Paperback, 369 pages
English language
Published May 11, 2015 by Del Rey.
I’m stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Earth. If the Oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the Habitat breaches, I'll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death. I'm screwed. --back cover
I went in with the understanding this was a book about a bunch of whatif science problems so enjoyed it. The author did a good job of keeping things moving forward without getting too bogged down in detail. The structure of the story meant the protagonist was maybe the most upbeat superhuman I’ve met so it there was no emotional stakes but that was by design.
Content warning Minor spoilers about character-building
The Martian still rocks. It has everything that I love in those YouTube video where they walk you through their process of making a cool new machine (https://youtube.com/watch?v=vsTTXYxydOE&feature=share).
A few times throughout the book, Mark’s plans went out the airlock and he expresses his frustration and hopelessness to the log. Then in the next log, he’s back to working the problem. He decides to survive “off camera” and I think that we missed an essential part of his character.
Obwohl ich den Film schon kannte und wusste was passiert war das Hörbuch doch bin zum Ende spannend und fesselnd.
And probably at least semi realistic? Didn't like it as much as Project Hail Mary by the same author. This sorta read as a sequence of "oh crap, another thing went wrong" problems, followed by solutions. I'm certain this is realistic - or even still overly optimistic, given what they were surviving through - but kinda made for an overly long, repetitive narrative. I suspect this is part of why they cut some of these out of the movie (and to save time, but also it got repetitive). Nevertheless, a fun read if you enjoy sci-fi that sticks close to contemporary science.
Divertido e nerdy, adorei!
No actual characters. Extreme Mary Sue. At least it's a quick read.
