Emily May's Reviews > The Martian
The Martian
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First off, welcome to 2015!
Let's kick this year off with a review of a book about a guy who deserves to survive more than anyone I've ever known. This book has been lurking around in my Goodreads feed, gaining hype, and all the positive reviews from my friends eventually got too much for me - so I had to check this out for myself. I'm glad I gave in.
The Martian has so many good things going for it. First and foremost, it is a classic tale of survival against very huge odds. In this book, Mark Watney becomes one of the first people to walk on Mars but after an accident causes him to be believed dead and abandoned by his crew, it looks like he will be the first person to die there. Like Cast Away x a million, Mark must battle extremely foreign territory, the likelihood of starvation, and the possibility of technical failures.
It's pretty hard to see an outcome where he isn't totally screwed.
The best thing about this book is the juxtaposition between the very scientific nature of everything Mark must do to survive - gave me a renewed level of respect for how damn smart astronauts have to be - and his absolutely wonderful personality. Mark maintains his sense of humour throughout every hardship he faces - it's pretty much impossible to not be charmed by him.
Here are some quotes:
“The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”
“As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.”
This book is part "serious" science-fiction, part an hilariously dark comedy that imagines a horrifying situation infused with humour and the overwhelming human desire to stay alive. It's hard to imagine that anyone who picks this up won't find themselves dragged into Mark's world, desperately needing to know what will happen to him.
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Let's kick this year off with a review of a book about a guy who deserves to survive more than anyone I've ever known. This book has been lurking around in my Goodreads feed, gaining hype, and all the positive reviews from my friends eventually got too much for me - so I had to check this out for myself. I'm glad I gave in.
The Martian has so many good things going for it. First and foremost, it is a classic tale of survival against very huge odds. In this book, Mark Watney becomes one of the first people to walk on Mars but after an accident causes him to be believed dead and abandoned by his crew, it looks like he will be the first person to die there. Like Cast Away x a million, Mark must battle extremely foreign territory, the likelihood of starvation, and the possibility of technical failures.
It's pretty hard to see an outcome where he isn't totally screwed.
The best thing about this book is the juxtaposition between the very scientific nature of everything Mark must do to survive - gave me a renewed level of respect for how damn smart astronauts have to be - and his absolutely wonderful personality. Mark maintains his sense of humour throughout every hardship he faces - it's pretty much impossible to not be charmed by him.
Here are some quotes:
“The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”
“As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.”
This book is part "serious" science-fiction, part an hilariously dark comedy that imagines a horrifying situation infused with humour and the overwhelming human desire to stay alive. It's hard to imagine that anyone who picks this up won't find themselves dragged into Mark's world, desperately needing to know what will happen to him.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
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Reading Progress
December 2, 2014
– Shelved
December 12, 2014
–
Started Reading
January 1, 2015
–
Finished Reading
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message 1:
by
Vanessa
(new)
-
rated it 3 stars
Dec 13, 2014 02:37PM
![Vanessa J.](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1468102148p1/19590155.jpg)
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it's pretty much impossible to not be charmed by him.
Yes, I absolutely agree with this. :)
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Thanks for the great review, and happy New Year!
![Mark Howe](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1374774389p1/22520880.jpg)
![Emily May](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1705854088p1/4622890.jpg)
Thanks for the great review, and happy New Year!"
Thank you! Happy new year :) (view spoiler)
![Emily May](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1705854088p1/4622890.jpg)
![Scott Marlowe](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1639507961p1/1365845.jpg)
I powered through and finished it last night. Very enjoyable read! There were quite a few laugh out loud moments, but also some where I thought we were getting a bit too adolescent. But, I don't finish books I don't like, so this one's a winner. Enough that I've recommended it to my wife to read.
![Ariel](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1322948877p1/2360550.jpg)
The sense of humor was really the best part. I finally have an ereader where highlighting is easy, and I highlighted the Aquaman line, as well as the bit above it (trying not to spoil anything, though this was early in the book).
I have to admit I did skim a little of the pure science explanations, but was continually impressed at the amount of work and research the author put into this great book.
Thanks, Emily! Another book that I found because of you. :)
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![Emily May](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1705854088p1/4622890.jpg)
Thank you, Evan :) Hope you enjoy it too!
![Kaisa](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
Because it is.
![Emily May](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1705854088p1/4622890.jpg)
Thank you, but it doesn't personally change things for me. I already read the articles criticising the scientific aspect, but it didn't bug me so much here. Maybe it would bother me more if it was a field I studied/worked in and felt attached to, but I went into this novel willing to suspend disbelief so it was easy to do that.
In reality, there would have been no surviving this situation because Mark would have died of cancer due to the radiation. But it was fun to imagine the possibility of a man surviving the impossible :)
![Kaisa](https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
For example, if you have 115,500 total calories and your metabolism is 1,500 cal/day, you can easily calculate that you have enough calories to last exactly 77 days, not 76 like the Martian/Mark tells us. Also a high school student knows or should know that, if one molecule of a liquid substance has enough atoms to produce 2 molecules of water, it doesn't mean that one liter of that substance will produce 2 liters of water. The conversion between molecules and liters are not this straightforward and an engineer/botanist would know that as a technical writer should. There is absolutely no need for these errors, they don’t advance the plot and they're not required to justify anything. Maybe it's my background talking but although I have no problems with sci-fi books based on unbelievable, far-stretched concepts, I have huge problems with sloppy calculations.
![Tiffany L. Dowell](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1685519037p1/29517448.jpg)
![Emily May](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1705854088p1/4622890.jpg)
Yes, exactly. I am the kind of person who copes in exactly that way. When I'm struggling most, I always turn to humour.