Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir
Thanks to Hollywood, everyone is now familiar with this book. I loved the movie and managed to pick up the audio version of the book a while back. I’m happy to say I enjoyed it in this format too.
For anyone who’s avoided spoilers, Mark Watney is an astronaut who is thought to have been killed and, as such, is left behind by his crewmates when they depart Mars. Obviously, he isn’t dead but with limited supplies and no way of leaving the planet, Watney, the chief engineer and botanist aboard the Mars mission, has to use every last bit of his intelligence and logic to survive.
The humour is what makes the book great. Watney’s one-liners are great. His observations are poignant and intellectual now and then but, for the most, they’re just hilarious. I literally laughed out loud several times while reading/listening to the book. (I particularly loved his jokes about 70s tv shows but I was thinking they might go over the heads of younger readers!)
Although science fiction, there’s a lot that felt true to life about the storyline. I especially liked the way the public and the media became obsessed with Watney and his fate. I mean, here in Aus Stuart Diver is a household name, so I could picture all the frenzy surrounding Watney’s rescue so easily.
The audio version was narrated by Wil Wheaton. This is the third book of Wheaton’s I’ve listened to and he’s great. I guess my only whine would be that I thought there should have been a second narrator for the non-Watney point of view scenes. That is, I thought Wheaton should have just narrated Watney’s diary entries and they should have used a different narrator for the rest of the characters. There was often no break or change of tone from Wheaton when switching from Watney to other characters and a few times I was a little confused.
There’s also a lot of technicality to the book which, I must admit, at times, made me a little bored. I did fail science though…
Still, it was a fun and intelligent read. 4 ½ out of 5
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