Markus's Reviews > The Martian

Okay.

Now, you might think that's supposed to be the beginning of a long tirade about some pointless topic pulled out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, it's a description of the book.

But since I don't want to disappoint you, I'll go on to write a long tirade about some pointless topic pulled out of nowhere!

I finally finished this. More or less, anyway. I don't know if I was paying much attention by the end. But I'm glad I completed it. Because I thought it was okay. It was not a waste of my time. In any case, my goal was to read it before the movie. I didn't make it. I just watched the movie, and it was good. Really.

I said long ago that this sounded like a concept much better suited for a movie than a book. As far as I can see, I was right.

The book has strong positives and strong negatives, often connected. The protagonist, for instance. Mark Watney is a great guy. I like him. He's a fluent speaker of sarcasm and a recovered Dungeons & Dragons addict. He's nerdy, funny, confident and charismatic. And I couldn't care less about his fate. I sympathise with him, but he stirred absolutely no emotions in me aside from the occasional laugh at some witty remark.

Also, the writing style. The idea of presenting the story through recorded log entries is absolutely fantastic! And boring as hell... Even though I really liked Watney, his sarcasm and his science skills, I took a deep breath of relief when the book finally, finally switched to the POV of the guys at NASA.

And as far as quality goes, I'll have to place myself with the guys in the middle. Maybe this comes from having read so many different reviews beforehand? In any case, to all you people who thought this book was amazing: I can see why. To all you people who thought this book was horrible: I can see why.

Now, I'm not about to start criticising people's individual opinions here, but as far as I can see... If you loved this, you chose to overlook its negative qualities. If you hated this, you chose to overlook its positive qualities.

I actually liked it well enough. Which is just me saying I thought it was okay, but now using different words. To get more emphasis on it, you see. It's rather well-written. It's rather boring. It's rather funny. It's rather overdone. It's rather...

You might say "No Markus, this book was perfect." Or perhaps "No Markus, this book was disastrous." And that would be fine. Opinions are cool. But this is what I see when I look at the book.

It's first and foremost a feelgood story. And it works, it really does. But to me, this just seems like one of those funny, easy little books you read in between better novels. You can relax and enjoy it, but it's not a masterpiece.

The Martian is not a bad book. But in my opinion, it is very, very far from the highest reaches of science fiction.