The Martian by Andy Weir

Mark Watney is part of the Ares 3 crew on Mars when a dust storm causes havoc with their mission.  With the winds threatening to blow over their ride back, the crew evacuates the planet.  Unfortunately, Mark is blown away and injured in the attempt.  His crew leaves him thinking he is dead.  Mark awakens to discover himself injured and alone on Mars.  He doesn’t have enough food to last until the next manned mission to Mars and he has no way to communicate with NASA.  Can he survive?

 I loved this book.  It’s real science, science fiction.  I love that Mark had a great sense of humor and would work through all of his problems.  He may despair, but then he would do the math and work on how to solve the problem.  As things kept going wrong and Mark worked to survive, it made a great adventure story.  The story also showed NASA and the crew’s point of view as well.  Mark does like to swear a lot - you have been warned if you are not a fan of profanity.

 As an engineer and a fan of science fiction, I really really enjoyed this novel. I liked that Andy Weir had a section in the back to talk about how he put the novel together basically because of his obsession with space and going to mars.  He worked through what could go wrong and realized it could be a great novel.  I love that he actually put together a software program for the projection of the ship.   His details made the novel a step above pretty much all other sci fi I read.

I read The Martian as a “book set in space” for my summer library reading challenge, but I had it on my nightstand “to read” pile after The Martian placed last year’s PBS Great American Read.  I would love to read more novels like this one.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I have read Artemis by Andy Weir.  It was good, but not excellent as The Martian is.   The version I read had a reader’s guide and book club questions in it.  I need to fit this into one of my book clubs!

I watched the movie this past weekend with my family.  The kids were warned there would be swearing and a scary part at the beginning (ages 8 to 13).  They were entranced by the movie and really into Mark Watney’s journey.  My 13-year old son Kile is obsessed with NASA and the new mission to Mars that is being worked on.  He really enjoyed the movie and I am going to pass the book on to him.

Favorite Quotes:

 “But there’s a difference between knowing it and really experiencing it.”

“I mostly ignore them.  I don’t want to come off as arrogant here, but I’m the best botanist on this planet.”  - This made me laugh out loud!

“Love of science is universal across all cultures.”

“But really, they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out.  It might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true.”

Overall, The Martian is an excellent adventure novel with a great sense of humor.  I loved how it is actual “science” science fiction and all of the geeky details. A fast-paced survival story, The Martian is the best true science fiction that I’ve read in years.  Are there any other books out there that truly go through the science the way that The Martian does?

Book Source:  I think I bought this book for my husband for a present years ago and I’ve finally gotten around to reading it.