I have recently completed the book “the Martian” it is a 369 page  book by Andy Weir. This was the author’s only novel and was a huge success, later being turned into a very popular movie. The book came out in 2011 but gained huge popularity after the movie was in trailers and people wanted to read the book prior to seeing the fantastic movie. I would probably rate this book a ⅘ and I like the author’s style of writing and I believe it is similar to James dasher in the sense that the book is almost believable and you get emotionally attached to the characters. It won “Best Science fiction novel” and is one of my person favorite reads.

 

In the novel the Martian a group of astronauts go to mars to study the geography of it and they set up a base there and actually live there for a while but there spaceship is near bye. They can travel between “camps” in their space suits and when a sudden storm hits they decide to abort mission and go home. On the trek from there home base to the space shuttle mark is struck with a rock and thrown off into the raw and blinding storm. The leader of the squadron went in search of him and found him. He was lying down and his display on his suit said he was dead but he was very, very alive. The leader leaves him on the planet in belief that he is dead. His squad leaves without him and he recovers after the jarring storm. He salvages his base and repairs anything that needs it and calculates the amount of food he has and amount of air he has. He is also a botanist which means he specializes in plants. He sets up a small greenhouse and manages to sprout a sapling. NASA has an almost unlimited time to come and get him but his supplies can last him that long. His communication devices are broken and nobody even knows he’s alive at first. He needs a way to find oxygen and more food. NASA eventually gets in contact with one of the rovers that remained on mars and confirmed that he was surely alive. They track his actions and realize he is getting his things together and is holding up fairly decent for an alone man on a deserted island millions and millions of miles away from the earth with no way to get back. He establishes communication with them and NASA states that it will take almost four years for a new team to come and get him which means he has to grow his own food on mars. Some people can’t even grow a tomato plant without it wilting and all the fruits falling off of it, yet being on mars in an environment with no water and dust soil. His crops of potatoes has grow and he is munching on potatoes for quite a while. NASA’s attempt to send supplies fails because of a loose bolt and explodes. One option is to send his crew back to retrieve him on a rescue mission because they aren’t all the way back to earth. No one will say yes to it but Mitch Henderson eventually sends his crew back to mars to rescue him. His communications with NASA are cut after receiving the information about the rescue mission, he tries to trek to area 4 where he will use a barely working ship that will launch him into the middle of space so his crew can safely retrieve him. His rover is broken on his journey and he tries to repair all he can with duct tape. He is almost knocked out again in a dust storm. He gets to the ship and launches up into space where “Hermes” the space ship, successfully gets him after two years of being alone on mars and they start to go home.

 

 

This book was very good and I would recommend it to anyone who likes reading science fiction or even realistic fiction, this novel is somewhat believable and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I might even read it again one day. The author was very strong in detail and had had some humor in it also which I liked because some books get really serious and get sort of stressful when you are reading it. This quote from the novel is an example of andy wier’s humor

 

“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”

 

This quote highlights the humor in the novel and displays some of the crazy uses of duct tape marc uses on mars. I can relate to this quote also because I like to use duct tape to fix a lot of things also. marc used duct tape to create an oxygen bubble in his rover, of course when I use duct tape it’s not like that but i’ve made other things like duct tape wallets and repairing toys in a crude manner with duct tape.  I would recommend this book to a reader who likes science fiction because it takes place of mars. You might debate whether to read this book and even myself was hesitant to read this book because I have read space novels before and I don’t care for them, however this book has a lot of characteristics of normal, fiction novels like plants and it does seem possible. don’t be reluctant to read this book, it’s a great read and I would lastly also suggest watching the movie after reading the book, they differ a lot and in some parts you wait for a whole scene to happen and it never comes. its interesting to see the contrast in the story lines.

 

sincerely, christian hiden