So yesterday I started composing in my head what I wanted to say about Andy Weir’s The Martian and I was working up a good post too until I realized I had homework to attend to! Poof went all my mental work. Crud. The homework was writing and submitting my Library Journal review on Frida Kahlo’s Garden. I can only submit reviews between 175-200 words and they have very specific requirements. Every word counts. It isn’t so very hard to write it now that I’ve gotten good practice at it. However, it doesn’t leave time to write that blog post either. Having begun writing that blog post in my head and getting on with it pretty well, do you think I might remember any of it? Ha! Ha! Ha! Of course not! That’s why there’s this excuse of an introduction. And unfortunately I had no mental dreaming time at work today to begin again so I begin now and we’ll see where this goes.
The Martian. Loved it. Laugh out loud funny at times. Mark Watney’s smartass humor is what helps him survive alone on Mars and that’s saying something because I don’t think many of us would find any kind of humor in being left for dead on Mars by your crewmates in an emergency evacuation during a major dust storm. And he doesn’t even have a radio with which to contact NASA. Talk about being completely and utterly alone. So he begins recording a log of his days and the things he has to do to survive. He is a botanist and an engineer, two skill sets that turn out to be really helpful as he has to repair things that break and jury-rig other equipment to make them do things they were not designed to do. He also has to figure out how to grow food because there is not enough astronaut food for him to survive the four years he is going to be there.
The book is Watney’s log but it also jumps around a bit so we get the story told through the perspective of NASA as well as the crew who left him behind. Here is an example of some of the humor. NASA has just realized Watney is alive and given a news conference. Two of the people in charge of the program are talking and we get this:
‘I wonder what he’s thinking right now.’
LOG ENTRY: SOL 61
How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.
The pacing is great. There are many tense moments especially getting towards the end when something really bad happens. I was reading that part on the plane Sunday afternoon and I had a momentary mental fit: dammit! He better not die! If he dies I’m going to be really pissed! Weir wouldn’t do that would he? Take him so far just to kill him? He’s not George R.R. Martin. Please don’t be like George R.R. Martin!
There was actually another event so very close to the end that precipitated another similar outburst. These outbursts had to be mental you see because I was already in trouble for attempting to bring some very dangerous hummus onto the plane. I didn’t want to give them any reason to escort me somewhere when the plane landed.
I don’t think it is spoiler to say the book has a “happy” ending. If it is, I’m sorry to have just given it away.
Weir originally published the book chapter by chapter on his blog. He is one of those uber-geeks who spends his free time learning about relativistic physics and orbital mechanics. But in this case it is good because he began daydreaming about what-if Mars scenarios and it turned into a book with very accurate science. The book was so popular his readers asked him to make it available as an ebook. So Weir formatted it and published it on Amazon for .99 cents because Amazon wouldn’t let him give it away for free. It became such a success that he was approached by a publisher and the rest, as they say, is history. But between the Amazon publication and the print publication Weir received numerous letters from scientists kindly correcting his errors and Weir made corrections to the book accordingly before print publication. While we have not gone to Mars yet, NASA has a Mars program plan called Mars Direct and Weir used this as the basis for his book.
The book touched all kinds of buttons in my geeky heart; space travel, real science that not once relies on some made up magical science to save the day, funny, suspenseful, surprising and unabashedly entertaining. Also, if it were me stuck on Mars, I’d be so dead. Therefore, when the day arrives when humans do actually go to Mars, you will not find me standing in line for a chance to go. I’ll keep my feet firmly planted here on Earth, thank you very much.
The only reason why I’m interested in this book is because of the upcoming film adaptation. Weir sure has every door opened for him: blog posts published as ebook then published as real book then sold film rights and now a major motion picture done by an A-list cast and director. I’ll be watching out for this one, with Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain… directed by Ridley Scott… yup, the Alien, and Prometheus director.
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Arti, I liked the book so much I’m kind of hesitant about the movie especially with Scott directing because it is not exactly an action kind of story. It’s a character story but maybe Scott will surprise me. I definitely know Matt Damon will do a good job.
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You cracked me up with your distress having to be mental what with your dangerous hummus and all! Seriously though, this does sound really intriguing, even for someone like me who doesn’t read a lot of speculative fiction.
BTW I loved your intro. I hate it when I have an idea for a post intro and then lose it before I get to write the post. I try to make notes but sometimes I think I don’t need to because I’ll remember, won’t I, and other times I’m not in a position where I can right at the moment. Frustrating. You can see why writers live with notebooks by their side.
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whisperinggums, if hummus can take down a plane just imagine what it might do to a Mars mission! 😉 The book is so much based in reality it doesn’t read like speculative fiction at all. I am glad I am not the only one who regularly loses posts before they are even written. I can understand why writers have notebooks with them all the time but you know, I sit in front of a computer all day and often can’t manage to write anything down, I bet my notebook would be forever empty 🙂
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Haha, maybe this is why we write blog posts not novels!!
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I’m only half-way through this book, but I’m absolutely loving it so far!
