Published: February 11, 2014 by: Crown
Pages: 369
Rating: 4/5 stars
Mark Watney had just become one of the first astronauts to walk on Mars. Then, after a dust storm causes his crew to evacuate and assume he was dead, Mark finds himself stranded on the red planet. All alone. But Mark is determined to survive. With his botanic engineering skills, he constructs a plan to grow food, rebuild damaged rovers, and get contact back to Nasa. But time, along with his food supply, is running out, and Nasa must decide how to get the first man on Mars, off of it.
I committed the sin of watching this movie long before I read the book. IT WAS OSCAR'S SEASON AND I WAS WATCHING ALL THE MOVIES, OK?! But anyways, this book filled up all the expectations of what I thought was a great movie. It was funny, clever, and even light hearted at times.
I liked how this book uses humour as a main element to it. It's not all drama, death and science fiction, but Mark had a great wittiness about him and provided comic relief to even the toughest of times. The author gave Mark a brilliant and very distinct voice, that I found myself even laughing out loud at times. It was very well done.
I also liked how this book was very easy to get through. I didn't find it boring even though there were heavy scientifical elements, and I think the humour helped with that. I definitely think that even if you're not a fan of science fiction, you would still like this book.
The one somewhat negative thing I'd have to say about this book is that I think that if I hadn't seen the movie first, I wouldn't have understood the book that much. I think that some scientific terms and problems that Mark encountered could have been hard to understand having not seen to first, so I think the movie helped a lot. It might be a bit confusing.
Overall though, this book was very well done. It was hilarious, interesting, and will have you cheering on Mark the entire way.
Have you read The Martian? What did you think?
Emily @ Paperback Princess
Ha, I watch movies before the book a lot (welcome to the life of a Bookish Rebel! ;P) It's actually encouraged me to read a lot of books that I wouldn't otherwise have given a chance.
ReplyDeleteI think it sometimes does that to me as well! Like for example I probably would never think to pick this up if it hadn't had been for the movie.
DeleteI've perversely just bought this book!! WHAT INCREDIBLE TIMING *applauds fate*. Super glad you like it: it definitely has some fab write-ups, and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into it (and then watching the film, because that too looks pretty great)
ReplyDeleteAhh I hope you love it! What a coincidence! The movie and the book tie in really well together also!
DeleteI haven't read this book yet, but I watched the movie and I really liked it! The actors are amazing and I really appreciated how Watney could find positivity among his terrible reality. I really want to pick up the book, but I was a bit hesitant, since I may get lost on all the scientific terms. I'm glad you said the movie made it clearer for you, because then it won't be such a huge problem.
ReplyDeleteGreat review, Emily!
Yeah I wasn't keen on the science terms either but the movie made me look past them! If you want to read the book I would totally recommend it :)
DeleteI haven't read this book or at least watched the movie (I'm weird like that) but it's great that it wasn't that complicated even though there were lots of scientific terms and stuff...but, yeah, it's possible that it might have seemed less complicated for you because you watched the movie first. Great review, Em! :)
ReplyDeleteI do think that watching the movie first helped me out a lot. I was so surprised by how much I liked this!
DeleteI watched the film before reading the book too, on a complete whim when me and my boyfriend couldn't decide what to watch. I really didn't know what to expect and I couldn't get my head round what could possibly be exciting, but I thought the film was excellent! I borrowed the book from the library a couple of months ago intending to read it but never got round to it, I would like to though - I'm glad you say that it lived up to your expectations after watching the film, because I was really worried about it not being as good :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by my blog!