The Martian
Ratings1,564
Average rating4.4
15
Ratings1,564
Average rating4.4
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
Featured Series
1 primary book2 released booksThe Martian is a 2-book series with 1 primary work first released in 2011 with contributions by Andy Weir.
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Reviews with the most likes.
This is an extremely loved book. I knew going into it, I was getting an epic survival story. But I have to say it was even more that that. This book was filled with humor, snarkiness, science, and adventure and I loved every minute of it. I really wanted to see the movie for this, but I knew I had to read the book before I could see the movie. So of course I waited until the day before to start the book. It ended up not being a problem because I flew through the book and there was a never a doubt that I would not finish it before the movie.
I do not know how accurate all the science actually is, but it was believable and made sense to me. I loved how well explained all the choices were. We got to see Mark's stream of consciousness through the log of why he was making certain choices and his trial and error process until he got it right.
My favorite part of this book was how often I would laugh or giggle. I loved how sarcastic and snarky Mark was and it really added to the whole idea of being stranded on Mars and coping and surviving. I truly believe the book would have been much different had Mark not had the personality he did.
I do not think there was ever a dull moment in this book. We were constantly moving onward and toward bigger and greater challenges. I think the pacing of this book was incredibly well done and I applaud Andy Weir for making a book that mainly focuses on one guy alone on Mars so fascinating. We did have some scenes from others perspectives which added to the story but they were all necessary and helped break up the solo-Mark time.
I definitely recommend you read this book and then go see the movie because both are fantastic!
I received a copy of this book through BloggingForBooks in exchange for an honest review
I think this was written by a 12-year-old kid. The humor is painful. CBS-sitcom level painful. No story need this many disco “jokes”. The dialogue is stilted. The character development is non-existent. The science is interesting, but it's mostly just algebra and unit conversions
I'm surprised how well rated this book is, but I guess people are just suckers for a good survival story, where someone persevere when everything seems doomed. For the fiction part of the book, you might as well watch the film, which faithfully represents the book.
What you get when reading the novel is... numbers. And a lot of them! I thing that 3/4 of the book is strictly about calculations, statistics, measurements, physics, chemistry, botany and what not. It is very technical stuff, although written in an accessible way. Think the TV series CSI. Most people have no clue what's going on when the expert meticulously explains what has happened, but hey can't stop watching it anyway.
It is not bad writing, just not compelling fiction. If I were to judge the 1/4 that does not relate to technical stuff, i would give this a 3 stars. This is sort of my kind of book really. I like technical stuff. But its just not what I am looking for when I'm reading for entertainment purposes.
The thing I like about the book is that it faithfully represents what would happen to a scientist when he is forced to survive in an improbable situation. Scientist are great people! They do not give up, they are intelligent, creative and logical thinking. the world is your oyster when you understand how the building blocks of reality work together to create anything.
Yeah, it's good. One of the all-time great book covers. Starts to drag like the last fifth.
