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: 0553418025
• ISBN13: 9780553418026
• Publish Date: 28 October 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Ballantine Books Inc.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780553418026

Reviews

[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.",



See more reviews like this on my blog!

[Mercy]

Me ha gustado, eso sí, no me parece que sea la mejor novela de ciencia ficción escrita en los últimos años, ni que Andy Weir tenga grandes dotes narrativas como muchos afirman. Para mí, es sólo una novela entretenida con muchos datos científicos.

Wow... Kept me captivated, I loved Mark Watney's character and voice, I loved the way the POV's scenes changed. And now I'm dying to watch the movie to see how they adapted it to screen!

[Ashley]

SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS BOOK!!! I wasn't ready for it to end though.

[empressbrooke]

This book was a totally delightful and awesome blast. I'm very annoyed that everyone I've recommended it to has already read it.

Edited to add: I originally rated this 4 stars. Having recommended it to a half-dozen people who all enjoy different types of books, and having sat through the (awesome) movie twice while gushing about the book both times, I decided this has left a 5-star mark on me.

[sarahjay]

LAKJSDHFLAKDJFJALDIJLAKFJKJ

I CRIED.

JUST READ IT.

Reread via audiobook 9/2 - I'm glad I read it in book form first because the narrator's voice did not match at all what Mark sounded like in my head (or what any of the other characters sounded like). I did still get emotional at the end. I don't think Andy Weir is the most genius person at writing realistic emotional moments or like, anything psychological (let's be honest, Mark would have gotten way more messed up mentally than he did in this situation). But there is just something about the triumph of humanity over extreme odds thrown at you by crazy space nature that will always choke me up.

[littleread1]

Hilarious and stressful - The Martian almost gets a 5 from me.

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

The Martian is not a book or audiobook that I would’ve picked up on my own. I would like to thank Marcela (@BookaholicCat), Carmel (@RabidReads) and Hot Listens’s very own Loupe for hounding me until I listened to this book. I’m so glad that I did and I will highly recommend that you listen before it comes out in the theaters in November. It is starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney.

The Martian is basically about a NASA mission to Mars. There is a storm that comes through and the mission is aborted. Mark Watney, the mission’s engineer and botanist, was left behind when everyone left Mars. Everyone was convinced that he was dead after he was knocked out during the storm. When Watney wakes up and learns what happens, he has to figure out how to survive.

Watney is a very interesting character. He is like MacGyver (once again, thanks to Marcela for that reference, but once I heard it, I couldn’t get it out of my head). The way he is able to make something out of nothing, is pretty remarkable. When he makes a mistake, he has a pretty funny panic attack, but then he recovers pretty quickly and gets back to how to solve the problem.

Once NASA figures out that they’ve left a living person on Mars, things really start to pick up. It is great to see how NASA really comes together to save this one person. Red tape that disappears to help bring Watney home. Plus the really tough decisions that had to be made. They had to think about the crew on the way home, Mark Watney left alone on Mars and the public here on Earth.

I loved the science. I don’t know how much of it was truly real and would work if put to the test, but the author and narrator made me believe that everything that happened was entirely possible. There was also some math involved, and while it was pretty intense, don’t let that scare you off. I just took that he knew more than he did about it and took what he said as fact and didn’t let it bog me down.

Mark Watney was a great character. Throughout a completely impossible situation, he kept a level head the majority of the time and tried to figure out what he needed to do to survive. One of my favorite scenes is when he first gets communication (done through written cards and photos, no voice) with NASA and NASA asked him for a photo op without much more information. Watney decides to go out in his spacesuit, the camera in question was outside, he writes “Heyyy!” and does a thumbs up. The PR person at NASA was unamused. That was pretty much Watney’s sense of humor, in a nutshell.

Once again, I can’t recommend this story enough. It is not something I ever would’ve picked up if it weren’t for the ladies who highly recommended it. Now, I’m going around and recommending it everyone I see. I don’t know how it would be to read, because the narration is done so well and I really think it helped bring the story to life. Please don’t let the sci-fi genre scare you off. It is so much more than that. While this is a science fiction story, the sci-fi is mostly a mission to Mars. Outside of that, it is a story of survival.

Narration
What to say about R.C. Bray’s narration of The Martian. This story was narrated so well that I forgot that I was listening to a book. It was more like listening to several people tell me this story about a guy left behind on Mars.

He really brought out the humor in Watney. When Watney was panicking, I could really feel it. I started to feel for the guy so much and really felt he was going to die. When the other characters from NASA come into the story, he delivers them seamlessly. Whether he voicing men or women, he is just as passionate.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Five reasons that you seriously MUST add The Martian to your audio collection

• Andy Weir takes a seriously scary situation and allows the reader to become completely enamored by the protagonist and utterly fascinated by his experience and those of his teammates and those of personnel at NASA. The story, characters, and narration were simply brilliant creating that book high I chase.


• Told from the perspective of Mark Watney the Martian grabs the reader. Watney is an astronaut for NASA. He and a crew where collecting samples on MARS when a dust storm causes them to do an emergency evacuation. During the process, Watney is injured and presumed dead. His captain in an effort to save the rest of the crew leaves his body on MARS. Only Watney is not dead and the tale that unfolds is incredible. As the story progresses we get narratives from key NASA members, media and Watney’s crew further drawing us into the suspense. Will Watney be saved or will he die alone on MARS?


• Weir is a masterful writer from his descriptions of MARS, the equipment involved and character depth I was in awe. Watney is a biologist, but the man is a freakin’ MacGyver in his ability to be quick thinking and work with the limited equipment and food available to him. Weir brought him to life, elevated him to hero and yet kept him humorous and humble.


• R.C. Bray narrates and he reminds me a little of MacLeod Andrews, he added such depth to the characters through tone and pitch. I loved his interpretation of Watney and the humor was spot on. I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face. We meet a large cast, despite the fact that most of the novel is with Watney Bray gave them all unique voices as he expressed their fears and excitement.


• Martian was riveting and while I do not intend to board a ship to MARS anytime soon, Bray’s story has increased my interest. Despite all of the technical jargon he allowed the story to flow and in my opinion even none science fiction readers will enjoy this. The Martian is the type of book I would feel comfortable buying for everyone on Christmas list. I have no doubt it will be among my top ten audio listens for 2015.

Buy it. I don’t care If you read or listen as I did..but don’t miss out on The Martian.

[cornerfolds]

The Martian has a premise that really caught my attention when I first read the description! I'm not huge into sci-fi, but I am a HUGE fan of the Twilight Zone and half those episodes are related to astronauts being stuck on Mars. How could I resist?!

I started this audiobook for the first time last year and only made it through maybe thirty minutes of audio before I had to shut it off and go to something else. I feel bad every time I stop that quickly, but not quite so bad when it's an audiobook... In any case, when I found out it was being made into a movie I gave it another shot. This time I made it several hours in before calling it quits.

While I feel like there is probably a really good story in The Martian, the writing style just wasn't what I prefer. I have a hard time when humor is mixed into another genre and it really didn't work in this situation. The main character was really unrealistic and unlikable, in my opinion. He seemed like the kind of person who would get on my nerves very quickly. Not to mention, he felt the need to constantly throw in his botany jargon, which I obviously don't get any use from as a non-botanist.

The setting of Mars really didn't seem all that terrifying either, which is really unfortunate. It had really great potential and maybe it got better as it went on! I'm assuming there were aliens later?

I'm really sorry that I didn't get further into this book because I really wanted to love it! I will definitely go see the movie and I honestly feel like it will translate better in that medium, at least for me.