Lian Tanner's Reviews > The Martian

Thank goodness someone else feels this way.

Hell wrote: "Thank goodness someone else feels this way."

It's horribly dispiriting reading all the glowing reviews, isn't it.

Yes, yes, yes. Spot on.

Absolutely spot on.

This obviously was just not a book for you. I did not find it boring in the slightest. If it's the swearing that made you think of a ten year old, then I suggest you think about where he is and what you'd be saying in that situation. If it were me, I'd be saying the exact same swear words he uses. Would you be completely composed while sitting in a hab all alone on a planet only 18 people have been to without anyone to help you? I didn't think so. The so called "diary" the author makes the story from is genius in my opinion. That's how astronauts log. They would send that back to nasa for them to look at and make sure everyone is doing as they are supposed to and keeping track of what the astronauts do. It gave Watson a sense of normality when doing logs, so he kept up with them even when people weren't watching. Just think about it.

No, Kat, I didn't have a problem with the swearing. I am sure in his situation I would be saying far worse things. It's the 'pirate-ninjas' and the 'yay!!!!!!' and all the exclamation marks that made me think of a ten year old. Obviously a lot of people found those comments funny. I found them annoying. This seems to be a book that polarises opinion. Most people love it. A few of us hate it. And never the twain shall meet.

FYI Kat, his name is Mark Watney, not Watson.

hahaha- do I want to read their diary? - hahaha

Completely agree. Wanted to know about how that kind of long-term isolation can make a human feel, and got a tech survival manual with some jokes.

Part of what endeared me to Watney was that he reminded me of myself - humor comes out in stressful situations. I saw some of his funnier lines as his way of psychologically dealing with an impossible situation and maintain his sanity.
I personally loved it, but to each their own!

I hadn't thought of it that way, Jon. Thanks for your input. I don't think I'll ever like this book, but it's interesting to see what struck other people about it.

Different people like different books. I loved this one. I hated THE GOLDFINCH, which won all sorts of awards. I only finished it because I wanted to know what happened to the title painting, and even that was a letdown! :)

I am so glad I agree with at least one reviewer:)

Jimena,which one do you agree with?

Lian is the reviewer I agree with. I hated the book and the 10 year old self cheering statements every paragraph. This is a book for a different crowd than me. I respect we all have different tastes.

Jimena, I love hearing from other people who hated this book. I've never had so many likes on a review as I have on this one. I know the book is (inexplicably) very popular, but there are also a lot of people who loathe it.

I don't think you should be allowed to rate a book if you don't finish it. Obviously you didn't like it, that's O.K. Don't read it. But why ruin the authors ratings? I could give lots of crappy books I haven't read 1 star, especially all those romance novels but I don't.

Good point, Timothy.

I disagree, Timothy. I would agree if you were just talking about books written in a genre that you automatically dislike. Like your example of romance novels. So if I disliked pretty much all SF, but read this because of all the hype, and still disliked it, I wouldn't rate it - that wouldn't be fair. But SF is one of my favourite genres, as is adventure stuff generally. As I said in my review, the IDEA of the book is terrific. But in my opinion its execution is so bad, and the writing is so dreadful, and every single one of the characters is so completely lacking in any sort of real character, that I couldn't bear to keep reading. And that DOES deserve a review. In fact, that's what Goodreads is for. People who loved The Martian now know that they shouldn't take any notice of my reviews, because our tastes don't coincide. People who loathed it know that they might like other books I like.

Hi Lian,
Thanks for the quick response. You have some good arguments so I can't disagree with you on that. I do disagree about the writing and the character development. It's very sparse on character but that's what I like about it. It let's you the reader fill in the gaps. I feel like I know exactly what type of person Mark is just from the way he talks and acts. I don't need 5 chapters of his personal life before or his bad relationship with his dad to enjoy his adventure on Mars. I read the whole thing in like 5 days. Lately I've been reading a lot of lengthy books where they throw in all this bad personal history and it's kind of predictable and boring. I recently read The forever War which is on Science Fictions top 50 lists and I didn't think it was anything special(of course if I had read it in the 70's I might have) but I still enjoyed it. On the other had I've been reading Great Expectations for months now and although the writing is fantastic I'm bored to death after 1 to 3 chapters and I have to stop. What science fiction book is your favorite? If it's on my to-read list I'll read it next. I would recommend the Kiln people by David Brin, if you havn't read it. It's a great idea and execution is B+ ( I didn't like his other books though. Dolphins in space? What was he thinking.

Hi Timothy, I know what you mean about Great Expectations. I did it at school years ago, and have never liked it. As you say, the writing is fantastic, but the book itself easily slips into being boring. And I thought Pip was way too whiny to like. But when I talk about character development, I really don't mean lots of lengthy stuff about their background and suchlike. I just want someone to feel real to me, and that only takes a few lines here and there. In The Martian, I never felt as if the main character was really afraid for his life. And I didn't feel as if all that time on Mars changed him either - whereas I suspect that in real life it would change someone hugely. Having said that, I'm glad you enjoyed the book - such a boring world it would be if we all liked the same books. Probably my favourite SF series is the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. If you're interested in it, start with The Warrior's Apprentice. It says it's #2 in the series, but it's the best place to start - and if you like it you can always go back to the first book which is about the main character's parents. I haven't tried anything by David Brin - thanks for the recommendation - I shall give it a go. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Hi Lian,

Thanks for the recommend I'll give it a try. This morning I'm thinking that since I've read hundreds of movie scripts that may affect the way I think of books. The martian reads more like a movie script and I'm totally fine with that because I'm used to reading scripts and filling in the gaps and visualizing the movie. That's probably why the movie companies picked it up so fast, they knew it would be easy to adapt.

Anyway, have a great day!

Whoa! Turns out that book was on my to read shelf!!! You are not the first person to recommend it! It must be good!!

Aha, that makes sense, what you say about the movie script. I've seen it suggested somewhere else that the author wrote it with a movie in mind. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Good luck with Miles Vorkosigan - he's a terrific character - I hope you enjoy him!

Your review mirrors my thoughts, exactly.

The dialog is killing me. These people are supposed to be intelligent people—I’d imagine their vocabularies would be more robust. There are lots of “Ums” and “hmmms” and “fucks.” Professionals probably try to keep the F-bomb under wraps while at work. I assume the folks at NASA are professionals. The technical is a bit over the top. It’s fascinating until it’s not. Story is good—some of the execution makes me bored.

Sarah wrote: "The dialog is killing me. These people are supposed to be intelligent people—I’d imagine their vocabularies would be more robust. There are lots of “Ums” and “hmmms” and “fucks.” Professionals prob..."
The dialogue is dreadful. It's all part of the lack of character development, I think.

I read this many years after you did, and you essentially described the essence of this dreadful piece of fiction. I forced myself to finish it. It was torture.

Shyue Chou wrote: "I read this many years after you did, and you essentially described the essence of this dreadful piece of fiction. I forced myself to finish it. It was torture."
Totally agree. I still have no idea why so many people loved it.

THIS! The tone was so awful

Janice wrote: "THIS! The tone was so awful"
It really was. I'm still amazed that so many people love this book.

Thank you.

Perfect !