The Martian in 2025 Reading Challenge

Feb 15, 2015 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: stayed-up-way-too-late, fantasy-and-sci-fi, lotsa-buzz, engineering

Ares 3. Well, that was my mission. Okay, not mine per se. Commander Lewis was in charge. I was just one of her crew. Actually, I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be "in command" of the mission if I were the only remaining person.

What do you know? I'm in command.

I absolutely loved this book! It was so much better than I expected. I mean, a book about a guy stranded all alone on Mars? boring beyond belief, right? WRONG. I do not know how Mr Weir did it, but he did it, a

Ares 3. Well, that was my mission. Okay, not mine per se. Commander Lewis was in charge. I was just one of her crew. Actually, I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be "in command" of the mission if I were the only remaining person.

What do you know? I'm in command.

I absolutely loved this book! It was so much better than I expected. I mean, a book about a guy stranded all alone on Mars? boring beyond belief, right? WRONG. I do not know how Mr Weir did it, but he did it, and he did it well.

The character of Mark Watney was so charismatic, I wouldn't have minded spending all 369 pages with just him - but as it turns out, there ARE other people in the book: his other crewmates (who accidentally left Mars without him), and various employees of NASA, JPL, etc who are back on Earth.

And part of it is like this is a book made just for ME. Mark Watney is a mechanical engineer - *I* am a mechanical engineer! Watney is a botanist, I'm a gardener! Okay, he's a little juvenile at times, and he uses some racist/sexist/ableist language at times, but hey, the guy is stranded, ALONE, on Mars. Death appears imminent. I'll let a few offensive terms slide. He is amazingly clever, occasionally witty, almost always a smart ass. There is, of course, a TON of exposition in this book, because the author understands that we aren't all NASA astronauts, but I really enjoyed that part too - it's fun to learn about some of this stuff!! (There was one off note, Watney is going to connect a drill to a 36 Volt power source, and thinks "I'll be playing with high voltage tomorrow!" and I think "uhhh ... 'high' voltage is 46,000 Volts, not 36 Volts." But maybe to NASA, 36 Volts IS high. I dunno. It doesn't matter. The book is still fucking fantastic.)

I knew this was being made into a movie starring Matt Damon, and there were passages where I could HEAR Matt Damon's voice saying the words, so much so that I started to wonder if Mr Weir had Damon in mind all along. I'm looking forward to the movie - this might be one of the very rare cases where the movie is even better than the book!!

There really isn't much else I can say about this. I did mark a lot of passages that I found especially witty or interesting. Here are a few:

I came up with a solution ... I'm going to use the RTG. The RTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator) is a big box of plutonium. But not the kind used in nuclear bombs. No, no. This plutonium is way more dangerous!

*

Things didn't go exactly as planned, but I'm not dead, so it's a win.

*

I tested the brackets by hitting them with rocks. This kind of sophistication is what we interplanetary scientists are known for.

*

As it is, going only south, I'm not nearly as fast. I'm traveling 90 kilometers per day as usual, but I only get 37 kilometers closer to Schiaparelli because Pythagoras is a dick.

At one point, Johannsen, one of the other crew members, tells her commander, "Communications five by five." - "five by five" is what Faith always said on Buffy, instead of "I'm okay." I always thought Faith just made that up (or, rather, the writers just made that up for Faith.) Is it an astronaut term???

Ah! Apparently it's a military term and amateur radio term! From Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_by... "Five by five is the best of 25 possible subjective responses used to describe the quality of communications, specifically the signal-to-noise ratio." I never knew! And now I know!

ETA: a month and some days later, and I am STILL thinking about this book! I might think about it more now than when I was reading it! I'm reading Sagan's Cosmos right now, and when I'm reading passages about Mars, I find myself thinking "yes, that is how they ended up doing that!" and then I realize "no, silly, The Martian was just a fictional book!! we haven't actually been to Mars yet!")

ETA x2: I saw the movie! And it is great! But they change a lot, the first line is NOT "I'm fucked," none of my favorite lines are included, most of the middle is discarded, and the ending is amped up for maximum drama and closure. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2014 Emily rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bookclubbooks, fantasy-sci-fi, own-kindle, read-in-2015

This one really surprised me. Much more science dense than I usually enjoy, but I was riveted. I loved the way the story was told. These are not deep characters, but the plot is exciting enough and the story is funny enough to stay engaging throughout. Highly recommended, even if you aren't usually a hard science fiction person. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 17, 2015 Kate rated it liked it

Shelves: read-for-book-club

Too many Macgyver descriptions, not enough character development. Felt like an extended episode of This Old House. But no question that it's an enjoyable read- I won't lie, I shed a tear at the end. Also I pictured Mark Watney as SUPER HOT, which really helped the book along. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 08, 2016 Taylor added it

Shelves: multnomahcountylibrary, home

Took me two chapters to settle into enjoying the voice of Mark Watney, but then I quite enjoyed this book. This is a great fiction read for people who enjoy reading about problem-solving and science in action. I read the book last fall, and then re-read after watching the movie. Great fun both times.

Like · see review

Sep 24, 2015 Bea rated it really liked it

What a fun read! An astronaut gets left on Mars and he goes through all kinds of MacGyver type jury rigging to try to stay alive. The parts that were too technical for me were just skimmed over and it didn't hurt the story. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end. It has its share of humor, too. ...more

Like · see review