The Martian
Author: Andrew Weir
Date Published: February 11, 2014
Date Read: August 25th, 2016
Amazon Movie Link: The Martian
Amazon Book Link: The Martian
Six days ag
o, 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 the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars’ surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, Mark 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’s not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength–he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.
As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive.
But Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.
One thing I love, is getting into the minds of people. It is one of the main reasons that books are entirely better than movies! (with the exception of The Road…I will explain later). The Martian is written primarily in diary form, where Mark Watley logs his stay on Mars through daily video/audio/written logs. Not only does this allow readers directly into his head, but it also gives us a hilarious and sarcastic view of his time. Being trapped on Mars, Watley is unconcerned with scientific jargon, and is mostly trying to keep from going insane, so he lets his personality shine through.
If you were a fan of the movie, then you will LOVE the book. Nothing is exceptionally different in the book, however you get so much more plot, so many more adventures and deadly close calls. He has to survive a number of scary situations, that he has to use wits, math, and science to survive. Math and Science!?! you say? Believe me, if someone told me I would be READING math and science, I would be like, “Bye Felicia,” however, he dumbs it down and explains it all in a relatively simple vernacular. Now, science geeks might be like, “Um, no, that cannot happen,” but to a norm (yea right, have you seen this blog?) like me, it was PERFECT.
If you were not a fan of the movie, then you might be a fan of the book. I say, give it a try! Many critiques of the movie is that it was “boring,” (I don’t understand that, but whatevs, to each their own). In my personal opinion (which this blog is!), the book is anything but boring. It has a lot more action and plot points than the movie. It was hilarious, suspenseful, and to an extent, full of action.
