Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian

Author: Andy Weir

Published On: 2/11/14

Page Count: 369pgs

Cover:

Synopsis: (Found on Goodreads)

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?

Overall Rating: 4/5

"I'm stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Hermes or Earth. Everyone thinks I'm dead. I'm in a Hab designed to last 31 days. If the Oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I'll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So yeah. I'm f----d." - Mark Watney

What started off as a piqued interest by co-workers quickly turned into a nail biting adventure following Mark Watney’s story and his will to survive after being stranded on mars. As a sci-fi nerd I was hooked from page one. The story essentially plays out in logbook entries that are written in a way to keep you intrigued, laughing and somehow manages to push the story of survival forward without feeling stale and depleted after the first 100 pages or so. Personally my favorite bit of the story isn’t actually how Mark Watney overcomes his trials and tribulations of survival on the martian planet but his down to earth, reasonable and believable personality and reactions to certain situations. Between the nerdy explanations of formulas and “How to’s” and Watney’s crude humor, I was thoroughly entertained from beginning to end. Overall I’m giving the book a 4 out of 5, even though I was entertained through and through you can put 2 and 2 together and figure out how the book is going to end not even half way through which was a huge con for me.

~Cody