Review: The Martian
My rating: [rating=5]
Summary:
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?
Review:
(I got a copy of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)
One of the best books I’ve read this year. Not devoid of flaws, but you know how sometimes, you’ll love a book in spite of those? That was one such time for me.
What I definitely liked:
Mark Watney is basically MacGyver stranded on Mars, trying to survive with whatever remains the Ares 3 crew left behind when they had to abort the mission and leave in a hurry. (Maybe readers who didn’t like that show won’t like this comparison either, but hey, I was 15 the last time I watched it, and I used to love it, so in this review, it’s going to mean “good”.) Surviving out of sheer dumb luck, when everybody believed him utterly lost and, well, dead, Mark has to use every bit of knowledge to make lemonade with all the Martian lemons he’s being thrown at. And there are a lot, from defective materials to his own mistakes. Fortunately, he’s both an engineer and a botanist, which means he does have enough know-how to improvise (as well as try to grow stuff; here go the first Martian potatoes). Unfortunately, he’s not a chemist or whatever else, so he also has to do things through trial and error. And while his predicament is absolutely horrible, since anything can go wrong anytime, it’s also funny and awesome.
Throughout the story, Mark’s voice is highly entertaining. Here’s a man who was picked for his skills, but also for his optimism and sense of humour, in the hopes that he’d be the social glue among the crew—who had to live together in close quarters for the long trip to and fro, as well as on Mars itself. And I think his way of apprehending his many problems was just as much a life-saver as his knowledge, because even though he sometimes lost it, it never lasted for long, and he went back to work soon after. This may seem weird and unbelievable to some, but in a way, I could relate to his character, although not to a complete extent, of course. (I’m the kind of person who’ll scream and run in circles for two minutes, out of panic, then will suddenly calm down and say “OK, back to solving that problem now; and if I can do so while throwing in some bawdy joke, I’ll do.” I kid you not.) So, yes, somewhat unbelievable—and somehow, I just couldn’t care less. I rooted for that character. I wanted him to survive. Period.
Simply put, this book was inventive and fun. I’m still laughing, thinking back to some of Mark’s antics:
He turned back to Venkat. “I wonder what he’s thinking right now.”
LOG ENTRY: SOL 61
How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.
I couldn’t possibly comment. I’ve been known for worse silly random thoughts than that.
Also, please watch your language. Everything you type is being broadcast live all over the world.
[12:15] WATNEY: Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)
So totally the kind of crap I’d pull as well, just for the sake of light trolling.
I chipped his sacred religious item into long splinters using a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. I figure if there’s a God, He won’t mind, considering the situation I’m in.
If ruining the only religious icon I have leaves me vulnerable to Martian vampires, I’ll have to risk it.
That one, too, cracked me up.
Also, there was a lot of hope in this book, in that Mark wasn’t left to rot and die. People wanted him to survive. His crew wanted to believe that he could make it, that they could help—and they were a great bunch of girls and guys, ifyou like thespace cowboy type. Even other countries helped, even though there wasn’t that much in it for them. Too good to be true? Perhaps. But also beautiful, a beautiful lesson in how sometimes, humanity is still able to unite. Not to mention the bigger-than-life side of this novel: a coming back to older times, to a period when we thought Space was at the tip of our fingers. I’m a child of the eighties, and I still remember my own ideas back then. Colonies on the moon and Mars. Flying cars by year 2000. The space programs progressing to such an extent that we’d travel far, far away by the time I’d be an adult. “The Martian” brought me back to such thoughts: a man able to survive for so long with not the best means, wouldn’t his experience help further the next missions, allow people to believe that so much more could be done, that they could push boundaries a little further?
Potentially problematic:
The scientific explanations, which were to my liking, but may not be to other readers’. My own background in that regard isn’t very developed, so I can’t tell if everything was exact; at least, it seemed to me that things were very well-researched, and made sense (both to me as a neophyte, and when it comes to “science in general”). I enjoyed reading about how exactly Mark came to this or that solution. Like when he found a way to make water. Also hilarious, by the way:
Nitrogen: 22 percent. Oxygen: 9 percent. Hydrogen: 64 percent.
I’ve been hiding here in the rover ever since.
It’s Hydrogenville in the Hab.
There’s no deep psychological development here. Normally, this would be a problem for me, but not here. I can’t explain why. Mark’s humour? The way people banded to try and save him? As said above, I rooted for him. The author made him so likeable I just didn’t care about the rest.
The shift from 1st to 3rd person. It was a little unsettling. On the other hand, I don’t really hold it as a flaw, because I understand why it was done, and I couldn’t see any other way to achieve the same thing. Mark’s narrative just wouldn’t be the same in 3rd person; and if everything was in 1st person, then we’d have no means to see what was happening on Earth, nor what was set in motion to help Mark. This is why I’m not knocking down a star. Besides, at least in this book, I can clearly understand the reasoning behind it (other books I read used the same kind of switch, but with no apparent reason, so…).
As you can see, the last two paragraphs would logically be flaws. But, once again: I don’t care. This novel blew my mind, plain and simple.