Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

Author: Andy Weir
Publisher: Crown
Number of Pages: 369

Synopsis:

"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 & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he 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 isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?"

I picked this book up after I saw the trailer for the movie. Now that was a while ago, and it did take me a while to read the book but not because it was slow but because I didn't really have time. Obviously, you guys know because of the lack of posts. Sorry once again. But, because it took me so long to read I really connected with the book. 

My favorite part of the book was its humor. You'd think that a guy trapped on Mars would be all business, but while Watney spent most of the book doing just that he also had a type of humor that kept the reader laughing in times of crisis. 

I would just like to give a round of applause to the author because this book must have taken FOREVER to write because the science and technological aspects of this book were very detailed. I was really confused at some parts and I had to read certain parts of the book multiple times before I understood what was going on. But really it wasn't off putting at all, really it just made the book more interesting.

I also found the reactions of the media and NASA very interesting. I started craving the point of views of those on Earth and the crew of Ares 3 because of how I related to them. I started thinking about how I would feel if this had happened in our society today and I wondered if our society would actually stay interested in his survival for so long. I think they would. Hopefully they would.

I'm going to recommend this book to everyone whose in high school and over because the book may get confusing for anyone who doesn't have that level of education yet. Also, there was some swearing and stuff, but you guys will be fine. One of the best book of the year!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!