cornerfolds's Review of The Martian

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

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.

The Martian

by Andy Weir

Reviewed by cornerfolds on Apr 3, 2015

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