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XenofoneX's Reviews > The Martian
The Martian
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by
XenofoneX's review
bookshelves: favorites-sf-fantasy-horror-crime, ficgenre-science-fic-spec-fic
Jul 09, 2015
bookshelves: favorites-sf-fantasy-horror-crime, ficgenre-science-fic-spec-fic
28.5689% More Suspensful Than the Competition, Guaranteed!
Exactly how much drama -- measured in Drams, Hitchcocks, or SSU's (Swiss Suspense Units) -- can an author wring from a 'man vs. nature' theme, especially when the 'nature' in question is the dead red sand of Mars? Quite a bit, actually. That kind of speculation drives much of the action in Andy Weir's popular debut novel, 'The Martian'. If a (mostly) first-person novel that involves copious amounts of physics and math -- and ultra-detailed descriptions of the technology that any near-future Mars mission would likely use doesn't interest you -- then just put the Kindle down and slowly back away... fortunately, I was lying; it doesn't really involve any math or physics homework.
See? Matt Damon did all the math for us.
If you're cool with a bit of high-texposition, it's a definite green-light. Plot, you ask? Yep. Lots of it. After their Mars expedition is cut short due to a sandstorm, the mission's botanist and engineer, Mark Watney, is separated from the rest of the crew during the evacuation. His damaged suit sends physical telemetry informing them he's dead, and they are forced to leave without him. Determined to survive, he uses every scrap of knowledge and imagination he possesses to stretch his supplies out long enough for a rescue mission to reach him. Using whatever technology lies buried from Mars missions past and present, he becomes an accidental colonist, and the first true 'Martian'.
If you can't calculate the SSUs (or Hitchcocks) in Watney's account of using an iridium catalyst and an open-freakin'-flame to break hydrazine down to its elemental parts (in a risky attempt to make enough water for a makeshift hydroponic garden), you should probably pass on it. It's one of those novels, however, that defies the best publishing prognosticator's guesstimates about who the hell might like this book, and how many copies it might sell. Weir does an excellent job of keeping the story buoyant, never letting it get sunk by dry, scientific exposition.
Could you dumb it down a bit, Watney? We're not all fancy-pants scientologists and astronauts, ya know.
On the other hand, it is precisely this attention to detail that makes it so utterly convincing. Is it 100% accurate, based on current trends in space exploration technology? Fuck, I have no idea. It sounds good though. If it were 100% accurate, I guess, the book would have never been written, because the future of manned space missions looks kind of grim at the moment. This is a scientifically-literate and realistic SF love-letter to the spirit of exploration... work like this might be the best hope for resuscitating public interest in space travel.
In case you're wondering, the protagonist's first-person journal entries aren't the whole story; Weir alternates between 'Letters from Mars', a third-person account of the desperate rescue mission being organized on Earth, and his despondent crewmates, still making the long trip home onboard the shuttlecraft. The break in perspective provides added suspense, as Mark Watney's plight becomes big news around the world, and differing ideas about the best course of action lead to heated struggles and painful defeats.
Yep, my favorite. People doing interesting stuff.
This novel deserves all the praise and attention it's received, and I recommend it highly for anyone who loves 'realistic science fiction' -- 'The Martian' is proof-positive that the label is not an oxy-moron. The fact that Ridley-fucking-Scott (and I liked Prometheus, stupid part and all) adapted it for the screen, with Matt Damon playing Watney -- that's validation of a sort most debut SF novelists would take over a Hugo Award any day. I'm not surprised that a director like Scott snapped up the movie rights; with over 340 SSUs (or 0.8 Hitchcocks), he would have been crazy to let a lesser director have it. Fortunately for Weir and his fans, Scott did a great job.
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Exactly how much drama -- measured in Drams, Hitchcocks, or SSU's (Swiss Suspense Units) -- can an author wring from a 'man vs. nature' theme, especially when the 'nature' in question is the dead red sand of Mars? Quite a bit, actually. That kind of speculation drives much of the action in Andy Weir's popular debut novel, 'The Martian'. If a (mostly) first-person novel that involves copious amounts of physics and math -- and ultra-detailed descriptions of the technology that any near-future Mars mission would likely use doesn't interest you -- then just put the Kindle down and slowly back away... fortunately, I was lying; it doesn't really involve any math or physics homework.
See? Matt Damon did all the math for us.
If you're cool with a bit of high-texposition, it's a definite green-light. Plot, you ask? Yep. Lots of it. After their Mars expedition is cut short due to a sandstorm, the mission's botanist and engineer, Mark Watney, is separated from the rest of the crew during the evacuation. His damaged suit sends physical telemetry informing them he's dead, and they are forced to leave without him. Determined to survive, he uses every scrap of knowledge and imagination he possesses to stretch his supplies out long enough for a rescue mission to reach him. Using whatever technology lies buried from Mars missions past and present, he becomes an accidental colonist, and the first true 'Martian'.
