Lazy Saturday Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Series: N/A
Edition: Kindle Edition, 385 pages
Publication Details: February 11th 2014 by Crown
Genre(s): Sci-Fi
Disclosure? Nope, I bought it

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Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first man to die there.

It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he’s stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive–and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to get him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills–and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit–he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Review

The Martian is like the most intense science lesson you never had.

Mark Watney is stranded on Mars, presumed dead. As the first line perfectly describes he’s ‘pretty much fucked’. But Mark Watney is also the most ridiculously resourceful astronaut there ever was, and he’s not about to give up.

He spends his days planning and problem solving in order to figure out how to keep himself alive until he can be rescued, whilst reluctantly listening to disco music and watching old 70’s sitcoms left behind by his crew-mates.

The story is told in the form of daily logs from Watney, in his smart-ass, witty voice, and also from the perspective of the NASA team who are trying to save him now that they’re aware he’s alive.

I was totally engrossed in this story, and rooting for Watney the whole way through. The book mixes hard science (something I know very little about) with fantastically real science-fiction which makes for an intense read. At times I did get a bit bored of all the minuscule details of Watney’s potato farm and water reclaimer, but all the little details added to the real-ness of the story.

I was surprised by how funny this book was too, which was all down to the characterisation of Watney. He was hilarious, and NASA’s reactions to him just made me laugh even more. If anyone could survive alone in space, it would be someone like Mark Watney.

I thought this was a really clever book. It had its ups and downs, but overall I found it interesting, exciting and hard to put down.