The Martian

OK, this is gonna piss off a lot of people...

This book is hugely over-rated; there are flaws in the structure, spelling (!) and science, it's nowhere near as funny as the hype suggested and the whole idea is entirely unoriginal. It also suffers from NASA-respect overdose; NASA is the organisation that killed a shuttle-ful of astronauts because they thought a known catastrophic-failure risk was worth taking in order to avoid a mildly embarrassing launch delay. (See [b:What Do You Care What Other People Think?|5548|What Do You Care What Other People Think?|Richard Feynman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1297913068s/5548.jpg|54737].)

Admittedly humour is subjective, but I found most of the humour in the book unsubtle and unfunny.

I was shocked to discover that our hero managed get himself impaled by part of an insect that was being used to communicate with a satellite in Mars orbit. What were insects doing on Mars? How do you use them for communications? Are they supposed to fly in to orbit or what? And how are you going to get impaled by antennae, whilst wearing a space-suit, anyway? They break far more easily than space-suits, or bare human skin for that matter.

No, no, you're saying, it was part of a radio communications rig, not part of an insect! Well, those are antennas not antennae, as any competent astronaut or engineer should know and moreover, any competent author or editor should know, too.

Then, apparently, explosive decompression means your body "kind of explodes." Bollocks, does it! You might rupture skin surface capillaries but that's as far as that goes; in space you'd asphyxiate to death. On Mars you'd freeze a lot faster than in space but the asphyxiation would probably still get you first.

Structural flaws? Well there are several passages detailing the history of a piece of cloth involved in a crisis that are entirely redundant because the whole thing is explained by one line of dialogue later. This type of thing goes on through-out.

Unoriginal? Well, to be fair, whilst there have been numerous "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" type stories (e.g. [b:Welcome to Mars|1407404|Welcome to Mars|James Blish|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387739337s/1407404.jpg|1397662]), the study of Mars moves on a-pace and a new one every generation, taking account of current knowledge isn't such a bad idea.

All that said, this is not a bad first novel, or the worst SF novel for egregious scientific errors, either. Really, it would have been better as a novella told entirely from the perspective of our stranded hero, though.

I read SciFi. Lots of it. However, unlike most people I started this with zero expectations. I have had a copy of it for almost 2.5 weeks, but didn't start reading it right away.

So, when I started it, I'd forgotten why I even had it in the first place. So I started it.

Almost 3-3.5 hours later, I was still reading. I was nearing halfway, and didn't want the book to end. I slept off. I didn't pick it up the next day, because I knew I'll get sucked right in and won't be able to get anything else done.

So yeah: awesome book. Hits the perfect spot between gritty-hard scifi, and the pop scifi. (I've skipped [b:Rendezvous with Rama|112537|Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405456427s/112537.jpg|1882772] mid-read because it was a bit too hard for me). Sure there might be some inaccuracies, or somethings that went straight over my head, but the writing is really good and it makes up for everything else.

My verdict: Go read it. Especially if you liked Gravity.

Aside: Just found out that Matt Damon has been signed up for the lead role. I liked him in his astronaut role in Interstellar, and can't wait to see this in theaters.

"It's kind of silly if you think about it. I'm in my space suit on Mars and I'm navigating with 16th century tools. But hey, they work".

Now this is the sort of story to get your teeth into. It reminded me of Journey Into Space with a modern twist and rather amusing hero to boot. It's not the sort of work that resounds deeply afterward; there's a lightness to the way it's written that lets you come away having finished it without any baggage. But while in there, you're really feeling it and wondering just how much more this guy can take.

"“I could find something sharp in here and poke a hole in the glove of my EVA suit. I could use the escaping air as a thruster and fly my way to you. The source of thrust would be on my arm, so I'd be able to direct it pretty easily.”
“How does he come up with this shit?” Martinez interjected.

“I can't see you having any control if you did that,” Lewis said. “You'd be eyeballing the intercept and using a thrust vector you can barely control.”

“I admit it's fatally dangerous,” Watney said. “But consider this: I'd get to fly around like Iron Man.”"


Everything's very contrived, of course, but that's just how this sort of story works. I can't quite finger what's so delightful: it's a bit cheesy in places, really, looking at it objectively. But for some reason, I was pretty hooked.

"“The Vehicular Airlock?” Johanssen said. “You want to... open it?”

“Plenty of air in the ship,” Lewis said. “It'd give us a good kick.”

“Ye-es...” Martinez said as he brought up the software. “And it might blow the nose of the ship off in the process.”

“Also, all the air would leave,” Johanssen felt compelled to add."

So? TO me, it's properly modernised pulp-era sci-fi for the now. I must admit, the ending didn't exactly surprise, and I must further add that the copy I was sent for free says "Redistribution of this e-book is permitted, so long as it is distributed for free." whereas the author's website now says it's being taken up by a big publisher and so is no longer available. Hey. Whatever the rules and rights of the thing, it was a well-told story and I'm rather glad I read it.