The Martian

I have no idea why I didn’t read this book earlier. It is a fantastic story that kept me reading until I was done (a day and a half!).

I’ve always wanted to take a trip into space, but certainly not if it ends up like Mark’s.

I started this book on the subway home from work, continued reading over dinner, and finished it that night in bed. It's griping, the science is solid, and it's about as close to "hard sci-fi" as you can get. The movie is also quite enjoyable.

Divertido e nerdy, adorei!

Divertido e nerdy, adorei!

读完这本书是几年以前的事了，我记得我是在Kindle上读的，也记得读到(.Y.)时的大笑不止。主角乐观幽默的性格让整个旅程都相当有趣。

Really good short story.

This novel is great! It's very hard sci fi, so it's not so much a reflection of the time when it was written as those flights-of-fancy, less techy sci fi stories tend to be.

An uplifting story, just what I like. To be completely honest, most of the science went over my head, but I loved the cheeky protagonist and the general idea of human perseverance and ingenuity

4.5

This is one of the best books I've read. The subject is fascinating, the characters are engaging - particularly Mark Watney. I had to regularly remind myself that this was not a retelling of actual events and that these people are fictional.

I won't lie, I did tend to zone out a touch during some of the longer scientific passages but they only made the story feel more real. I can only imagine the insane amount of research that went into this book.

In addition to the fantastic writing, the extremely engaging story, and the great character portrayals, the narrator did a stellar job of bringing it all together.

Good - engaging, pacy plot, plausible scientific detail and interesting characters. Audiobook narration largely very good.

Bad - False, jokey modesty of the hero who is clearly a genius. Too much geeky indulgence in explanations of the science. Felt like a textbook sometimes. Note for the narrator, whose German pronunciation was occasionally off the mark: it's "ge-fair-lich", not "ge-FAR -lich". And the Germans I know don't say "und"; they say "and", pronounced "end"!

Not disappointed by the lack of aliens.

I don't think it's ever taken me more than two days to read this book, and I've read it several times now. It's just that gripping. You get to the point where you stop lying to yourself about "just one more chapter," and decide you'll live with the sleep deprivation. Watney is the kind of guy the whole internet wants to be, in a situation that nobody wants to be in. Yet the bottom-line struggle—things keep going wrong and nothing is cutting him any slack on Mars—is totally relatable and understanding.

What an impressive book. If Weir's timeline is right, the first astronauts to go to Mars are in high school right now. I hope they read this book. And then I hope they push past the new fears and complexes this book will give them and go to Mars anyway.

Engaging twists and turns, plenty of scientific jargon (must admit I skimmed some of that), interwoven with good humor. Very entertaining read. Had me literally holding my breath at the end.

Writing style was very informal and blog-like, but it helped make this book a fast read. The material was interesting -- it was a series of realistic challenges and realistic solutions. However, this is less a novel and more a diary from the future with an Earth-perspective novella interwoven among some entries to stave off readers' waning interest, rather than to serve as a plot device or provide symbolism.

Despite the artless writing, it's a good book. If it weren't for the language, I would recommend that every highschool student read this to catch the contagious confidence that being an engineer gives.

The only - ONLY - complaint I have about this story is the neatness with which Watney's problems occur at his absolute apogee - i.e., something catastrophic happens ONLY when things are going exactly according to plan. It makes it a little too predictable the third time around, but it's a small complaint. Everything else about this book, I love.