Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

Title: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Publish Date: February 11, 2014
Source: Library

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. 

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. 

But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength–he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive."

My Two Cents:

"The Martian" is a fantastic science fiction book about a mission to Mars that goes awry. Mark becomes one of the first people to walk on Mars and now he thinks he'll be the first person to die on Mars. After freak accident has his crew leaving the planet and thinking that he's dead, they quickly find out that Mark may not really be dead. 

Filled with a lot of humor, this is a great book that will appeal to more than just traditional science-fiction lovers. One of the best things about this book is the voices that the author creates for the characters. The book starts out with Mark's voice and Mark is absolutely hilarious. He seems like somebody that I would definitely get along with. He has sort of a funny way of looking at his plight and I think that it shows how humor can get you through some very difficult times. I loved following his story. We get to see the NASA scientists as well and it was interesting to see how they try to figure out what happened to Mark and what he what they can possibly do in order to save him. 

The book is well-written and I love a good survivor story. This book is a little bit different because it talks about survival on Mars but it is a survivor story nonetheless. Overall, this book is incredibly entertaining. It would make for a great intro to sci-fi for those that don't read sci-fi at all or very often!