Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Published: February 11th 2014 by Crown
read in: June, 2015

young adult • science fiction

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Every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true

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 & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& 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—& 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?

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After reading a very good science fiction, I thought I should continue with more sci-fi to read. Since The Martian was in my TBR list this year, I thought I would just go for it.

This book didn’t disappoint me. Okay I didn’t end up crazy breathless after reading this and sometimes the book felt really long but I still thought it was pretty good. The basic plot was intriguing, surviving the land of nothing also known as the planet Mars.

All around me there was nothing but dust, rocks, and endless empty desert in all directions.

But now there was nothing. I never realized how utterly silent Mars is. It’s a desert world with practically no atmosphere to convey sound. I could here my own heartbeat.

The main character made this story interesting. He was snarky and really fun to read. The way he described things, made all those math and chemistry in this book understandable and easy to comprehend. Okay, not that I easily understood all the science the author put in this book, but hey, it seemed easier to digest them the way Watney explained than my high school teacher did. So, that’s a plus side. Anyway, though he’s cheerfulness was fun to read, I felt he wasn’t realistic some times. It would’ve been more believable if I could feel more of his suffering and loneliness. I mean, he was surviving alone in Mars, he should have felt that often, right? Well, to put myself in his shoes, since his character was told in some kind of diary, I guessed he just didn’t write his ugly emotion down.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the trailer for the movie is soo good. I can’t wait to watch the movie which will be out in November 25th.

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