The Martian

So I've read a lot of books this year, and most of them have been fun. Lots of 4 stars. Very few that actually strike an emotional chord (which is my main crieria for hitting five). The Martian just wiped the floor with all of them and is by far my favorite thing I've read all year.

Let it be said that while I occasionally read hard sci-fi, most of it is way over my head and I'm in no way fit to judge the accuracy of such novels. When I finished this book, I felt better versed in space travel and how exactly humans can get such a thing done. I may not have understood all the physics, but Weir takes a concept people spend multiple doctorates on and makes it comprehensible to the average space fangirl.

And it's not boring! Too often, hard sci-fi spends so much time explaining how such and such is possible, I forget why I'm supposed to care in the first place. I never stopped caring in this book. Every technical detail was directly connected to Mark's survival, and his sense of humor and clever analogies kept the pace moving firmly ahead. Mark is resourceful, entertaining, and entirely loveable. He's like Wash if Wash were stranded on Mars. Alan Tudyk should play him in the movie. I could not stop reading this yesterday and churned through way more than is strictly healthy for my bedtime. I just couldn't sleep knowing something else was going to go terribly wrong at any moment. Don't pick this book up without a solid block of time to devote to it. It's not long, but you won't want to take a break.

So far the book is smart and engaging, but what really got me is the way it balances Mark's mission and NASA. NASA does a lot for Mark, obviously, but the times he is at his best are when all the bureaucratic strings are cut. Mark succeeds partially because of team of people rooting for him to survive, but mostly because the people rooting for him all either trust him to do his job or have no choice but to let him do his job. Same for the folks on Hermes. I felt a real kinship in this book for what humans can do when we are allowed to just do our jobs without anyone babysitting or critiquing.

Of course, Mark also screws up plenty of times because no one is babysitting, but such is balance.

There's a few odds and ends that bugged me. I can't believe a geek like Mark brought none of his own entertainment with him... or that anyone on the ship would have brought no entertainment or only one variety of entertainment, and the world rooting as one for Watney is a bit over the top, but Weir balances that out with the bureaucratic worlds actual discussion of budget cuts and mission safety regulations. Nothing actually hampers my enjoyment of the Story. And it gets a capital Story.

Man vs. the Elements may be older than Robinson Crusoe, but Weir does the archetype proud in this novel. Highly recommended to Space Pirates everywhere.