The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A thorough laugh-riot with a supremely satisfying ending. The Martian must be my first 5-star book that hasn’t left me sad and confused.
The Martian is a story of survival. It’s commercial and a little immature, but that didn’t spoil my reading experience. Mark Watney, the astronaut stranded on Mars, is as funny as he is intelligent. Granted, his sense of humour needed some getting used to as I expected this book to be a serious sci-fi thriller. Then I assumed that it was his way of coping with the fact that he is all alone in a planet with no way to contact earth. Moreover, all we read are his journal entries; only a report of every good and bad thing that happens to him. That means the reader never really gets to know the real Mark, just the brave and funny face he projects in his journal.
The science was intense and I was happy to know that most of it is accurate.
Andy Weir’s hero creates water and grows potato on Mars, survives killer storms and uses Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator to make hot water baths, and all using science, very convincingly. I saw that most readers had complained that all the characters were one-dimensional. I agree with them but it doesn’t bother me. A heroic escape story (with a lot of science) is good for all seasons.
It’s just ironic that I read this book right after The Grapes of Wrath. Both are about surviving the impossible. Whereas this had NASA and the whole world helping and praying for one person, the other had the world ignoring the plight of thousands of families.