The Martian
Recently, I read this book, The Martian by retired software engineer Andy Weir and loved it. I had had it read to me before as a kid and watched the movie but reading it again was a whole different experience. I do not read many fiction books but this was an exception. The Martian had me hooked with its drama and constant action. When the main character, Mark Watney, wakes up, he is in the middle of the harsh Martian landscape with little to no hope of survival. Throughout the first couple days, he stumbles back to the Hab (portable Martian living space) and tried to settle in as his inevitable demise becomes real in his mind.
Despite this, Watney is a survivor; he uses math to figure out how to survive. In these parts, Weir excels, he walks the reader through each calculation and justifies all his ridiculous stories with math. By page 50, Watney has a plan to survive including food, water and oxygen. Now he just needs to be able to get back to earth. Weir accomplishes this by involving several different perspective into the story. People from NASA and astronauts returning to Earth after leaving Watney for dead "Watney, obviously we're very happy to hear you survived. As the person responsible for your situation, I wish there was more I could do to directly help" (p.148). I will not say anything else to not spoil the book.
Most people have probably watched the movie because it was a bigger hit than the book. But if you are thinking I don't really need to read the book, I know what happens, you are very wrong. I've said it before and I'll say it again, books are almost always better than their movies. The movie leaves out so much of the book's details. For example, when Watney accidentally shorts his circuit and fries his only communication with Earth. Or how he has to navigate around a huge sand storm. Both of these are crucial scenes in the book but never appear in the movie. Don't get me wrong, the movie still does a good job of including major plot points but not finer details, which are my favorite part.
In addition, the movie does not quite capture Weir's hilarious dialogue from Watney. All the movie can show is the actual scenes, not Watney's later interpretations of them in his logs. Watney's logs and writing make these scenes ten times better. For example, when Watney's experiment in the Hab goes wrong; the movie plays the scene as usual but in the book, Watney writes things like "Everything went great right up to the explosion." (p. 43).
My only complaint about the book is that Mark Watney as a character is flat and does not develop very much throughout the novel. Throughout the whole novel he essentially runs into problem after problem, deals with it, makes jokes about duct tape ("Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped" p.220), and talks about how much he misses Earth. This ends up not being too much of a problem because it is still fun to read even with very little character development. Also, the plot is repetitive but still thrilling to read even if it it is roughly the same thing over and over again.
Overall I recommend this book to anyone with some free time. You'll be totally immersed in the action, unable to look up as Watney gets obstacle after obstacle hurled at him. And if you are ok with the over 160 bad words in this book and Weir's extremely nerdy writing, I would 100% recommend this book.
-Jesse
I have read parts of the book before and I would definitely agree that the book is very immersive. I really liked the way the book used a adaption of how NASA actually communicates and solves problems as well as how the book seems to incorporate a certain degree of science.
ReplyDeleteI have also seen the movies the movie and really enjoyed it and I think that it is really cool how you compare the two and provide a specific example of your point. I also think it is cool how you go into the humor of the book and I fully agree with his opinion on the blessing that is duct tape. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI've only watched the movie but now I think I might get the book as well. I'm surprised how many key scenes are missing in it, and how much less detail it could have. I'm not very fond of flat characters or repetitive plots, but it might still be interesting.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite elements of the book was how realistic it was. It takes a much more scientific approach as opposed to many other sci fi stories, especially during the climax of the story (which I won't spoil)
ReplyDeleteI loved this book! Your summary is spot on and I would agree that you should definitely read the book even if you watched the movie. I first saw the movie and after reading this there was so many things different I almost forgot the movie was based on the book. Either way, nice post.
ReplyDeleteI have read both the book and seen the movie, and I think it is the only movie I have watched where there is less swearing in the film than there is in the book, and while excessive profanity can ruin dialogue I think that it lends authenticity to the dialogue of the book because if I was stranded 181 million miles from Earth I wouldn't care to much about the language I used.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this book as well! I kind of agree with your post about character development now that I think about it, but the story was so interesting I really didn't feel like it was missing anything. I really loved the narration style in the book. Oftentimes when authors go for that written log kind of writing style, it doesn't add anything. It's super dry to read and seems like the author was just looking for a way to be quirky and unique instead of thinking about the story. The narration style is not only funny but it also draws you in and makes you feel like you're facing the problems together.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this book and watching the movie quite a few years ago. Oddly, I didn't notice the repetition in the plot, but maybe that's because I didn't have too much experience with reading at that point. I think The Martian is one of the rare examples of the movie and book being on equal footing in terms of quality. Sure, the movie had to condense the plot down to become a feature length movie, but the visuals and acting bring it back up to part with the book.
ReplyDeleteHm, interesting review - this certainly seems like an intriguing book, and your comparisons between it and its movie counterpart illustrate that point quite well. I suspect that the lack of character development that you bring up may be a result of the novel's unique setting - as characters usually develop through meaningful interactions with other characters, it makes sense that a protagonist trapped in isolation on Mars' desolate terrain is not going to have many opportunities to go through such experiences.
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