
I have my friend Lucy the Planetary Scientist to thank for turning me on to this great book. What really piqued my interest was when she described it as both immensely suspenseful and very funny. The suspense I could have predicted, but not the humour...

And it is also hilarious, almost from the first page. Andy Weir writes brilliantly, casting his story in the form of a first person narrative — the device is that our hero, Mark Watney, is keeping a journal.
So we get asides like “caution’s best when setting fire to rocket fuel in an enclosed space”; “If the RTG [Radioisotope Thermonuclear Generator] ever broke open, it would kill me to death”; “I've gutted that poor Rover so much, it looks like I parked it in a bad part of town.”

Here we leave behind the first person prose for third person. It's less funny and confident and lacks the perfection of the journal sequences. And we get sentences like “Teddy glared across his immaculate mahogany desk…”
But we're soon back on Mars with Mark, hearing everything in his voice. "Fun fact: This is exactly how the Apollo 1 crew died. Wish me luck!"

And this novel isn't just funny (though I literally howled with laughter at one point). It is also a masterpiece of suspense. Every time Mark seems to be getting on top of his lethal situation, a new and terrible (and all too plausible) catastrophe befalls him. Christ, just when you think you're in the clear, the tension begins to build again...

Most emphatically recommended.
(Image credits: the book covers are from Good Reads. I particularly like the Chinese one.)
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ReplyDeleteAlso, it came across as feel-good NASA propaganda. Maybe that one is on me for being so cynical, I am not sure. The attempts at humor never made me laugh and sometimes made me feel embarrassed. I am not saying that it is a bad movie. I liked its realistic and scientific approach. There should be more sci-fi movies done in such an earnest way. However, in my experience 'The Martian' does not succeed in truly captivating or intriguing you. See more: watch Avengers Infinity War online