Monday, October 5, 2015

Book Review Discussion: The Martian by Andy Weir

Book: The Martian by Andy Weir
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For: Fun
From: Bought at BYU Bookstore a few months ago

Short Synopsis: It's the third manned mission to Mars. On the 6th day there, a dust storm threatens to destroy the ship that will take them home. So they decide to abort their mission and escape. But an accident occurs and one of the crew gets hurt. The rest of the crew try to find him the storm, but they can't. It appears he's dead, so they continue on and leave. A bit later, this abandoned crew member wakes up and finds out he's alone on Mars. With his smarts and his sense of humor, he manages to figure out how to survive until someone, he hopes, can rescue him.

My Response: I've been seeing readers rave about this one for a long time now it seems. I've avoided it because of reports that it was so science-y. I figured I'd find that boring. Well, it WAS science-y and I didn't understand much of those parts and I admit to skimming a paragraph or two here and there, but, BUT, the story and the humor and the fun and the intensity was amazing and all deserve the praise. I found the writing to be interesting in the sense that the author didn't worry much about all the billions of things we learn at writing classes and conferences and etc. He didn't worry about word choice, or changing tense, or flipping in and out of different POVs . He just wrote the dang story and had the most awesome fun voice ever. And it worked. I loved it. I especially loved learning that he shared this story on his website for free and his readers begged him to put it in Kindle format so they could have and savor it and read it over and over again. So he did, picking the cheapest way possible (99 cents) to distribute it. And then it flew to the top of the Kindle best selling list until he had people begging to publish it traditionally and to turn it into a movie.

I can't even imagine. What a crazy thing that must have been!

And now the movie. I haven't seen it yet. Hoping to fit that in this week. But from what I've been hearing, the movie also lives up to the hype and Matt Damon kills it. Can't wait.

Bottom Line: Loved it, despite the heavy science talk. The voice and style made this story and all the science talk, while interesting, doesn't distract from the story itself.

Let's Talk About: I hear that NASA "approved" this book. I don't even know what that means! I've never heard of such a thing. But I guess it has something to do with the fact that all the science checks out. That this REALLY could have happened, given the possibility that we ever get a man to Mars. I find this all fascinating. What do you think? What are your feelings on heavy science in your stories? How do you feel about space and traveling to other planets?

Other Reviews:

Personally, I couldn’t get enough of his gallows humor, his smarts, his snark, and his impatient streak. From The Little Red Reviewer

The book touched all kinds of buttons in my geeky heart; space travel, real science that not once relies on some made up magical science to save the day, funny, suspenseful, surprising and unabashedly entertaining. From So Many Books

All that said, The Martian is an entertaining and enlightening story about the hazards of interplanetary exploration, a cautionary tale of sorts, but one that celebrates the problem solving expertise of those in charge of the program. From Book Chase

The Martian is an intelligent and witty science-based story that reminds its audience of human abilities and perseverance. From That's What She Read






12 comments:

  1. I've been wanting to read this one, due to some other reviews (and yours)! I almost went to see the film this weekend, but we went to the wrong theater and the one it was showing at was a bit too far (darn). I didn't know that about the writing style (interesting) and I just heard about the background story from my husband- I got a kick out of that, too.

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  2. I keep going back and forth on weather I want to read this or just see the movie. I'm probably going to see the movie this week so I guess I'll decide from there.

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    1. Jenny: Yeah, it will be interesting to see if the movie makes you want to read the boo or not... we'll see!

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  3. I'd never even heard of this until we saw the movie preview recently, but my son mentioned he'd heard it was a really good book, too, so we checked it out from the library. Honestly, we didn't get past the first page before returning it. I figured if there were two F-bombs within the first three sentences, the rest of the book would be similar. Makes me so sad when authors feel the need to use such crude language. I can handle some milder stuff, but the F-bombs just ruin it for me (and especially my kids). So we will look forward to seeing the movie and hope it's not so bad in that regard!
    But that's a really cool story about how it was written and first published.

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    1. Gayle: I totally forgot about the F-bombs! Dang, I should have done a little caution bit in the review. I was worried those first few pages too, but then the humor he used overrode the F-bombs. And he ended up not using them so much later on. At least the guy on Mars didn't. There was a woman in Houston that was worse however. Ugh. And no humor to balance it out. Anyway. I guess I blocked them from my mind! And yes, I do hope there isn't much in the movie. I'm guessing with a PG13 rating, there won't be... maybe one or two.

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  4. It's hard to imagine that a book like this could be humourous and fun, but if it was, that's no mean feat. Like Jenny I'm not sure if I should just go watch the movie or wait till I read the book - and I never have such debates, I mean, books ftw - but I'm not really big on sci-fi so that makes me a bit apprehensive, although your review is making me rethink. Good job

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    1. Bidisha: Maybe you should try the movie first too and THEN read the book? Yes, there was a lot of humor. It was great. I can't wait to see the movie to see how they add this in...

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  5. I've been thinking about reading this for a while and I'm glad to hear that the science isn't too complicated. I didn't know about the publishing history, so that was very interesting. Great review.

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    1. Amy: It's kinda a complicated, but done in a way that if you really want to get it, you can. It's as if he's trying to explain to a "normal" person what he's doing. Very cool.

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  6. Yeah, it had the same name, just the next town over. We didn't notice when looking at the showing times online. Oops.

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  7. Saw the movie and loved it! I liked it lots more than Gravity!

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