Review of The Martian (Mateo)

Review of The Martian

Matt Damon starring in the film adaption of The Martian

            ‘I’m pretty much f****d’ . . . The first line in Andy Weir’s hit novel, The Martian, might slightly put you off. It did for me, or rather, mostly my mom, a few years ago when this book first came across my radar. While on a bike ride with my mom, at the young age of eight years old, we passed by a little free library (the box where you put in a book and take one out) in our old neighborhood. At the time, I was out of reading material so I decided that I would take a glance through the library and see what they had. The first book to catch my eye was The Martian. Space is something that I really enjoy and am fascinated by, so I thought I would flip through the pages and see if it looked any good. But after mom read the first sentence, she determined that it would be wise to save this book till I was a bit older. Anyways, I was recently skimming through Uni’s library and this book once again caught my eye. So, here I am.

First of all, any hesitation that I might have had at the beginning of the novel quickly faded as I became engrossed in the exciting story of The Martian. The novel’s protagonist, Mark Watney, is the engineer and botanist for the Ares 3 crew, the esteemed program that sent the first people to Mars. With the original mission only planning for about a month of research on Mars, everything was looking bright for the six-man crew. But on sol 6 (with a solar day being about 39 minutes longer than 24 hours), disaster strikes. A massive storm hits the crew’s base and after getting exponentially worse, NASA orders an evacuation. As the team is heading between the base and MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle), Watney gets hit by space debris and is presumed dead. The crew is then forced to leave without Mark. But Watney survives the accident and has to use all of his skills and materials to establish communication with NASA, survive the never-ending challenges and problems that face him, and find a way back to Earth.

             The Martian was a very entertaining book, but it did have faults. For one, after reading the first sentence, I was a bit distraught. I find it silly to include heavy language in a novel, especially when it is just a man writing in his journal every day. Of course, while this is Watney’s own way of speaking and gives him a unique personality, I think that this can really repel people who are sensitive to profanities away from the book. This may be my own personal bias, as I come from a family that doesn’t use cuss words. My parents are the type to encourage my sister and I to come up with more inventive language than run of the mill curse words.

But putting aside the language, this novel does a fantastic job of representing Mark’s resourcefulness and courage. Weir is able to make any reader sympathize with the lonesome man in his times of despair, while also maintaining hope for Watney anytime he makes a new discovery or achievement. The novel also dives deep into the science of every issue that occurs during Watney’s time on the red planet, oftentimes more than the average reader cares to read. Whether it is going through the trouble of making water on Mars or a mechanical error with the makeshift communication system with NASA, Weir sometimes spent more pages than I would like on these kinds of issues, resulting in a very technical novel. Personally, I think there was a bit too much scientific explanation in this novel and I zoned out a bit on some sections when Watney would diagnose a problem and figure out what happened and blah blah blah. . . But don’t get me wrong! This was still a very engaging novel that had a great story, but I do think that there could have been less talk on the problems and more thought on the story.

On a side note, while the novel is great and engaging, if you’re looking for an exciting cinematic thriller rather than a scientific and technical novel, then I would recommend that you watch the movie adaptation of The Martian. Starring Matt Damon as the protagonist, the film beautifully condenses this exciting novel into an even more thrilling movie that doesn’t stray too much from the original plot of the book and doesn’t drag as much on the technicalities of the science involved.

Overall, The Martian is an entertaining and technically accurate scientific novel that manages to make any reader cheer for a world’s effort to bring a man home from outer space.