Mark Whitney was nearly killed by a dust storm on Mars and was abandoned by his crew who thought him dead. Now he's all alone with no way of letting Earth know he's alive, which doesn't matter because his supplies would run out before they'd get there. Either way, the environment or human error will likely kill him first. Not giving in, Mark works to survive, battling obstacle after obstacle, but will it be enough?
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Mark Whitney was nearly killed by a dust storm on Mars and was abandoned by his crew who thought him dead. Now he's all alone with no way of letting Earth know he's alive, which doesn't matter because his supplies would run out before they'd get there. Either way, the environment or human error will likely kill him first. Not giving in, Mark works to survive, battling obstacle after obstacle, but will it be enough?
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Add this copy of The Martian to cart. $74.97, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by Podium Publishing on Brillianc.
This book is so interesting if your sci fi appeal is under the genre of 'near future/realistic science' subtitles as in books that are sci fi but are close to reality or not set to far out where it's plausible. I love sci fi but I don't like books that focus on aliens or something that is so overly produced and never great and so this was a perfect read for me. It was an absolute bonus to have read it about 6 months before I even knew it was going to be made into a feature film and I read several books at once so this was finished maybe 3 months before it hit the big screen with Matt Damon and it was so interesting to see how it came a live. It made me want to read more books which movies were based on! Such an enjoyable experience! this book is based on actual science and the author had worked or was around those fields and so he knew who to consult with making it as real as possible much like the book/movie Interstellar. I highly recommend. You'll love this book!
kmr86
May 16, 2016
Interesting sci-fi
You might think that reading about a person living in a rover for 550 days could get boring, but no, this book was absolutely gripping. Watney was very resourceful, and the book does a good job of explaining the scientific approach to his problems. In a sense the book is a bunch of puzzles: this went wrong and how can it be fixed? The sense of tension remains high throughout the book because something always goes wrong, and when it does I always found myself rooting for Mark to pull through. Over all it was a very entertaining book.
oddjohn
Nov 4, 2015
blast off
Interesting novel, kept me involved from the start, ending was good, overall an excellent novel. enjoyed it immensely. thanks
Jim
Oct 22, 2015
Exciting Novel, But Get a Dictionary!
The Martian
If a non-sci fi buff sees that title, they may imagine Martians arriving to Earth to create problems or even remember an echo of a film with a similar premise - Robinson Crusoe on Mars - but not so!
First Words:
The book is written in a diary format for the first 300 pages or so, with occasional flashbacks for the reader to catch up. Mark Watley was left for dead during a terrific sandstorm while he and his crew abandoned the site and headed back to Earth.
Mark got very lucky. He is irascible, has quite the potty mouth and has a hatred for disco. With all that, it's admirable his fight to survive, every decision a matter of life or death, on a planet with below zero temperatures and an atmosphere that is extremely unbreathable.
Really liked this story. The break-down of his day to day was hilarious. "Today I f*cked up. Sh*t" runs throughout the book. Through Mark we meet his commanding officer Lewis, and his other NASA astronauts.
The remaining part of the book involves NASA as they prepare Mark's funeral, Commander Lewis chewing up the scenery as she depressingly realizes she's abandoned Mark to the Mars desert. And the media and world at large caught up in the story.
I think the best part of the book is Mark's attempt at making food. NASA left a few potatoes so they would have real rather than reconstituted food. He then mixes Martian dirt with his own, uhm, fertilizer, and has a regular farm in the "Hab."
Technology:
I was taken aback by a lot of the technical words in this novel. The author is a science/math nerd and it shows. I did a search and found several blogs that define many of these words. I even found on Google Maps a map of Mars to follow Mark's travels!
NASA:
It's interesting, the author's take on the bureaucracy of the NASA people and how some of them really have an attitude problem. This part of the story was a bit tedious to read. At least no soap opera!
Conclusion:
The ending was quite abrupt. Some may like that, or maybe the author ran out of ideas. This is the guy's second novel he's ever written and already he gets movie rights! I want more. And I want NASA to make fiction a reality and get some guys up there!
Malcolm J
Jul 6, 2015
The Martian. Unputdownable.
Terrific read. Really enjoyed it. Rivetting. The wife read it after me, and couldn't put it down. What a book. Ace.
