The Martian
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Not my dumb ass opening this book and briefly thinking it was non-fiction. Reminder for a friend- humans haven’t been to Mars yet.
That’s not the case in The Martian. In fact, astronaut Mark Watney spends 549 Martian sols (equivalent to 564 Earth days) on Mars after a NASA mission goes awry. Even if his crewmates didn’t think that he was dead, it’s not like you can just throw a spaceship in reverse. So, Watney has to fend for himself.
I was immediately surprised by the tone. Watney is no stereotypical stuffy scientist; he’s sarcastic with some spunk even while he’s making complex calculations about how to grow potatoes on Mars and then make those calories last. He has to creatively manipulate his dire situation and he does so with comedic relief. Watney also doesn’t lead a conventional life relative to his crewmates who often have children and spouses waiting at home. Rather than tugging at our heart-strings with some pining partner on Earth, Andy Weir, the author, chose to essentially ignore any sort of life outside of his time on Mars.
I think that’s a missed opportunity because I grew weary of the narrow focus. Being abandoned on Mars is very interesting conceptually, but all of Watney’s time and energy is directed towards sheer survival. Exhausting for him and exhausting for me. Andy Weir did an impressive amount of research to write this but at a certain point, I really can’t hear anymore about Watney’s oxygenator.
After about 70 pages, NASA gets in the mix, which thankfully brings in more voices and perspectives. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for me to grow annoyed with them too. They essentially became a vessel for expository dialogue. Here’s an example of a conversation between two scientists: “‘Don’t beat yourself up,’ she said. ‘They only gave you two days of remote launch training. It was only supposed to happen if we aborted before landing… it wasn’t mission-critical so they didn’t drill you too hard on it. Now that Mark’s life depends on it, you’ve got three weeks to get it right.” This does not read like a natural conversation to me. I also think this was easily avoidable. The book is written in a third-person perspective. If Weir wants us to know some intel, just tell us directly rather than laundering it through NASA.
I prefer my fiction to not be a deluge of facts. Watney is a complex person in a fascinating situation. More insight into his psyche and less potatoes! That being said, his will to live was genuinely inspiring and I was on the edge of my seat with some of the twists and turns thrown at him. If you’re more interested in to the chemistry of it all, I’m sure you’ll like it more than me. Overall, The Martian receives 3 out of 5 flames. Shout out to Elizabeth, my Pure Barre kween for the recommendation! She’s also a PUBLISHED AUTHOR (swag). The Martian is certainly not a book for babies, so if you’re looking for a children’s book related to science, check out her book: Animal Analysis: An early introduction of data analysis & visualization for kids.
