A review of The Martian, by Andy Weir. Random House, 2011.

Right now, I can confidently say that no one has been to Mars. However, it is a different reality in Andy Weir’s The Martian. Mark Watney is the botanist and engineer for NASA’s Ares III mission; he is the protagonist of Weir’s novel. After a sandstorm jeopardizes the safety of the Ares III crew, they decide to abort the Mars mission. However, Mark is left behind and has to figure out how to survive with the meager supplies left on the planet. He is one of the first people alive on Mars, but he’d rather not be the first to die on it.

Sci-fi is not my go-to-genre but I wanted to try something new, and The Martian was an excellent choice. I was enthralled and intrigued from the first page: “I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion. Fucked. Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it’s turned into a nightmare” (Weir 1).

This book deals with a terrifying and near-impossible circumstance, but I developed an instant fondness for Mark and the novel. Mark is alone on Mars with constantly depleting supplies, yet he always keeps up a brave face and humorous personality, despite his situation. Mark made The Martian more entertaining and memorable. I would have had a completely different reading experience of The Martian if Mark didn’t have these likeable traits. After he manages to initiate contact with Earth, there are many messages that are sent back and forth between Mark and Venkat Kapoor, a NASA executive, that were extremely fun to read:

I got an email from Venkat Kapoor:

Mark, some answers to your earlier questions: No, we will not tell our Botany Team to ‘Go fuck themselves.’ I understand that you’ve been on your own for a long time, but we’re in the loop now, and it’s best if you listen to what we have to say.

The Cubs finished the season at the bottom of the NL Central.

…[y]our request for ‘Anything, oh God, ANYTHING but Disco’ is denied. Enjoy your boogie forever…. NASA is putting together a committee. They want to see if there were any avoidable mistakes that led you to be stranded. (150-151)

Mark sums up his feelings toward this “email” with a few sentences:

[…] tell the investigation committee they’ll have to do their with hunt without me…. Also, please tell them that each and every one of their mothers is a prostitute. -Watney

P.S: Their sisters, too.

Mark’s humor and sarcasm was a nice break from the severity of his situation. I was also pleasantly surprised by Weir’s ability to explain complicated theories and plans throughout the book. Going into this novel, I was very concerned that I wouldn’t be able to understand Mark. Because he is an astronaut, he is constantly doing math and explaining new plans so that he can survive. As a reader, I wanted to be able to understand why he was making modifications to equipment and Weir made it digestible for an ordinary reader:

The water reclaimer is acting up. Six people will go through 18 liters of water per day. So it’s made to process 20. But lately, it hasn’t been keeping up. It’s doing 10, tops. Do I generate 10 liters of water per day? No, I’m not the urinating champion of all time. It’s the crops. The humidity inside the Hab is a lot higher than it was designed for, so the water reclaimer is constantly filtering it out of the air. (151-152)

There are so many turns throughout the book. Mark goes through many plans and, of course, with him being on Mars and unsupervised, something is bound to go wrong. Believe me, it does. Weir’s writing, though, is always consumable, and Mark is an incredible character who is easy to follow!

Going into this read, I had a few concerns, like understanding the terminology and the seriousness of the novel, but I was pleased with how Weir designed the plot and his characters. They helped the progression of the plot and my personal progress through the book. Overall, I highly recommend this book, even if you aren’t a Sci-Fi reader. Weir clearly knows what he’s doing, even if I don’t.