The Martian

Paperback, 400 pages

English language

Published July 6, 2016 by Broadway Books.

ISBN:
978-0-8041-8935-4
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OCLC Number:
944933723

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5 stars (16 reviews)

In the Classroom Edition of The Martian:

Classroom-appropriate language Discussion questions and activities Q&A with Andy Weir

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 while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue 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 kill 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 …

59 editions

Can do

4 stars

I went in with the understanding this was a book about a bunch of whatif science problems so enjoyed it. The author did a good job of keeping things moving forward without getting too bogged down in detail. The structure of the story meant the protagonist was maybe the most upbeat superhuman I’ve met so it there was no emotional stakes but that was by design.

reviewed The Martian by Andy Weir (The Martian, #1)

No time for feelings; gotta survive

4 stars

Content warning Minor spoilers about character-building

reviewed The Martian by Andy Weir

Fun read.

4 stars

And probably at least semi realistic? Didn't like it as much as Project Hail Mary by the same author. This sorta read as a sequence of "oh crap, another thing went wrong" problems, followed by solutions. I'm certain this is realistic - or even still overly optimistic, given what they were surviving through - but kinda made for an overly long, repetitive narrative. I suspect this is part of why they cut some of these out of the movie (and to save time, but also it got repetitive). Nevertheless, a fun read if you enjoy sci-fi that sticks close to contemporary science.

reviewed The Martian by Andy Weir (The Martian, #1)

Review of 'The Martian' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The Martian was a suspenseful read! I finished it faster than my usual readings. It's impressive how much work and detail Andy Weir put into making the science of this science fiction book appear very plausible. It was very much hard SF taking place in a not too distant future. Of course I am in no position to judge wether the science in the book actually is plausible or not (I am no rocket scientist after all), but it felt very well researched.

I loved the first third of book and the last third, aswell as the minitious explanation of every step the protagonist had to do to survive. That said, it got a bit cumbersome to enjoy at around page 250. I like hard science fiction, but I felt that the amount of detailed descriptions of engineering/science labour got in the way of the story.

Most of the story …

reviewed The Martian by Andy Weir (The Martian, #1)

Review of 'The Martian' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I had seen the ads for the trailer for the movie and read a recommendation so when I saw this book at Costco, I picked it up. Wow! An awesome book, a lot of good tension as the hero, Mark Whatney figures out how to survive on Mars for 4 years until he can hitch a ride back to Earth. It reminded me of science fiction books I enjoyed when I was younger and I enjoyed the flashback to my youth immensely.

The book did seem a little slow by the end, I'm glad the author stayed accurate with the science portion but I was ready to find out if Mark made it back alive or not. However, that didn't detract from the excitement and I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a good story and to get excited about going to space again.

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