K-SCORE: 95
Author: Andy Weir
Spoiler Level: Major
The Martian by Andy Weir is a survival story of a man left behind and presumed dead on his Mars mission and the struggle he endures to have hope of one day being rescued. The non-spoiler version of this distilled to its essence: if you’re at all interested in science fiction, survival stories, and/or enjoy funny novels or emotionally gravitating novels, read The Martian. It’s fantastic.
“a brave, hopeful, and comical inventor, botanist, and engineer on the frigid dead rock”
I had a feeling I was in for a good one as this was published in October of 2014 and I’d received two recommendations to read it between then and March of 2015, when I actually did. One from Madeline and one from Colleen, who has never recommended a book to me before, so that stood out. It’s not hard to see why I would like it. Apart from being the story of a single clever man, science fiction, and survival, it’s also mostly told through journal entries! Journal entries that have a tendency towards the sarcastic. Oh Weir - we’re weird kindred spirits.
“documenting all he has to do in order to not die is hilarious”
Astronaut Mark Watney documenting all he has to do in order to not die is hilarious. He curses Mars for being a frigid wasteland that continues to throw dire challenges at him, mocks the absurdity of having to go through everyday life so far estranged from the rest of humanity, and isn’t above inserting crass jokes into his scientific log. Many moments had me laughing out loud. One involving a laptop review forced me to put the book down for a few minutes I found it so funny.
The Martian takes more than enough steps up the stairwell of scientific accuracy as well. Andy Weir is clearly far more passionate about real science, scientists, space, and astronauts than he is about telling stories. He worked out many complex chemical reactions, engineering issues, and astrophysics problems, as well as did the math on rationing, rocketry equations, etc. and much of what is contained is a series of simply stated summaries of these obstacles and solutions. Why wasn’t this dull? Mostly because of Watney’s good humor, but there’s more to it. Plausibility is an extremely important part of something being cool. This felt plausible every step of the way because of Weir’s research and because of the reverence he has for NASA and the actual kinds of people who might travel to Mars. You’d have to be an expert in a specific field to even doubt Weir’s work. And you root for Watney partly because of his expertise. He’s a man who knows how to do things. Weir creates a nightmare situation and simultaneously the one character who might actually have a chance of seeing it through to the end. Watney’s a brave, hopeful, and comical inventor, botanist, and engineer on the frigid dead rock that is Mars.
For a while, Weir follows only Watney. As the story progresses to the point where NASA knows he’s alive and alone there and eventually to the point that he’s in contact with them, the narrative branches out to include the story of the people on Earth, what they’re doing to help him, and the crew that was forced to assume he was dead after a Martian storm. Those are good characters too, but no Watney. In the end, I thought there was too much NASA, though I did like that their perspectives provide the reader with the sense that everyone on Earth is watching and rooting for him. It makes his triumphs at the end more heartwarming. The crew is another wonderful bunch of characters. I could envision camaraderie between them even though it’s mostly the story of Watney alone. Weir manages to introduce and develop the team of six and flesh out the story of their coming to Mars without ever feeling like he’s gotten overly sidetracked from Watney’s survival mission. Three additional years in space just for a chance to get back their lost crewmate… I was deeply touched by their collective choice. And even though the voyage between Earth and Mars twice is perilous and they hold guilt for having left Watney behind, as with the rest of the writing, the story of the crew never loses its sense of humor or its optimistic joy.
There’s an interesting structure at the heart of The Martian whether Weir realizes it or not. The narrative doesn’t have an antagonist. Sometimes, I suppose, in survival stories, the antagonist is simply the wild. Weir tried to insert bits about Mars being out to get the sole person living there, and Watney curses the planet a few times, but mostly the reader gains an appreciation of the dead planet and its cold empty beauty. With Watney stuck there, there’s no reason for anyone to be rooting for anything other than his safe return to Earth, exceptionally difficult though that is. If he’d died at the end, it would have been insanely dark - gone from one of the funniest, most uplifting novels of all I’ve read to among the most disturbing and saddest of tales out there.
My only complaints with The Martian seem unfair. I felt Weir had stumbled upon story gold and he decided to forge it into bricks instead of a giant shining eagle. There’s not a great deal of description. Mostly it’s plot advancement, scientific explanation, and dialogue (and mostly told directly to you through his log). All that is great, but the setting warrants more attention. Space and Mars are alluring and frightening at once. (Same with other worlds - even fake blue ones.) Also, Watney could have progressed more psychologically, or more time could have been spent on his developing neuroses as a result of so much time alone on Mars. There’s some of that, but I wanted more. He get’s sick of eating potatoes because they’re his only food source, but does he also get sick of spending 10 minutes ten times a day donning or removing his EVA suit? Does he get annoyed by the tint of his visor after a hundred days? Does he sleep in the bed that had been designated him in the HAB or does he sleep in his crew’s vacant beds? Is he talking to himself more at the start of his time or more towards the end? There’s so much potential!
My biggest issue though is again reflective of how truly great this novel is. The denouement is way too short. The book ends literally two pages after Watney is finally reeled in to safety. I was rooting for him to survive so much, with so much emotional investment, that I could have read thirty pages of Watney joyously reuniting with his crew, coming home on the Hermes, seeing his family, meeting the NASA people that worked around the clock to do their part in saving him, maybe falling in love with the timid girl who’d been tasked with watching his every move on satellite. Instead I got a joke about how he needed a shower and a little blurb about humans helping each other in times of crisis. Both fine - not nearly sufficient for the gravitas of this text.
Andy Weir, it’s a good sign that the best I can come up with for ways to improve your novel is to add more of it in various parts. That means there are great accomplishments contained within. If you decide to keep writing, I’ll promptly buy whatever you jot down next.