This is right up there as one of the best books I’ve read this year. Extraordinary. Weir has managed to write at least half of the book in an environment where there is only one person – our hero, Mark Watney – so all the narrative has to come from him alone in the form of his mission log. And yet all those parts manage to have tension, amusement and pathos and still be page turners. Quite an accomplishment. The book is also scientifically very correct and detailed again without making it tedious; at least not for me, but then I do love hard science fiction.
Weir is a little harsh on Watney; it is quite obvious (and indeed Weir has more or less admitted as much) that he has tried to imagine everything that can possibly go wrong and then have it go wrong; at least everything for which a solution is possible. But the extraordinary thing is that although so many things do happen every problem and every solution is always both possible and plausible. Weir then combines all this hard science with good engaging writing and humour; this is a book that, for me (for once), actually lived up to all the hype and possibly exceeded it. It would be very interesting to get hold of a copy of the book before it was picked up by a publisher as I have heard it has been significantly improved by some good editorial polishing; it would be enlightening to see just how much.
There has clearly been a lot of very effective research done by Weir into the science (pretty much all on the internet I believe) and that science has been enthusiastically endorsed by NASA so he clearly researched well. He maintains great pace throughout the book and the writing is always easy to read even when delving deep into the science. Weir really does write well. Even though it’s obvious from the outset that Watney is going to survive (anything else would have made the book pointless) Weir still manages to create suspense and tension by working through the search for solutions in ways that draw the reader helplessly into the search. The only flaw I found in the writing is some of his characters are a little too stereotyped: nerdy socially handicapped software engineer, slightly (or maybe not so slightly) autistic astrodynamicist, slightly obsessive compulsive NASA manager (always organising his papers just so), stoic German, slightly gung-ho ex-military pilot and more. They are well drawn and the reader does get to know a surprisingly large number of them for such a small book but they are also mostly pretty stereotyped.
All in all a really great book. Now I must decide whether I dare watch the film!
PS: In all the marvellous science in the book there is only one bit I would pick Weir up on. He talks about freeze drying the potatoes by simply placing them outside; something that he describes as being possible on Mars but would not work on Earth. Actually this has been done by Quechua and Aymara peoples in the high Andes areas of South America since before the time of the Incas producing something know as Chuño which I came across in southern Peru and I’d have to say I found them something of a taste I struggled to acquire!
5/5 stars
Weir is a little harsh on Watney; it is quite obvious (and indeed Weir has more or less admitted as much) that he has tried to imagine everything that can possibly go wrong and then have it go wrong; at least everything for which a solution is possible. But the extraordinary thing is that although so many things do happen every problem and every solution is always both possible and plausible. Weir then combines all this hard science with good engaging writing and humour; this is a book that, for me (for once), actually lived up to all the hype and possibly exceeded it. It would be very interesting to get hold of a copy of the book before it was picked up by a publisher as I have heard it has been significantly improved by some good editorial polishing; it would be enlightening to see just how much.
There has clearly been a lot of very effective research done by Weir into the science (pretty much all on the internet I believe) and that science has been enthusiastically endorsed by NASA so he clearly researched well. He maintains great pace throughout the book and the writing is always easy to read even when delving deep into the science. Weir really does write well. Even though it’s obvious from the outset that Watney is going to survive (anything else would have made the book pointless) Weir still manages to create suspense and tension by working through the search for solutions in ways that draw the reader helplessly into the search. The only flaw I found in the writing is some of his characters are a little too stereotyped: nerdy socially handicapped software engineer, slightly (or maybe not so slightly) autistic astrodynamicist, slightly obsessive compulsive NASA manager (always organising his papers just so), stoic German, slightly gung-ho ex-military pilot and more. They are well drawn and the reader does get to know a surprisingly large number of them for such a small book but they are also mostly pretty stereotyped.
All in all a really great book. Now I must decide whether I dare watch the film!
PS: In all the marvellous science in the book there is only one bit I would pick Weir up on. He talks about freeze drying the potatoes by simply placing them outside; something that he describes as being possible on Mars but would not work on Earth. Actually this has been done by Quechua and Aymara peoples in the high Andes areas of South America since before the time of the Incas producing something know as Chuño which I came across in southern Peru and I’d have to say I found them something of a taste I struggled to acquire!
5/5 stars
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