Andy Weir: Martian (2020, Penguin Random House)
English language
Published Oct. 4, 2020 by Penguin Random House.
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 obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
I have no idea why I didn’t read this book earlier. It is a fantastic story that kept me reading until I was done (a day and a half!).
I’ve always wanted to take a trip into space, but certainly not if it ends up like Mark’s.
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.
Content warning Minor spoilers about character-building
The Martian still rocks. It has everything that I love in those YouTube video where they walk you through their process of making a cool new machine (youtube.com/watch?v=vsTTXYxydOE&feature=share).
A few times throughout the book, Mark’s plans went out the airlock and he expresses his frustration and hopelessness to the log. Then in the next log, he’s back to working the problem. He decides to survive “off camera” and I think that we missed an essential part of his character.
Obwohl ich den Film schon kannte und wusste was passiert war das Hörbuch doch bin zum Ende spannend und fesselnd.
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.
Divertido e nerdy, adorei!
读完这本书是几年以前的事了，我记得我是在Kindle上读的，也记得读到(.Y.)时的大笑不止。主角乐观幽默的性格让整个旅程都相当有趣。
Really intriguing tech short story. Read it twice.
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 …
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 was written in the ego-perspective of the protagonist in the form of journal or log entries. Naturally there were many personal, insider, humorous and profane remarks, which helped a lot to develop the character. However, I would not consider this book being the most poetic story I have read. It was a well written thriller though, with a suspensfull, humorous, and scientifically plausible storyline. I was not sure how much stars to give the book. I really enjoyed reading it, but I felt that the poetic and philosophical side was a bit lacking (compared to other SF books I have read in my, still rather young, life). I still absolutely recommend the book to any SF-fan who likes to have plausible science and a suspenseful read, you won't put The Martian down, once you get into the story.
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.
A mind blowing book!
