The Martian by Andy Weir

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone. with no way to signal Earth that he's alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength—he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatch- ing a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth. As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive. But Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet. Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last. yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to- put-down suspense novel that manages tc read like a real-life survival tale. --front flap

There is a lot about The Martian to like and I understand why there are people who absolutely love this book, but at the same time there is a lot to strongly dislike and I understand the people who hate this book at the same time.

The book feels split up into two distinct sections; section one is nearly endless logs from the protagonist, Mark Watney, section two is more of his logs as well as a look at everyone else involved in the story. Needless to say, the first part is not a joy to read unless you are really into reading the logs of what feels like a YouTube parody account that leaves comments in the voice of a mock Redditor.

Mark Watney is what Wesley Crusher would be like if he was stranded on Mars and left for dead if Beverly Crusher had somehow worked MacGuyver's DNA into the birthing process. There is zero tension in what should be an incredibly tense situation due to how effortless everything is for Watney. Not enough food to last? No problem, Watney is an expert botanist who is able to take his own shit, soil he brought with him and convenient potatoes, mix it with Martian soil and have an indoor farm that can sustain him for almost two years. Need more water? He's also an expert chemist who can create it out of thin air and have enough to last as long as he needs. He could probably end world hunger in the snap of his fingers if he wanted to, he's just that damned good.Every problem is met with a nonchalant series of jokes and asides while Watney is able to utilize increasingly convenient items in his vicinity while he rags on the poor taste of his teammates as he goes through their possessions in search for entertainment. What's frustrating is that when it's convenient for the plot to move along this innate ability to solve every problem regardless of complexity disappears from Watney's possession and he's left helpless.The big issue that I have is that I'm forced to fill in blanks and assign reasons and events to flesh out these strange holes in the plot and character. He probably had a mental break, maybe he lost his will, maybe he wasn't in class on the day when they had you clean up an experiment after a disaster to see that something might be salvageable, etc. What little is given about Watney is downright unlikable most of the time, which can make the early parts of the book a slog to get through.Things pick up when other characters are introduced and things move from the journal-based style to a more normal style of prose. You don't really get much of a feel for any of the characters, not much description about their features, personalities or lives outside of saving Mark Watney, but then again, this whole book is just about Mark Watney, isn't it? We know that Lewis and her husband like Disco and the 70's, we know that Johannsen is an attractive, younger female and so forth, but we're never given much of a reason to care about them and it kind of feels like a shame.The brief glimpses that the reader gets into these ancillary characters shows the potential for a lot more interesting, likable and worthwhile characters, but instead they are just to serve Watney and his brilliance as set dressing. I know that I'm really kind of ripping into this right now, but there were some really great things in this book as well. After around 40% or so it was hard to put down due to how the plot just flowed. There was a good sense of tension built throughout and it was genuinely exciting to read at times. There was obviously a lot of effort and research put into this book, which I appreciated and the approach kept things from being overly dry when veering into the realm of the scientific. I also appreciate the attempt at doing something different, but honestly the execution was just lacking and hurt the book overall. I'm also well aware that I just found the lead character to be abrasive and awful, but that's just personal taste and you might love him and feel a deep, soulful connection to him. I can only imagine how good this book could have been if the same level of attention to detail was put into building up the characters more and helping to create some increasing tension throughout the book as opposed to only in the second half.

Excellent book. Reading it i kept thinking, this would make a pretty good movie!

Definitely a book I'll re-read.

This was the second time I read this book. The first time, it was so exciting to read something so good. It was one of the best books I had read in a while. It's written in a casual voice, which pairs well with the scientific details throughout. I'm not a science geek by any means, but it was very interesting to read his problem solving steps in what felt like real time. I appreciated the humor as well.