Title of Book: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir
Publisher: Large Print Press
Publication Year: 2015
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 560
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.
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The Martian follows astronaut Mark Watney. He is involved in a mission to explore Mars. On the first day, a dust storm forced the team to abort the mission and evacuate. It’s causing Mark to be separated from the team. Because of his torn suit, his personal transponder transmitted no sign of life. Assuming that Mark is dead, the remaining team then left him. It turns out that Mark is still alive. Mark hopes that the next mission will rescue him and take him back to earth. It’s just that the next mission is scheduled to arrive over a year later so he has to find a way to survive living in Mars with limited resources.
The Martian is written mostly in log entry format. It is basically Mark’s daily journal on surviving in Mars. Mark himself is a botanist and a mechanical engineer of Ares 3 crew. Early on he explained that each member of Ares 3 specializes in two areas of expertise. His skills would actually come in handy for Mark’s survival in Mars.
Reading Mark’s narrative was enjoyable. Although there is some technical stuff that went over my head, I think Weir managed to write in the way that’s easy to understand by most people. For example, in this book Mark explained how critical his resource is by using simple math to detail how many calories, oxygen, and water a person needs to survive for days. Mark’s wit and sarcasm help to lighten up the heavy science and despair situation as well. Based on his log, we can see how resourceful Mark is. Often times, we found him in a precarious state. When all hope seems lost, because of his knowledge in botany and mechanic, yet again Mark manages to solve the problems he faced.
I think the question in this book is how far would we go to save someone? Is a person’s life worth it? In the Martian, we’re faced with extreme problem, in which an astronaut, Mark Watney, stranded in a planet. Saving him would cost a lot of money and involved many people. Nevertheless, the responses in this book are all positive it even unites people all over. Despite of how desperate and stressful this book can be, it’s still heartwarming and hopeful reading that people root for Mark’s safety.
Overall, I really enjoy reading this book. The Martian teaches us about perseverance and endurance. I admire Mark’s strength, tenacity, and humor which he used to cope with his unfortunate fate. I used to love astronomy and space and this book reignites that sparks. It gets me excited with space exploration again. I highly recommend this book to anyone because you don’t need to be a scientist or an engineer to be able to enjoy this book, seriously.
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