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thoughts, ooh! I am glad you are enjoying it! You have so many great things left to read! 🙂
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A great read and didn’t put it down. I have persuaded several people to read it and even with them being sceptical, they have come back saying how much they enjoyed it. 🙂
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Ruth, I’ve gotten a couple people to read the book too. It really was compelling. I wonder if Weir will write another book?
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It reassures me about humans in general, that people love this book.
I would love to go to space, but until Christa Mcauliffe was picked for a mission, I didn’t think a non-science person like me would ever get a chance.
The take-away advice for any human on any planet is to always have some duct tape on hand!
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Jeanne, LOL, yes, duct tape comes in handy in more situations than I ever would have imagined! Perhaps one day you will get to go to space. Take lots of pictures! 🙂
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I’ve been wanting to read this one. It’s fascinating to read about other plants and imagine people someday being on Mars, but like you I have absolutely no desire to go. My husband keeps speculating about it, he reads all kinds of articles and tells me tidbits of the possible future but it’s not tempting.
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Jeane, if it were like Star Trek or something where it was so routine that the chances of anything horrible happening are slim and it didn’t take over a year to get there, I’d go. But until then, I’ll let braver souls take the lead! 🙂
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I’m kind of excited for the movie, because although I am rarely satisfied with book-to-movie adaptations, I am eternally hopeful about the IDEA of them. :p I love the cast they’ve assembled, and it would be lovely if the movie turned out to be good.
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Jenny, I’m looking forward to the movie too. I’ve been avoiding watching any trailers but from the cast and the buzz, I have high expectations.
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You science and i are not great friends, but the post convinced me…bought the book! 🙂
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I meant you know science and i are not great friends, not you and science!
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cirtnecce, it took me a second but I figured it out! 😀 The science fits in very nicely with the story. It goes down so easy you are deep into before you even notice 🙂
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I want your energy and your time. I don’t know how you find the time to work, garden, read, ride a bike, and maintain this blog.
Do you can your vegetables? I don’t even have that many tomato plants this year and I still have more than I can eat. I have tried canning my own salsa. The recipe said that it was very important that I add vinegar which was fine when we ate the newer batches. For the batches that sat for a couple of months, the vinegar taste was too much. If anyone has a good recipe for eating now or canning, I’d love to have it. I can’t let my beautiful tomatoes go to waste.
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Lynnette, I never have enough time, I just do as much as I can in the time I have! When we have an abundance we do indeed can our vegetables. One year we had so many green beans we ended up canning something like six quarts! We have unfortunately never had so many tomatoes we resorted to canning, though we wish we would so we can make sauce and salsa and sun dried some too. I have never heard of putting vinegar in salsa and tomatoes are already so acidic I am not sure why one would. I’d say try a different recipe that doesn’t have vinegar in it. Vinegar is not needed for canning in general, pickling, yes, but not plain old canning.
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Thanks, and I have done my research. A new salsa recipe, homemade spaghetti sauce, and a tomato frittata is on it’s way. But seriously, who plants tomatoes and does not have so many that they are not looking to give them away? Very suspicious. Just kidding.
Gosh, I love my garden. My grandmother loved to garden which is where I learned the basics. My mother, not at all. I hate house cleaning and yet I love to get out into my flower and vegetable gardens and create beauty. My beautiful yard is my creation and my work. A dirty kitchen just gets dirty again.
Slightly funny story. I recently had a tree service remove a white pine that had died from my property. While they were here, I also pointed out three scrubby bushed that I would also like removed. Behind those were three six foot bushes that were rather ugly, but a good privacy screen. Well. the tree service guy only saw the big bushes and when I looked out my window, they were gone. It was priceless when I went out to tell him that he had taken out the wrong bushes because you can’t put them back. But don’t worry, I told him that he had really done me a favor because those bushes were truly ugly. Lovely viburnum snowball bushes will be taking their place.
Am I the only one who already feels Fall looming very close? Certain plants are already dying down as if it is Fall. Being Michigan, I wonder what type of winter that we are going into this time. Make the most of summer while you can.
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Your garden sound beautiful Lynette! And that is a funny story. Once you get over the horror of having the wring shrubs removed! Yes, in spite of the heat wave we are currently having, there is a feeling that fall will soon be here.
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I love your review, Stephanie. I was actually hesitant about reading the book – some comments I read about the scientific part of it which doesn’t appeal to me – but I’m glad to see that didn’t spoil your enjoyment. And I can’t wait to see the movie so that’s another reason to bump this to the top of my TBR pile.
I didn’t know how the book came to be published so thank you for that bit of info as well.
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Delia, oh no worries about the spelling! 🙂 The science is done so well and made so much a part of the story that you don’t even notice it until you are deep in and realize you now know how to make water from hydrogen and oxygen. I’m looking forward to the movie too!
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Sorry for misspelling your name. 😦
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I go back and forth over whether Mr Litlove would like this or not. And my son is a possible contender too. Perhaps I will get a copy for their Greek holiday in September and they can both read it!
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Litlove, I suspect Mr. Litlove would like the book. the humor is smartass/sarcastic and it is a realistic novel in spite of it taking place on Mars.
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