Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Martian

After reading and thoroughly enjoying Project Hail Mary, I was curious to read Weir's other work. I had somehow escaped the Martian craze back when it first came out and was made into a movie, but recently have been getting into sci-fi and felt like I should continue to dip my toe in with another of Weir's novels.
First, the audiobook is great. The fast paced, quick narration style and Wil Wheaton's narration made this a win for listening to on a long car ride. It keeps your attention and it's hard to "put down" because one chapter just flows into the next and there's constant action.
Martian and Project Hail Mary are similar in many ways, including the fact that it feels easy to confuse the two protagonists. While I don't mind when authors have a "type" it does make me wonder if Weir can only write the snarky/sarcastic, big ego, middle aged dude type. Despite that, it does work - Weir is talented and brings you right into the seat of the action every time.
This book flew by and I wish there was more of this epic adventure!

Content Warnings

hjb_128's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was way more interesting than I thought it would be. I seriously loved it. There is a lot of science talk that I don’t understand and it doesn’t explain it all, but it didn’t hinder the experience. I really enjoyed the sass ones of the main character, Mark Watney. He is such a punk and I love those types of characters.

Content Warnings

woolen_pigeon's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

w3nda1's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

monicalaurette's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book was a RIDE. I liked that it was sort of mixed media by having the Sol Logs & different messages between NASA & Watney so that helped it get a little easier to get through while reading. I had watched the movie around the time it came out, but I literally only remembered one scene - and it’s a scene that happens relatively early on in the book

of where he blows himself up in the HAB while making water

. So I was glad that I was essentially going into this book blind on what would happen.

Andy’s comedic writing I thought was fun and was also exactly how I would be acting if I had to spend over a year alone on Mars. I found myself laughing at many moments in this book and it helped me to enjoy it even more. I don’t know if I would have liked it as much without the comedic moments.

”Life is amazingly tenacious.”

Watney literally going ‘hey NASA look titties!’ and ‘your mom’s a hoe’ in public forums was UNHINGED and I love it for him

the way Beck & Johanssen thought they were slick and secretive but they all just KNEW was so funny that’s one of my favorite tropes

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