The Martian: A Review

If you like realistic hard sci-fi, (and can put up with a lot of cursing,) then you should definitely check out Andy Weir’s novel The Martian. (Yes, I totally planned this to coincide with the Project Hail Mary movie. Totally…)

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?

Amazon Blurb

Despite the fact that I’ve already seen the movie, this book still kept me in suspense, just wondering how on earth Mark was going to solve the latest challenge. This character gets insane things thrown at him and still works through it with incredible grit (and a great sense of gallows humor.)

There is, unfortunately, a ridiculous amount of language. Realistic, yes (I hear that amount regularly at work, which has definitely desensitized me to it a little,) but nonetheless a little tedious. There is also some crude language about genitalia, and a couple sexual inneudos. Violence is limited to the hero getting stabbed by a flying antenna during a dust storm and also getting smashed up again in another storm, but descriptions don’t go any further than blood and pain. Also, lots of descriptions of poop and pee, (but not under those politer names,) as they suddenly become survival tools like every other scrap Mark is left with. As well, there is mention of cannibalism and a husband and wife having sex, in conversation.

As with the last sci-fi novel I reviewed, The Martian has an extremely powerful character voice. Most of the story is his log entries, full of spunk and devil-may-care. I laughed out loud several times, which always gives a book points in my view.

The writing was also extremely realistic. Weir explained the science and Mark’s thought processes in a way that helped me still understand what was happening, even if I didn’t grasp every technical detail (and sometimes I just didn’t bother to slow down and try to grasp it, because I WANTED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!) Frankly, I breezed over some of the math – I find math dull and hard for my word-geared brain to process, so that’s just a sign of how literal and real-life the science in this book is. But in every situation, Mark had to find a way to survive with the things he had at his disposal and with his skills. It was much like Brandon Sanderson’s writing, where the characters use what they’ve already given, constantly finding new ways to work with it. There are no easy ways out, or helpful hand-outs from the author.

I also tend to find survival stories boring or depressing, but this one definitely wasn’t. Mark keeps up his spirits by sheer determination, and constantly gives humorous analysis and narration. Certainly a lot to learn on the writing craft side from this.

If you’re like me, you enjoy sci-fi but have a hard time finding good stuff. Sci-fi in years past has a tendency of being full of cheesiness, dumb aliens, and loose women. Even the things that look a tad more … intellectual, or have interesting concepts, contain sexual content, often in excess and on the screen.

But, minus the gigantic amount of language, this was quite enjoyable.

What about you? What sort of sci-fi do you like? Any wholesome recs for me? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Until next time, keep shining light into that dark.

Cheers!