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A review by megsbookishtwins
The Martian by Andy Weir
4.0
“It’s true, you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl.”
Mark Watney is one of the first people to walk to surface of Mars. He is also the first person to be stranded there. After a accident during a dust storm nearly kills him, his team thinks him dead and they leave the planet for Earth. Mark Watney is stranded on Mars with no way to communicate, rations that won't last him till the next mission to Mars, with the Hab that is only designed to last 31 days. So, as Mark Watney puts it, he's screwed.
I love a good disaster-in-space story. Movies like Apollo 13, Armageddon, Sunshine really do get my heart pumping. And this book really had that atmosphere, you know.
While at times I absolutely adored this book, other times it was mind numbingly boring. At first, I was instantly dragged into it. It was a fantastic start. But then the story was bogged down with a lot of science talk that just went right over my head. I didn't understand a word of it and it really did ruin my enjoyment of the first half of the book. While I adored Mark, he was witty and he really did have a great sense of humour that saved this book.
The second half of the book, was by far the best half. We got to see some other characters, and we got to see people's reactions on earth, and their attempts to try and save Mark Watney. I loved his team as well.
I found The Martian to be incredibly realistic, the science (I haven't got a clue if it's accurate, but it felt like a lot of research was put into it), the characters, people's reactions. It just all felt very real and very well done. As I've said before, sometimes I was fairly bored, but it was still a very tense and suspenseful book in places, especially the second half.
I had read so many great reviews for this and I had it on my wishlist, and I was expecting fantastic things from this, but I was a little bit disappointed. While I would personally recommend if you are a fan on Science Fiction, of Space stories, or are a huge fan of NASA, etc, then I'm pretty sure that this is the book for you. But if those things completely bore you, then stay away.
Mark Watney is one of the first people to walk to surface of Mars. He is also the first person to be stranded there. After a accident during a dust storm nearly kills him, his team thinks him dead and they leave the planet for Earth. Mark Watney is stranded on Mars with no way to communicate, rations that won't last him till the next mission to Mars, with the Hab that is only designed to last 31 days. So, as Mark Watney puts it, he's screwed.
I love a good disaster-in-space story. Movies like Apollo 13, Armageddon, Sunshine really do get my heart pumping. And this book really had that atmosphere, you know.
While at times I absolutely adored this book, other times it was mind numbingly boring. At first, I was instantly dragged into it. It was a fantastic start. But then the story was bogged down with a lot of science talk that just went right over my head. I didn't understand a word of it and it really did ruin my enjoyment of the first half of the book. While I adored Mark, he was witty and he really did have a great sense of humour that saved this book.
The second half of the book, was by far the best half. We got to see some other characters, and we got to see people's reactions on earth, and their attempts to try and save Mark Watney. I loved his team as well.
I found The Martian to be incredibly realistic, the science (I haven't got a clue if it's accurate, but it felt like a lot of research was put into it), the characters, people's reactions. It just all felt very real and very well done. As I've said before, sometimes I was fairly bored, but it was still a very tense and suspenseful book in places, especially the second half.
I had read so many great reviews for this and I had it on my wishlist, and I was expecting fantastic things from this, but I was a little bit disappointed. While I would personally recommend if you are a fan on Science Fiction, of Space stories, or are a huge fan of NASA, etc, then I'm pretty sure that this is the book for you. But if those things completely bore you, then stay away.