Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone. with no way to signal Earth that he's alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength—he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using …
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone. with no way to signal Earth that he's alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength—he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatch- ing a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.
As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive.
But Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.
Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last. yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to- put-down suspense novel that manages tc read like a real-life survival tale.
--front flap
This is a solid sci-fi heist that relies on an old-fashioned what-if premise: What would happen if quantum computers existed, and how long would it take before someone figured out the criminal applications?
In this case, an enterprising engineer figures out how to defeat the random number generators at a casino and complications ensue. There isn’t a lot of plot to this story, since it’s mostly a thought experiment hung on a little bit of narrative, but the execution is well-done and I enjoyed reading it.
Randomize wasn’t amazing, but it was possibly my favorite from the Forward collection so far.
Great book. I've always loved "survival" stories like Hatchet and Into the Wild. This is an extreme survival story that takes place on Mars. What's not to love? Compared to the movie, I would say the book is about equal (that is to say, I love them both).
This is a wonderful adventure filled with risk and humor (sarcasm). The hero is inventive, creative and humble. Yes, the story is a bit geeky.... but it left me wanting more.
I had heard quite a lot about the movie and honestly, it didn't seem interesting to me. However, as soon as I had heard that it was based on a book, I started to look into it and thought that I would give it a shot.
I must say that when I usually read a book, I don't read more than 50–100 pages at a given time. This book however managed to get my attention which meant I was able to finish it within just a day. The main reason for this is, in my opinion, the main protagonist's personality which I thought really spoke to me. His style of writing is often-times very amusing which had me laugh a good couple of times whilst reading, yet he also manages to convey a tone of urgency and seriousness within all the humour. I also liked the detailed descriptions of the …
I had heard quite a lot about the movie and honestly, it didn't seem interesting to me. However, as soon as I had heard that it was based on a book, I started to look into it and thought that I would give it a shot.
I must say that when I usually read a book, I don't read more than 50–100 pages at a given time. This book however managed to get my attention which meant I was able to finish it within just a day. The main reason for this is, in my opinion, the main protagonist's personality which I thought really spoke to me. His style of writing is often-times very amusing which had me laugh a good couple of times whilst reading, yet he also manages to convey a tone of urgency and seriousness within all the humour. I also liked the detailed descriptions of the technology used on Mars and how he managed to fix it if it happened to break — which it turns out is more than just a handful of times!
However, despite all of this, I must say that the book also had its weak spots — mainly the parts that play on Earth. For those who haven't read the book, the book plays part on both Mars — focussing on the main protagonist — and on Earth — focussing on them trying to communicate with the main protagonist and rescuing him. While reading the parts that play on Earth I would frequently find myself getting rather bored and hoping that we would soon be talking about what is happening back on Mars again. My main problem with the Earth parts is the fact that I found all the characters, except for the main protagonist, rather dull and boring. This is probably the reason I didn't manage to finish this book in one session, as the parts that play on Earth increase in length and number near the middle of the book.
All in all however, I would say that this has been the best SciFi book I've read so far and I would definitely recommend fans of SciFi to read it!
What a book. Action packed, and full of characterization. Granted, I didn't understand all of the Science aspects, but I did want to know what happened. I knew Mark wasn't going to die, else other readers wouldn't have reviewed the book as highly as they did.
When an intense storm hits the US astronauts recently arrived on Mars, the conditions compel them to leave shortly after. As they make their way to their departure vessel, Mark Watney is separated, his space suit ruptured, and all communication is lost. After a brief, desperate search in the face of the Martian storm, he is presumed dead and the remainder of the crew leaves, barely making it. Watney is not dead, and finds himself now alone on Mars, with no method of communication, that having left with his crewmates.
This story is the exciting and fascinating story of how the resourceful botanist finds himself stranded, and his desperate struggle to survive on Mars, not knowing if leaving will ever be an option. I enjoyed his personality, resourcefulness, and his optimism in conditions where many people would lie down and give up. There were also fascinating scientific references, detailing how …
When an intense storm hits the US astronauts recently arrived on Mars, the conditions compel them to leave shortly after. As they make their way to their departure vessel, Mark Watney is separated, his space suit ruptured, and all communication is lost. After a brief, desperate search in the face of the Martian storm, he is presumed dead and the remainder of the crew leaves, barely making it. Watney is not dead, and finds himself now alone on Mars, with no method of communication, that having left with his crewmates.
This story is the exciting and fascinating story of how the resourceful botanist finds himself stranded, and his desperate struggle to survive on Mars, not knowing if leaving will ever be an option. I enjoyed his personality, resourcefulness, and his optimism in conditions where many people would lie down and give up. There were also fascinating scientific references, detailing how different life would be on another planet. This was definitely a faster read, and by the end I couldn't put it down.
Space is fascinating. Space is fascinating because it is big and because it's filled with unknown stuff and it is fascinating because it is profoundly isolating. Most sci-fi can only handle at most two of those things. In fact, most sci-fi focuses on disposing of the isolation of space as quickly as possible. In contrast, The Martian dials up isolation and down exploration. This shouldn't work, but it does and it's awesome.
The whole book reads kind of like a merge of an escape the room game and an episode of MacGyver, except set on Mars. The entire first sequence is Mark trying to do the algebra and botany to figure out how to create a farm from his own stool and the provisions in his emergency kit. The utter solitude of Mark on Mars is omnipresent for the first third of the book, and I really enjoyed contemplating that. …
Space is fascinating. Space is fascinating because it is big and because it's filled with unknown stuff and it is fascinating because it is profoundly isolating. Most sci-fi can only handle at most two of those things. In fact, most sci-fi focuses on disposing of the isolation of space as quickly as possible. In contrast, The Martian dials up isolation and down exploration. This shouldn't work, but it does and it's awesome.
The whole book reads kind of like a merge of an escape the room game and an episode of MacGyver, except set on Mars. The entire first sequence is Mark trying to do the algebra and botany to figure out how to create a farm from his own stool and the provisions in his emergency kit. The utter solitude of Mark on Mars is omnipresent for the first third of the book, and I really enjoyed contemplating that. If your speed is more space opera, this runs slow and technical. There's a lot of math and a lot of science and a lot of facts about Mars.
It's also really novel and deeply enjoyable to read a book where the conflicts are people versus the environment. All of the characters in this book (and eventually, there is more than one) get along and work as a team. On the one hand, Weir cares little for his characters and most of them read flat, on the other hand, it really optimizes the exploration of what really smart people, working together at their best can accomplish. I have no freaking clue how they made this into an enjoyable movie, BTW, maybe watching that should go on to my to-do list.
Among other good things, this book uses numbers to create suspense more effectively than any other I can recall. It takes methodical problem solving, something I love, and lends it drama.
I didn't cry or anything... I mean, not much. This book was amazing. I can't imagine reading through all that science, but man the audiobook was fantastic! Would recommend to any and everyone. This story goes beyond science fiction.
This book deserves all its praise. I had heard a lot about it, all good, from people I trust in their taste of books. So I bought it and read it.
What an amazing trip to and on Mars. What a lot of cleverness. As a friend said, this is MacGyver external_link on an interplanetary scale. A fabulous read, for certain. I loved the log entries and the fuss on Earth. I can recommend this book to anyone who loves SciFi and hasn't read it yet.
The only thing I wonder about are all those potatoes.
Solid and fun read. Definitely a quick page-turner. Also definitely skin-deep, but if you're into fun descriptions of problem solving, you'll have fun with this.
