Library Love: The Martian by Andy Weir

Yay!! I finally finished this book! I started it on the last week of December. I was not expecting it to take so long in reading this. Well...here's my review:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, Mark won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.


But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills—and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength–he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive.

But Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.

Goodreads

My Thoughts: I've been wanting to see the movie, The Martian, since it came out, but I was determined to read the book first. I debated for a while to read it because of the genre; I usually don't read science fiction. But, I've heard many great things about the novel, so I figured, what do I have to lose? And boy, did I have fun reading this! I was surprised on how much I ended up liking it. 

The story was told between Mark's journal documentation and the third person perspective of those in NASA. The going back and forth between the point of views worked very well. I was able to understand the emotions of all those involved in Mark's rescuing as well as comprehend the severity of Mark's case in being stranded in Mars. The change of perspectives intensified the story for me and had me hooked the whole time. The drama and danger became real as the author portrayed all of the characters' emotions. 

Now, I have to say I loved Mark's character. He was an incredibly intelligent man with a dry sense of humor. He had me awed on all of the things he did to survive on Mars yet still be able to crack some jokes. He had me laughing at all the outbursts that he had. For instance, one journal entry would end with, "This is going to work," and then the following journal entry will begin, "Shit. I'm screwed" (I paraphrased the quotes). Having this kind of humor made me continue reading the book. 

The only downside of this book that I had was all the scientific jargon. This novel took me longer to finish because it got too technical in many parts. It was not hard to understand, though. Everything was explained in a simplified manner but it was somewhat dry for me. Luckily, Mark's sense of humor and the danger behind everything kept me reading to the very end.

In the end, I was so glad that I read the book. This book has shown me that I CAN read science fiction and enjoy it. Yes, the scientific language kind of slowed me down, but I was able to get past it. Now I cannot wait to see the movie! I rate it: 

 

This book counts for the Library Love Challenge.