The Martian: A Novel

by Andy Weir

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Brilliant . . . a celebration of human ingenuity [and] the purest example of real-science sci-fi for many years . . . utterly compelling.”—The Wall Street Journal

The inspiration for the major motion picture

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?

NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE

“A hugely entertaining novel [that] reads like a rocket ship afire . . . Weir has fashioned in Mark Watney one of the most appealing, funny, and resourceful characters in recent fiction.”—Chicago Tribune

“As gripping as they come . . . You’ll be rooting for Watney the whole way, groaning at every setback and laughing at his pitchblack humor. Utterly nail-biting and memorable.”—Financial Times

• ISBN10: 0804139024
• ISBN13: 9780804139021
• Publish Date: 11 February 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Ballantine Books Inc.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780804139021

Reviews

[leahrosereads]

This was a re-read with my husband getting a chance to listen to it for the first time. I loved getting to share this book with him, because Mark reminds me so much of him. We laughed and got stressed for Mark while he endured the most isolating experience a human could deal with. The narrator really brought this story to life, and I absolutely loved it. Definitely recommend, and I'm looking forward to reading other books by Mr. Weir.

[gmcgregor]

Andy Weir's The Martian does not shy away from the deeply nerdy aspect of being an astronaut. Mark Watney, and the rest of the crew of the Ares 3 (the third manned mission to Mars) are all big dorks. Mark, on top of his engineering baseline, is also a plant geek, and both of those skill sets prove absolutely crucial when there's a sudden, powerful windstorm on the red planet that requires the crew to get out of there in a hurry. A freak accident means that Mark is thought killed and left behind...only he's not actually dead. He's alive, and alone.

What follows is an epic struggle for survival, as Mark tries to figure out how to stay alive, and (when they become aware that he's alive at all), NASA tries to figure out how to get him home. Like most engineers, Mark is a skilled problem-solver, and it's only through a combination of his smarts, determination, and some blind luck that he's able to figure out how to meet the challenges his circumstances throw at him: he figures out how to grow food to supplement the insufficient stores he's left with, he has to come up with a way to travel long-distance across the surface, he has to establish ways to communicate with Earth, he has to deal with unpredictable weather...the list goes on and on. But if everything goes right, he just might make it after all.

This was one of those circumstances where I'd seen the movie first, and I have to say, I think the movie worked better. There are some circles where this is heresy, I know. But there's something that worked watching this story play out over two-ish hours onscreen better than spending several hours, over multiple days, reading it on the page. There's a formulaic-ness to the plotting that becomes very obvious: Mark encounters a problem, which he records in his mission log (these entries comprise most of the book), he comes up with a solution, he explains the solution and how he came up with it and the science behind it, and then there's the next problem...lather, rinse, repeat. By the end, I was skimming through the science bits, because they were meant to show how smart and innovative Mark is rather than advance the story, but because I'd been reading a couple hundred pages of it, I already knew that Mark was smart and innovative.

Which brings me to my other issue with the book: the character of Mark. In a lot of ways, he's a good lead character: the aforementioned intelligence and innovation, a good sense of humor, a distinctive "voice". He's easy to root for. But I found him a little too high-spirited to be really realistic. He's perpetually ready to take on the next challenge, but for a person painted as a naturally social, outgoing fellow, it strained my credulity beyond belief that he never particularly struggled with depression, despite months and months of enforced solitude. Every real obstacle that comes his way is external, and I wanted to see a little more internal development.

I know I've just laid out two major issues with characterization and plot, but honestly this book isn't bad. It's pretty good. But given its immense popularity, I was expecting something a lot closer to greatness, and I did not find greatness here. Is this an entertaining sci-fi read, and worth getting to? Sure! It's easy to read and engaging and builds suspense nicely even though the ultimate ending is predictable. But don't expect anything particularly special.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I LOVED this book.

Even though I saw the movie before reading the book, I feel like I have a lot to wrap my head around.

