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
One of those very hard to put down suspenseful books that just keeps you engaged till the very end... and then you are so disappointed it ended that you have to go back and repeat the good bits in case you missed anything! Full of lots of science but not in an overwhelming way, and a really great and realistic scenario that remains gripping till the last word. Look forward to seeing the movie version now to compare!
Un titre à faire bondir mon petit cœur ! La réputation de ce roman de Hard SF le précédant, je n’ai pas hésité à me jeter dessus, d’autant plus que la sortie du film était imminente, il me fallait ABSOLUMENT le livre AVANT. Je compte désormais les jours avant sa sortie. Il ne me sera pas possible, dans mon bled où les cinémas sont aussi rares que les librairies, de le voir en VO, mais le spectacle annoncé me semble valoir le sacrifice, quitte à le revoir plus tard.
Nous avons donc ici un roman classé Thriller, mais il s’agit bien de Hard SF, dans un contexte de survie extrême. Le personnage de Mark Watney se retrouve livré à lui-même sur Mars, avec pour seul abri l’Habitat prévu pour 31 jours. La mission suivante, Arès 4, étant prévue 4 ans plus tard, il va devoir prolonger la durée de vie …
Un titre à faire bondir mon petit cœur ! La réputation de ce roman de Hard SF le précédant, je n’ai pas hésité à me jeter dessus, d’autant plus que la sortie du film était imminente, il me fallait ABSOLUMENT le livre AVANT. Je compte désormais les jours avant sa sortie. Il ne me sera pas possible, dans mon bled où les cinémas sont aussi rares que les librairies, de le voir en VO, mais le spectacle annoncé me semble valoir le sacrifice, quitte à le revoir plus tard.
Nous avons donc ici un roman classé Thriller, mais il s’agit bien de Hard SF, dans un contexte de survie extrême. Le personnage de Mark Watney se retrouve livré à lui-même sur Mars, avec pour seul abri l’Habitat prévu pour 31 jours. La mission suivante, Arès 4, étant prévue 4 ans plus tard, il va devoir prolonger la durée de vie de l’Habitat et subvenir à ses besoins les plus basiques. Fabrication d’air, de nourriture, recyclages en tous genres. [La suite sur mon blog, merci :)]
So much was done so well in this book. The narrative jumps keep you on your toes, the blended first person and third person narratives cover the story unfolding in multiple places. The pacing is amazing. I really couldn't put this book down. I loved it.
A good old-fashioned space adventure story of the sort you might have read as a kid. The technological details feel very realistic, and that's the strong point of the book: making a "shipwrecked on Mars" story seem plausible.
On the other hand, the characters are two-dimensional comic book figures, and the plot is just one can-he-get-out-of-this-fix after another. It's pretty fluffy stuff.
Man, what a blast. I read a description that this book was heaven for people who wished that Apollo 13 was entirely that bit where they go "well we have to connect this to that and flip this, and then...", and that's the best description I have. But it's also funny, entertaining, suspenseful, and even heartwarming. Good job, Andy Weir. Movie, here I come.
Man, what a blast. I read a description that this book was heaven for people who wished that Apollo 13 was entirely that bit where they go "well we have to connect this to that and flip this, and then...", and that's the best description I have. But it's also funny, entertaining, suspenseful, and even heartwarming. Good job, Andy Weir. Movie, here I come.
Man, what a blast. I read a description that this book was heaven for people who wished that Apollo 13 was entirely that bit where they go "well we have to connect this to that and flip this, and then...", and that's the best description I have. But it's also funny, entertaining, suspenseful, and even heartwarming. Good job, Andy Weir. Movie, here I come.
More like a 3.75, but I'm rounding up. Honestly, my eyes glazed over a little when Mark got into his descriptions of how he was fixing things. That said, I thought he was hilarious and really enjoyed the vast majority of this book. I kind of rushed the end because I NEEDED TO KNOW, so I think at some point I'll reread this and give myself more of a chance to think about it. So so excited to see the movie; I really believe this will be an amazing adaptation.
This has gotten lots of hype. But it is funny and a page turner. It is totally geeky, filled with reasonably accurate science. Who would have thought that pages and pages of science calculations, showing your work, could be dramatic and push a plot driving along.
With all the hype around this book, and the upcoming movie releasing on the 2nd of October, I wanted to read the book before seeing the film. Turns out I could have started reading on 1st Oct because the book is pretty much un-put-down-able. The XKCD comic sums it up best: xkcd.com/1536/
The Martian is very well written, and very easy to read. The story is convincing, but extremely accessible even though it does from time to time go into the technical details, which added value. And because it is written as a log, it is very easy to pick up and even tempting to do so to read during a short break.
I could nitpick about the sometimes abrupt changes of POV in this book or that Mark Watley, the main character, does not have a lot of emotional depth. I could complain that occasionally the technical detail of how Mark gerry-rigs solutions to terrible problems can get overly detailed, at the expense of forward motion in the plot. But these would be nitpicks. This book is a big fat hoot, and I loved it.
