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Lisa of Troy's Reviews > The Martian
The Martian
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Mark Watney is having a very bad day. He is on the third mission to Mars when his crew, presuming he is dead, leaves him behind. How will Mark stay alive?
After reading Project Hail Mary, I just had to give this a go. The prose is non-pretentious and fun. However, I felt like this was the warm-up novel for Project Hail Mary. The book seemed a bit off in its pacing. For the first 25% of the book, there were too many calculations. As the book progressed, it became funnier (ugh that’s a weird word). Additionally, this book seemed very unemotional. Mark never talks about the things that he wouldn’t get to do if he died, and he does not ruminate on any of his Earthly friendships. In Project Hail Mary, the funny started much earlier, and it pulled on my heartstrings a bit more.
Fun tip: If you get the audiobook, there are some bonus chapters including somewhat of an epilogue.
Overall, a really solid book, but if you are short on time, try Project Hail Mary.
2024 Reading Schedule
Jan Middlemarch
Feb The Grapes of Wrath
Mar Oliver Twist
Apr Madame Bovary
May A Clockwork Orange
Jun Possession
Jul The Folk of the Faraway Tree Collection
Aug Crime and Punishment
Sep Heart of Darkness
Oct Moby-Dick
Nov Far From the Madding Crowd
Dec A Tale of Two Cities
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After reading Project Hail Mary, I just had to give this a go. The prose is non-pretentious and fun. However, I felt like this was the warm-up novel for Project Hail Mary. The book seemed a bit off in its pacing. For the first 25% of the book, there were too many calculations. As the book progressed, it became funnier (ugh that’s a weird word). Additionally, this book seemed very unemotional. Mark never talks about the things that he wouldn’t get to do if he died, and he does not ruminate on any of his Earthly friendships. In Project Hail Mary, the funny started much earlier, and it pulled on my heartstrings a bit more.
Fun tip: If you get the audiobook, there are some bonus chapters including somewhat of an epilogue.
Overall, a really solid book, but if you are short on time, try Project Hail Mary.
2024 Reading Schedule
Jan Middlemarch
Feb The Grapes of Wrath
Mar Oliver Twist
Apr Madame Bovary
May A Clockwork Orange
Jun Possession
Jul The Folk of the Faraway Tree Collection
Aug Crime and Punishment
Sep Heart of Darkness
Oct Moby-Dick
Nov Far From the Madding Crowd
Dec A Tale of Two Cities
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta
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The Martian.
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Reading Progress
March 14, 2022
– Shelved
March 24, 2022
–
Started Reading
March 28, 2022
–
Finished Reading
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Jaclyn
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rated it 3 stars
Mar 28, 2022 06:23AM
I definitely agree with you. I think Project Hail Mary is the superior story.
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A lovely review Lisa! Glad it was a winner!!
Fantastic review Lisa. 💖 Project Hail Mary is coming up for one of my next reads. I'm looking forward to it. 😊
Thanks, Jaclyn! Hope you are enjoying your current read! :)
Thanks, Tina! It was definitely a winner! Hope you are enjoying your week of reading! :)
Thanks, Jon! Hope you are enjoying your current read!
Thanks, Misty! Really appreciate all of your support for my content! Hope you are enjoying your current read! :)
Picked this one up from a used book store earlier this year.
Nice review! Glad you enjoyed it! I still need to watch the movie - someday. Whitney...or Watney, lol. 😁
Thanks, RedemptionDenied! Good catch! Yeah, I meant Watney. Oops.
I cannot agree completely. Both books are not meant to be just funny. It's SF and there is humor in it, but in SF the S(cience) is the most important part, not the humor. I can agree on finding Project Hail Mary a nicer book, because it's very difficult to write about humans and aliens and in this book that's done very, very well. But I just loved the (impossible) science ;-).
There are a lot of sci fi books that don't have a huge amount of calculations in them such as Dune and His Dark Materials. I wasn't opposed to some calculations, but it was overly done for my taste. People who really love running calculations will probably love it. As for me, I learned Excel so that I could have a computer do it for me. :)
Whitney Erwin wrote: "Wonderful review, Lisa!"Thanks, Whitney! Hope you are enjoying your current read! :)
One of my favorite books from a couple of years ago. Pleasantly surprised. But I like hard f2f with lots of problem solving. At least he was not as dry as say Hal Clement. Enjoyed the movie too although it took some liberties.
AnnMarie wrote: "Picked this one up from a used book store earlier this year."Hope you enjoy this as much as I did! :)
The choice to not dive into Mark‘s emotions made the book much less interesting to me. I mean, come on, the guy is in a life and death situation!
On the one hand, I totally 100% agree with you, Robert. Recently, I watched a documentary about The Challenger explosion. I was curious to know if anyone could have survived the explosion. It was later discovered that the engineers of the group turned on three of the emergency oxygen systems. However, the crew was never even trained to use these systems in this way. Of course, the ship was blasted apart, and all on board sadly perished. But isn't it really amazing to think that these engineers who were literally seconds from death had the mental processing power to stay level headed, think of a creative solution, and execute? So maybe Mark is just like a Challenger engineer? I, of course, would have screamed, "Oh my gosh! We're going to die!!!!!! AHHH!!!!" But that's why I'm not an astronaut. :)
Good review, but funny that you liked this LESS than Hail Mary, which is the opposite of most reviewers. Have you seen the movie? It varies from the the book in some goofy ways, but is still good.
I haven't seen either movie! I will have to check it out! I never know what to watch.
Sorry, it doesn't appeals to me. Besides my last Hail Mary project ended in imminent excommunication and threats to eternal doom in Hell. Not that I ever was part of the communion of believers, even so...😈
After reading your review as well as the book description, I suspect that the film, which I really enjoyed, was a very close match - and perhaps in places - excelled in capturing the humor born of adversity that fits so perfectly in such a unique setting. Nearly a first for me, seeing the film before reading the book, I'm now adding it to my want to read list. Thanks for the review.
Glad you enjoyed this Lisa! It seems interesting!
I think the difference is that Watney signed up for the mission knowing he might die. While Grace was kidnapped and sent on the mission against his will
I DNF Project Hail Mary because it drove me insane! So many calculations and quantum physics. I gave up. Glad you enjoyed most of it. Excellent review, Lisa 😊
I agree with your review on all points, Lisa. Thanks for your review.