Science fiction is not my favorite of all favorite genres because it gets really technical.  I love the ideas, but when you get too explainy with the science, my brain turns to mush.  This is possibly the most explanation-heavy science fiction book ever.  I'm serious.  There is SO much time spend talking about chemistry and engineering and botany and hypotheticals and jet propulsion and... so much science.  At least 75% of the book is explanations.

BUT.

The other 25% of the book is the wonderfulness that is Mark Watney.

Without Mark Watney, this book would be nothing.

It is his snark and optimistic pessimism that keeps this story from being an interaction manual for survival on Mars (under the luckiest of circumstances).  The challenge Andy Weir faced in writing this book is making a character so likable that not only is the reader rooting for his survival, but the reader doesn't second guess when other decide to devote so much risk, time, and money to his rescue.  Mark is absolutely that character.

Mark isn't all science.  He is smart and well-studied - that's abundantly clear.  He also is real.  You find him contemplating Aquaman and declaring himself a pirate.  He gets such glee when he learns from his alma mater that he has technically colonized the planet, so he's the original Martian.  I won't say much more here about his quips, because they take you by surprise and make you laugh out loud.  I don't want to spoil them for anyone, but rest assured, he's a great character.

His odds of survival were astronomical.

I think that the author/character acknowledges this fairly well with the opening line of the book.  I mean, when you open a novel and the first sentence is "I'm fucked." you know that something really terrible has gone down and we're in a bad situation.  Before nearly every experiment, Mark talks about how he's probably going to die, but what the hell?  Literally every single odd would have to be in his favor for him to get off Mars, and there's a lot of criticism in the reviews about it.  Okay, I agree.  The chances of these things happening in real life are basically zero.

You know what else?  This is fiction.

I for one would have been miffed if Mark died to make this "more realistic" for a small slice of the populace.

10/10 read this book.

When it was published, The Martian got a lot of hype and you may recall the movie starring Matt Damon from 2015?  The movie does a fantastic job representing the book with a few minor changes to move things along or make it a wee bit more exciting.  But this book has so many more laugh out loud moments.  Don't get me wrong - Damon was perfection.  But read the book as well or you're missing out.  The scientific jargon is easy enough to power through and it's told mostly in Mark's voice, so it's easy to read and interwoven with predictions of his own death and random sarcastic comments that will make you chuckle.

Read the book.  See the film.  They're both worth your time.

[thepunktheory]

Book vs. Movie:
I'll start of with the novel. A huge shout out to Andy Weir for putting so much effort into not only writing a fascinating story but also trying to make it as accurate as possible. I even ended up researching some of the stuff on the internet!
It definitely is hell of a ride. We experience what Watney goes through via the logbook, working as a form a diary. I read Robinson Crusoe a year ago and didn't fancy it too much, so I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy Weir's novel. Surprise: it has a great pace, a great sense of humor and you actually learn something. As you can imagine, the book contains lots of scientific stuff and you have to concentrate while reading to get it all right. However, Andy Weir tried hard to explain everything in a way that you can understand it. Watney's character is very relatable and I just loved his jokes.
So, let's move on the adaptation. Matt Damon was the perfect choice to embody Watney. He had already proved his acting skills in other splendid roles but with the Martian I had the feeling that he really captured the essence of Mark Watney. Well, the actors also really fitted their roles, I swear some looked exactly the way I imagined them. I had to laugh so hard when Sean Bean explained why the call that one secret thing Elrond.
Furthermore it was really cool to see all the technical stuff on screen. I don't know about you but I have no clue what an MAV actually looks like. So I had a hard time to construct a picture in my head for a few things while reading.
When it comes to the plot itself, they stuck rather close to the original. Some things were left out, but the managed to still make sense with the whole thing. I also enjoyed the little epilogue we got in the movie. To be honest, I wondered "That's really supposed to be it? Nothing more?" when I read the final page.
Last but not least I want to shower the soundtrack with a little praise. The original music for the movie is amazing but what I liked best were the disco songs they incorporated. It's actually a running gag as the only music Mark has on Mars is some 70's disco stuff the mission commander had on her personal hard-drive.

I have to say, The Martian is one of the best adaptations I came across in a long time. Both the book and the movie are very well made and fascinating. They complement one another perfectly!

second time through and it might be even better...

