Reviews

The Martian by Andy Weir

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arbitrary_convenience's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I love the way Any Weir writes. It’s so much fun. The pacing was great too. I appreciate the detail to science and Watney’s humor. The layout of the book as a log was fun.

My issues are mostly character oriented: they didn’t feel very distinct and the dialogue was clunky.

cassiealexandra's review against another edition

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4.5

This is my second Andy Weir read, and while I didn’t like it quite as much as Project Hail Mary, it comes close! Right from the start I saw there would be much stronger language throughout and that Mark would be a funny and good-hearted character despite his dire circumstances. He’s stranded on Mars with little hope of survival or rescue. As he figures out ways to grow a potato farm and extend his food rations, stave off hunger, and engineer ways, his character grew on me more and more. The characters on earth and the Hermes (where the crew who abandoned him still are) added to my intrigue and I felt like part of all of earth biting my nails to see if or how Mark Watney could survive this. It was a hilarious and heartfelt story of survival and humankind coming together for the cause of one man. I closed the book with soft tears rolling down my cheeks. True, the science and engineering portions get a little “heady” for my taste, but there’s so much more in Weir’s books that it doesn’t become a hindrance.

The bottom line: This author’s mixture of humor and emotion is a hit for me and I’ll be looking forward to anything else he writes and picking up the rest of his backlist soon, I’m sure.

— NOTES —
Genres: science fiction, suspense, adventure
POV: first-person and third-person
Content: frequent strong language, near-death experiences, survival, a bit of crass joking and sexual content

cjbuckley4's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Good fast-paced reading. All the little character relationships you hope are cliff hangers really are.

marimbagirl22's review against another edition

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5.0

Weir does an amazing job writing accurate science into this book. Even after seeing the movie, this book is well worth the read. The pace is great, and the characters (technically plural) are well developed.

a_chickletz's review against another edition

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3.0

I really liked this book, but I felt there was something off about it from having me knock it up a star.

Sometimes I felt like there wasn't really a sense of danger. Or that the obstacles he faced weren't as hardcore dangerous as I thought they would be. The ending was a real nail-biter and perhaps the best one because of how long, drawn out the process was for that to happen.

Spoiler

By that, I mean: Finding out that the Hermes would be short of a good distance and that the crew would have to blow a hole in the 2nd door, leading to have the ship turn around and someone had to go outside, into nothing, swing into the hideously put together 'rocket', grab Mark and drag him aboard.

I would have raised the star up a notch if I felt that way, but I honestly didn't.

I think the book is great, nevertheless, and I do recommend it to anyone before the film comes out. I'm curious on the casting.

sarabamanda's review against another edition

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3.0

This was a fine book. Not mind blowing but also not boring. It started off feeling slow to me, and honestly, if I hadn’t been listening to Wil Wheaton read it, I probably would have put it back down. Wheaton as the audiobook narrator was a genius choice, btw. He has exactly the kind of attitude and dry snark that Watney brings. (I’m interested to compare this to Matt Damon in the movie.)

There were a few parts where I gasped out loud, and the final adventure had me gripping the edge of my launch sofa. (I haven’t felt that much anxiety from a book since I read Misery in high school.)

Overall, a good book, worth reading once, but probably not one I’d read again.

ishitasrivastava's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

ylime_103's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

indium's review against another edition

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4.0

On the precipice of hard sci-fi whilst still being very approachable. Increasing ideas without being overly technical. Three characters deep feel a bit shallow but a great plot propels you through.

aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

While the MC is funny and I liked the twist and turns of things going wrong and when everything came together, it was so hopeful, it was a very slow paced and heavy on the science stuff and low-key like of boring...

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