french fries) for him lol.

[Emma (M)]

Can't. Stop. Reading! Except to write this post :)

This book just keeps getting better. Iam nearly at the end of chp 12.

(view spoiler)[ I can't wait for them to tell the crew of Hermes that Mark is alive and there is a plan for his rescue, they are going to be so damn happy.

Right now I have started the flashback to where the crew had to abandon the Mission and leave Mark behind. Even though we know they obviously all get to the Hermes safely (beside Mark of course), I am finding the scene where Lewis trying to find Mrak's body while the MAV is about to tip, very tense. (hide spoiler)]

[Snowtulip]

Emma wrote: "Can't. Stop. Reading! Except to write this post :)

This book just keeps getting better. Iam nearly at the end of chp 12.

"

(view spoiler)[it's that scene that made me so mad that NASA waited so long to tell the crew that Mark was alive, all that guilt/regret could have been stopped sooner (hide spoiler)]

[Emma (M)]

Totally agree ST, I feel the same way.

[Emma (M)]

Ok, my absolute favourite part of the book so far is Venkat's email - chp 13' Sol 116 - so funny!

[K~Terror]

I'm at the end of Chapter 11
(view spoiler)[Laughed so hard at "Boobies!" (hide spoiler)]

Seems like there's not as much techy-techy talk now. Either that or I've gotten accustomed to what they're talking about and I'm not having to exert so much brain power.

(view spoiler)[ LOVE they can talk to Mark now and the method of communication keeps getting better. Glad they are going to tell the crew Finally! (hide spoiler)]

This book is SO addictive!!

[Emma (M)]

It is totally addictive, I can't put it down. I feel like the book has been going forever I am so engaged with it, but I haven't even reached 50% - which is great because it's the type of book you don't want to end as it's such a good read.

Kristin, (view spoiler)[ I like the boobies too (hide spoiler)]

[K~Terror]

Emma wrote: "Ok, my absolute favourite part of the book so far is Venkat's email - chp 13' Sol 116 - so funny!"

That part was HILARIOUS!!