The Martian by Andy Weir

[PolarTee]

Wow, I didn't know that The Martian was originally self-published. To go from that to being a blockbuster film is pretty impressive! Kudos to Andy Weir! I loved the book and Mark Watney's sense of humor during all the ups and downs of this pickle he finds himself in. I would recommend this book to everyone, not just limited to sci-if fans.

[Catherine and AJ]

The Martian is a great book. I eventually became addicted to it. Normally, I will switch between books as I am reading, but with this one, I just kept reading chapter after chapter. I had seen the movie first, which I do not usually do, but then I decided to read the book a few months after watching the movie and the book was definitely better in my opinion. I am not a science geek by any means, so I liked that the author had Watney develop his own labels for more difficult or longer scientific terms. I was able to picture what was happening the whole time I was reading it, which is something I really like in the books I read.

[TPau]

Having read the book in German rather than its original English, I am hesitant to be too critical, however, while the book is certainly entertaining, its suffers from a few defects. While Watson's unbounded optimism combined with his gallows humour certainly cheers the reader into rooting for him, it does little to explore what would be the real psychological effects of such seemingly hopeless isolation

I found that, on the whole, this book suffered from a dearth of emotional exploration. As the technical issues multiplied, the human element further declined until the story trickled to a flat, disappointing and abrupt ending. I took to referring to this novel as an engineering manual in thin disguise, and the only book my engineer husband might ever read for fun. It was disappointment after such a promising premise.

[Steph K]

I loved this book. It's science fiction without the science dumbed down, but it's still explained well in terms those of us without specialized knowledge can understand.

[godreaujea]

I saw the movie first because I didn't know it was a book! But I have heard AMAZING things about the book so I plan on checking it out.

[BookishBookkeeping]

Alright, I just finished reading "The Martian" by Andy Weir and for someone who first saw the movie, let me just say the book is SO much better. It did help having Matt Damon's face in my mind as Mark Watney and if you look at the picture of the author, he looks like Damon. But anyways I digress, this book keeps you at the edge of your seat and I finished it in two days because of that. The author did an excellent job intertwining hard science data and humor. Made the reality of what was going on much easier to digest. Overall this book gets a 4 out of 4 stars even with the few misspellings.
Good read from someone with the kinds of advance degrees he has and being his first novel.

[Laarmyartist]

Without a doubt, 'The Martian by Andy Weir' is one of my favorite books of all time. It's fun reading through the comments and reviews of the book; we've all been bitten by the Weir bug and can't help but comment on the novel.

What keeps me coming back to reread the book again and again is the realities of the story. Yes, the crux of the novel is impossible because Mars does not and cannot have windstorms strong enough to do any sort of damage, but once we move past that you've got a well versed novel on the details of scientific progress, the realities of imperfect designs, and the strength of the human spirit.

Andy Weir's humor and storytelling make for a great read and was developed into a fantastic movie. Anyone can enjoy the story.

What more can you ask for?

[Firegirl210]

How do the movie and book compare? Are they fairly similar, or did the movie take a ton of liberties? I very much enjoyed the movie so I was curious what people's thoughts were

[Erin Painter Baker]

With the exception of Gibson and Stephenson, it seems that most science fiction I read is more like fantasy set in space. The Martian is more like a Gibson novel, or the first part of Stephenson’s Seveneves, in that it is essentially set in the now, with one minor, though important difference. In Andy Weir’s The Martian, we have manned space travel (COOL) that includes the ability to have manned missions to Mars. But other than that, there is nothing that feels especially “futuristic” or “science fiction-y” about the book.

That in itself, I think, is a great compliment, as most of the book is set on Mars, told from the point of view of a guy who is trying to survive on Mars. None of that technology exists. None. And yet Weir writes it so well, that it feels like it does. It feels more like he got a sneak peek at NASA’s R&D department than that he made this stuff up. And that is hard, really hard.

But the other great thing about The Martian is that none of that technology, no matter how central to the story gets in the way of the story. In the end, this is a book about people, about what people will do in the worst of circumstances, and the way the entire world can pull together for one person. On some level, reading this book, I feel like I get a sense of what it was like to live through the first moon landing.

As humans, and as Americans in particular, I think, we have come to revere those who will risk the many to save the one. We honor those who will get many more people killed in order to bring back the bodies of those already dead (see We Were Soldiers Once…and Young). The Martian plays on that notion. In fact, my one complaint with the book is that the one person in the story who does not want to risk the lives of six to save one is painted as a coward, and the closest thing to a villain the story has.

The reader is never inside the head of that character, which I think is the part the bothers me the most. I would have loved to gotten a more nuanced exploration of trying to make that calculation, and of being willing to be the person who consigned one man to certain death instead of risk the lives of seven individuals, because I think that is a dynamic worth exploring.

But, even without that, The Martian is a great read. It is a story of survival and ingenuity. And with any luck, the book and the movie will have people voting to give NASA a real budget again. Because really, the most important thing a science fiction book can do, I think, is to spur our real life science to better to go one better than the fiction.