Book Review: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Publisher: Crown
Rating: DNF
Synopsis (via Goodreads): 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 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, 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'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. Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel that manages to read like a real-life survival tale.
Review: To all you Sci-Fi fans out there - I'm deeply sorry. I didn't finish reading this book. In fact, I stopped reading on page 146...
1. I don't read science fiction to begin with. I was assigned this book for Battle of the Books, otherwise I never would've picked it up in the first place.
2. I hate diary style writing. Totally understand that astronauts have to record everything they do in space in journals, but I got tired of hearing about Mark's poo potato garden.
3. I like Star Wars, but that doesn't make me a sci-fi nerd. It just makes me a nerd. And that's not a bad thing.
I couldn't get into this book for the life of me. I looked up a handful of reviews one day and those readers loved it, which made me question if something was wrong with me. Also, this book was made into A MOVIE.
I've heard the movie (for once) is better than the book, but I don't know if I'll be checking it out anytime soon. I need to keep myself as far away from Mark Watney as possible.
My left-brained nerd is crying.
ReplyDeleteBut no, I totally understand. This isn't the first time I've heard of this reaction. If the humor isn't particularly up your alley, you will probably like the movie so much more (and I suggest it--it actually doesn't suck!), but I preferred the book exponentially to the film.
Just...I can't help it. I'm a filthy-mouthed-R-rated-sarcastic-humor kind of gal. While I can appreciate the movie being cut down to a PG-13 rating to "make science cool for kids", I feel like all the humor was lost in exchange for drama. But that's just me; most people really loved it. :)