Hardcover, 474 pages
Norwegian, Norsk, bokmål language
Published by Pantagruel.
The Martian is a 2011 science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. It was his debut novel under his own name. It was originally self-published in 2011; Crown Publishing purchased the rights and re-released it in 2014. The story follows an American astronaut, Mark Watney, as he becomes stranded alone on Mars in 2035 and must improvise in order to survive. The Martian, a film adaptation directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, was released in October 2015.
I have no idea why I didn’t read this book earlier. It is a fantastic story that kept me reading until I was done (a day and a half!).
I’ve always wanted to take a trip into space, but certainly not if it ends up like Mark’s.
I went in with the understanding this was a book about a bunch of whatif science problems so enjoyed it. The author did a good job of keeping things moving forward without getting too bogged down in detail. The structure of the story meant the protagonist was maybe the most upbeat superhuman I’ve met so it there was no emotional stakes but that was by design.
Content warning Minor spoilers about character-building
The Martian still rocks. It has everything that I love in those YouTube video where they walk you through their process of making a cool new machine (youtube.com/watch?v=vsTTXYxydOE&feature=share).
A few times throughout the book, Mark’s plans went out the airlock and he expresses his frustration and hopelessness to the log. Then in the next log, he’s back to working the problem. He decides to survive “off camera” and I think that we missed an essential part of his character.
And probably at least semi realistic? Didn't like it as much as Project Hail Mary by the same author. This sorta read as a sequence of "oh crap, another thing went wrong" problems, followed by solutions. I'm certain this is realistic - or even still overly optimistic, given what they were surviving through - but kinda made for an overly long, repetitive narrative. I suspect this is part of why they cut some of these out of the movie (and to save time, but also it got repetitive). Nevertheless, a fun read if you enjoy sci-fi that sticks close to contemporary science.
Divertido e nerdy, adorei!
Really intriguing tech short story. Read it twice.
