It’s taken me about 3 weeks of off-and-on reading to finally finish this amazing book. The duration had nothing to do with its excitement factor, which is huge. It’s just that I really didn’t want it to end! And if Mark Watney can survive 549 sols on Mars, well, my 21-day slough is like speed-reading.

The Martian was the 2nd book on this year’s Siblings Book Club list, following the disappointing 12 Rules for Life (2018). I’ve now gone through 5 of our 15 titles so far—Blood and Treasure (2021), When the Legends Die (1963) and The People of the Mist (1894)—so I’m on pace to finish them all again this year.

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Thoughts on The Martian

Two things about this novel caught me off guard. First, the initial sentence surprised me a bit, dropping the F-bomb as it does. I kind of figured some in our club might not want to continue, and perhaps you feel the same way. I won’t encourage you to go against your conscience, of course, but the R-rated language is sadly par for the course in any true-to-life novel about a mission like this—NASA or military or whatever—so if you can stomach the occasional harsh language, I say it’s definitely a book worth enjoying.

Another thing that surprised me was how quickly Watney figures out his situation and begins his potato garden. I’d seen the film several years ago, so before starting this book, I thought that perhaps I’d not enjoy it as much, since the surprise factor was lacking. I was wrong. Pretty much everything I remembered from the movie happens within the first 25 pages of the book. The rest is bonus detail, and I loved it.

Sitting there with Watney as he tried to figure out a way to survive without going nuts. Watching “Houston” back on Earth trying to communicate with him and figure out a plan to get him home. Even the technical jargon that each side used was enjoyable to me, because, for Watney’s part at least, he explains his days and actions inside his digital diaries like he would to a non-astronaut—a.k.a. to me.

Andy Weir and the Space Genre

If this novel is any indication, Andy Weir’s a top-notch writer worth seeking out in the future. He’s got a short list of other books—like Artemis, Hail Mary, and Cheshire Crossing. I’ve got a full docket of reading ahead of me, but perhaps I’ll cast another title into the mix for next year’s Book Club.

This book appealed to me on several levels, but one is that I really enjoy books about Outer Space. Not really sci-fi, mind you: real-life Space. Whether it’s novel like this or James Michener’s aptly titled Space (1982), or nonfiction works like Rocket Men, I simply love the idea of humans figuring out the means of space travel.

This love eeks over even more into cinema, where movies like Apollo 13 (1995), The Right Stuff (1983), and Gravity (2013) keep me spellbound. I even go for the slightly unrealistic space films too, like Contact (1997), Moon (2009), and Interstellar (2014). Man, even just chatting about them here makes me want to have another Space-athon!.

A Few Quotes

This novel wasn’t very quotable, so I didn’t highlight much during my reading, but two lines that got me were these:

Yes, of course duct tape works in near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped. (259)

You maybe be wondering what else I do with my free time. I spend a lot of it sitting around on my lazy a– watching TV. But so do you, so don’t judge. (305)

Conclusion

This was an excellent pick for our Book Club, and I’m glad to say that this book is even better than its movie (though you probably already knew that). Next up on the list is The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne. I’ll get to it eventually.

©2024 E.T.