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Monday 22 June 2015

The Martian by Andy Weir


Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Published: February 13, 2014
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 
978-0091956134
Genre: Sci-Fi

I'm stranded on Mars.
I have no way to communicate with Earth.
I'm in a Habitat designed to last 31 days.
If the Oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I'll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death.
So yeah. I'm screwed.

Rating: 

I really, really enjoyed this book. I hope they do it justice when the Film comes out.

I fully expected this to be a boring narration of one mans depressing time stranded on an alien planet. I was sure it would be full of morose soliloquies and fantastical, unrealistic imaginings of how he survives and, eventually, gets himself home.

Instead, I got Mark Watney. Mark Watney is my Hero.

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The book is split between Mark's logs and a narrative of what is happening back on Earth. Normally, I tend to favour one POV over the other when this is the case, but not this time. I enjoyed both POVs equally and loved every character that came along, even those who only made a pit-stop appearance. Particularly Mark's Ares 3 crew-mates. Martinez, you're the man! 

Mark's personality is wonderful, and I don't think this book could have worked as well as it did if Mark had been any other kind of person. He's optimistic, intelligent, realistic, brave, incredibly funny and very much all-or-nothing. Mark's can-do attitude and restless need to do everything he can to save himself really keeps you rooting for him through-out the book. You can't help but like Mark Watney.

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The story itself is great; its the story of how one mans plight manages to bring an entire world together to try to get him home. It's heart-warming. It's how you hope the world would react to a situation like this. It's how you want the world to react to every situation. 

It's a very technical story. There is a lot of science in this book - funnily enough, that's probably why it comes under Science Fiction. A lot of the science went completely over my head, and it did eventually come to the point that as soon as I realised that I wasn't going to understand whatever it was that Mark was trying to explain, I started to skim read until we got back to more comfortable ground for me - this is where the book loses a star, as far as I'm concerned. But there was actually so much to learn in this book.

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It turns out that there is a hell of a lot about this book that is technically accurate, as far as it can be. I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of research that must have gone into this book. Andy Weir, you are a trooper.

This book had me smiling and laughing and frustrated and gripping the edge of my kindle in suspense. It had it all.

But the thing that really makes this book? The humour. Oh God, the humour is incredible ...
"[11:49] JPL: What we can see of your planned cut looks good. We’re assuming the other side is identical. You’re cleared to start drilling.
[12:07] Watney: That’s what she said.
[12:25] JPL: Seriously, Mark? Seriously?"

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