Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Martian



Author: Andy Weir
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Reviewer: Lydia

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I was extremely excited to get my hands on “The Martian,” a new release by Andy Weir which details one man’s struggle to stay alive—on Mars. Mark Watney is like no character you have ever met before: he is a mad genius with a wicked sense of humor who is willing to take risks. All three of these traits end up being the traits which sustain him as he lives alone in space. After a routine space mission leaves astronaut Mark Watney stranded on the red planet with no hope for rescue in the foreseeable future, he learns how do such things as grow crops and even make water.

The writing is not particularly beautiful—you will find no figurative language or even imagery—and the writing is precise and scientific, which makes sense considering the subject matter. My only major criticism of the novel is that the story quickly grew monotonous: Mark encountered a problem, said problem appeared to be his demise, but somehow, after only a day of hard thinking, Mark always came up with a brilliant and often far-fetched, insane plan to rectify the issue at hand. I also found myself repeatedly skipping over the heavy scientific and mathematical jargon in some of the chapters. Regardless of some confusing and/or boring parts of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed the inventive and fast-paced plot.

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