If you can't calculate the SSUs (or Hitchcocks) in Watney's account of using an iridium catalyst and an open-freakin'-flame to break hydrazine down to its elemental parts (in a risky attempt to make enough water for a makeshift hydroponic garden), you should probably pass on it. It's one of those novels, however, that defies the best publishing prognosticator's guesstimates about who the hell might like this book, and how many copies it might sell. Weir does an excellent job of keeping the story buoyant, never letting it get sunk by dry, scientific exposition.
Could you dumb it down a bit, Watney? We're not all fancy-pants scientologists and astronauts, ya know.
On the other hand, it is precisely this attention to detail that makes it so utterly convincing. Is it 100% accurate, based on current trends in space exploration technology? Fuck, I have no idea. It sounds good though. If it were 100% accurate, I guess, the book would have never been written, because the future of manned space missions looks kind of grim at the moment. This is a scientifically-literate and realistic SF love-letter to the spirit of exploration... work like this might be the best hope for resuscitating public interest in space travel.
In case you're wondering, the protagonist's first-person journal entries aren't the whole story; Weir alternates between 'Letters from Mars', a third-person account of the desperate rescue mission being organized on Earth, and his despondent crewmates, still making the long trip home onboard the shuttlecraft. The break in perspective provides added suspense, as Mark Watney's plight becomes big news around the world, and differing ideas about the best course of action lead to heated struggles and painful defeats.
Yep, my favorite. People doing interesting stuff.
This novel deserves all the praise and attention it's received, and I recommend it highly for anyone who loves 'realistic science fiction' -- 'The Martian' is proof-positive that the label is not an oxy-moron. The fact that Ridley-fucking-Scott (and I liked Prometheus, stupid part and all) adapted it for the screen, with Matt Damon playing Watney -- that's validation of a sort most debut SF novelists would take over a Hugo Award any day. I'm not surprised that a director like Scott snapped up the movie rights; with over 340 SSUs (or 0.8 Hitchcocks), he would have been crazy to let a lesser director have it. Fortunately for Weir and his fans, Scott did a great job.
More Art-book Reviews
More Comic-book Reviews
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Started Reading
April 1, 2015
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Finished Reading
July 9, 2015
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I must get around to reading The Martian; I loved the movie.Out of interest, what 'stupid part' are you referring to in Prometheus? I liked the movie too but have seen and heard SO many people slag it off with seemingly countless stupid bits that I'm wondering which one got to you! :-)
Paul wrote: "I must get around to reading The Martian; I loved the movie.Out of interest, what 'stupid part' are you referring to in Prometheus? I liked the movie too but have seen and heard SO many people sl..."
Weeelll; the first one was the reason for the expedition. Cave paintings? Really? That was the only evidence they had for launching a trillion-dollar mission that would take them years to reach their goal? But... whatever. It's not so unbelievable I'm gonna start throwing things.
The whole part where two crew members somehow get lost and left behind to spend the night in the creepy alien spaceship -- everything about it made no sense. They should have predicted the storm; they shouldn't have let them split off from the group in the first place; if they were really scared, there's no way they'd leave the safety of the group to wander those fucked up corridors on their own.
Even though they saw the death hologram of the aliens running for their lives, and the door automatically decapitating one of them like a quarantine procedure was in effect -- none of them think there might still be something dangerous hanging around, or worries that they took their fucking helmets off and exposed themselves to it... even after the giant fucking head explodes.
Then they just wander out to chill and screw and mope. Buddy finds the greatest discovery of ALL TIME, and he says: 'it's just another tomb.' I felt like Rooni Mara should have bitch-slapped the whiny fuck. Poor you. You didn't get to play catch with your alien god-daddy.
There were one or two other minor things, like the complete pointlessness of the Guy Pearce character, who was a silly cliché to begin with... but never mind that. The point is, I still really liked that movie, and thought there were far more things they did incredibly well than they did poorly. The minor flaws have been blown out of proportion.
Sorry Paul, that turned into a rant. :-)
Eisnein wrote: "Sorry Paul, that turned into a rant. :-)"That's quite all right. It seems we see pretty much eye-to-eye on the movie. Flawed, undoubtedly, but I still enjoyed it.
I believe Guy Pearce's character is going to be in the sequel(s) and will either be de-aged somehow or appear in flashbacks to his younger days... Otherwise, why not just use an older actor to play an old man?
Yes! Exactly! If they did have an actual plan for that, it will all make better sense, and remove one or two of my minor complaints. I'm looking forward to the sequel.And for all the naysayers, I loved Aliens, but there were a few stupid things in that as well; they just didn't matter.
Heh... I have been almost universally scorned over the years for stating my honest opinion that Alien is better than Aliens...
THANK YOU! I'm so glad I'm not the only one who enjoyed "Prometheus" despite its weaknesses! Usually people throw rocks after me if I say that!
As for "defies the best publishing prognosticator's guesstimates about who the hell might like this book", I guess that wasn't much of a consideration when Weir first published it online, but since then, is the audience so very different from sci-fi in general? (I have no idea.)