The book

Book title: The Martian

Author: Andy Weir

Book genre: Sci-fi, survival

Finish date: Sometime back in 2016!

Link to book: The Martian: A Novel on Amazon.com

My review

I’ve first came to know about this book through the movie… I saw the movie and I liked it a lot! But then read somewhere on the internet that the book is much more enjoyable than the movie, so I went ahead and bought a hard copy of the book from a local book store, and started reading.

I was not disappointed at all… The author did a great job in all of the details in the book.

There were many aspects and points I liked about this book, I will try to list all of them if I can:

• The beginning of the book puts you really well in the situation Mark Watney is in! It describe his dire situation and how hopeless it became to him…
• Once he started to recover, I could feel how well organized and resourceful the character is, and how this will probably be his way to survive.
• I had a feeling during my whole reading time of how lonely and creepy Mark felt. I could hear the silence and feel the cold atmosphere around him through the words of the book
• When Mark was able to contact Earth, I felt the joy and happiness that he had, and I believe the author did a great job of making the reader dive in the environment and the story!
• I am completely amazed of the level of technical details that are present in the book, There was an explanation for almost everything related to the equipment and the situation that Mark found himself in!
• Finally, resourcefulness is really a great attribute of any character. You look at the problems that Mark kept getting and how he was able to create a solution for everything and you wonder of the brain of this man and how he is able to control his emotions, fears, and the whole situation to survive all of the troubles Mars has thrown on him.

I also liked the realism about this book. Many sci-fi themed books or movies go beyond into fiction to the point where you cannot explain some scientific aspects of the book/movie, but it is different here. The use of current technology and current time makes it a really great experience and read.

The way Mark Watney start to convert his hab into little farm is amazing. If anyone in his place it would have been a hopeless situation for him.. Instead Mark really went beyond the expected and turned his little experiments with Earth soil and bacteria into a real farm!

My recommendation

This book really put us in front of the harsh reality of space travel and colonizing Mars. We cannot expect a plan to go smooth when a lot of risk factors lie everywhere around us!

I would really recommend everyone to read this book. Some might like it for the survival part, others will like it for the sci-fi part… But in all cases this is a great book that combines many genres in one story!

View my other books reviews here, and checkout my other blog posts here.

Note: The Martian book cover image is a property for its owners and I only used it for reference purposes