[mitabird]

3.5 stars

[Kait ✨]

Okay, so I’m not saying anything new here when I tell you The Martian is a great book, but I (finally) succumbed to the hype and picked it up after the urging of my family. While I’ll caution that I think it has a slow start, I was surprised by how invested I was in the story. I think you’ll find that Weir makes you question your own life in a way that is both predictable and surprising. (I mean, it’s a life or death situation, so obviously it’s going to prompt you to consider your own quality of life. But also…I wasn’t expecting a sci-fi blockbuster to make me think about what kind of sacrifices I’m willing to make.) If you read it and like it, this Slate Audio Book Club Podcast episode is a must-listen. They talk about the book in very smart ways.

[Chelsea]

Quick Thoughts:
1. This book started off very slow and continues with a slower pace throughout.
2. It was a very technical book so I didn't understand much but Mark was a very humorous character so it made it easier to read.
3. I was a little disappointed with the character development. There was none at all except for Mark. I was hoping for more relationships with him but even his crew mates felt a little left out with the development.
4. At the end it was a really good book even though the ending was pretty obvious. There were still lots of things thrown at Mark and it was cool seeing how he maneuvered his way out of things.

[celinenyx]

After a long period of going back and forth I decided that yes, I did want to give The Martian a try. Usually I am not a fan of books being limited to one person in isolation somewhere, because let's face it, survival can be quite boring. But since The Martian was turned into quite a successful movie, and it received quite some attention from the mainstream, I put it on my wishlist.

Mark Watney is part of a mission to perform tests on Mars. Disaster strikes, and Mark is left hurt and all alone on Mars, while his team mates and everyone else in the world, for that matter, assume him dead. The next Mars-bound mission is scheduled in five years. Can he survive that long in a hostile environment?

The Martian is basically Robinson Crusoe in space without the racism. This similarity touches on what I see as the weakest aspect of the book - the fact that entirely too much time is spent on Mark's day to day survival. He tells us about his potatoes. He tells us about his machines. He tells us more about the potatoes. What was missing for me was any psychological insight into the mind of Watney. We barely get any sense of what he actually thinks about - unless he truly does only have potatoes on his mind? That part of the story fell flat for me, and often I felt Watney's chapters were as dry as the dusty surface of Mars.

On the bright side, The Martian comes with a healthy dose of witticisms and quips, and there are plenty of exciting life-threatening situations for Watney to overcome. Additionally, after a while additional points of view are added to the story, which makes it move along faster and breaks the possible monotony of Mark's potato farming.

At times The Martian felt very much like a debut - the writing isn't always as smooth as it should be, and there was a lack of psychological depth. Ultimately though, it is a fun and light-hearted science-fiction novel that appeals to a wide public.

[readingwithwrin]

That was intense!

This book was amazing! It had me on the edge of my seat for the majority of the books. (The science and mathematics portions were sightly interesting, they mostly just went right over my head.)
What I did really love about this book, was Mark's sarcasm and his will to live and how he dealt with being lonely. For the majority of the book he had no contact whatsoever with NASA and because of this it does make you a little worried with how he is really dealing with certain things.
The amount of times I was pretty sure Mark was going to die were far more than I ever though there would be. The amount of risks he had to take just for there to be a chance of certain things working were far more than I ever thought possible.
"Just once I'd like something to go as planned, ya know? Mars keeps trying to kill me... Mars and my stupidity keep trying to kill me."
Another part of this book that I really liked was that it had the perspective of some of the workers at NASA, and his crew mates. Which I found made the story far more enjoyable especially as it got closer to the end and things really did depend on NASA/crew mates figuring out how to make it all work.
I don't want to say anything more and possibly ruin the story for you. I will leave you with a few of my favorite Mark Watney sarcastic log entries comments.

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


"With each sandstrom comes the inevitable cleaning of the Solar Cells, a time-honored tradition among hearty Martians such as myself."


"Now I'm in a rougher neighborhood. The kind of neighborhood where you keep your rover doors locked and never come to a complete stop at intersections. Well, not really, but it's bad to get off course here.",



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