The Martian

Weir writes a highly entertaining story with The Martian. Entertaining enough that I took a second turn on the wait list at the library to finish it.

What I liked:
1. Mark Watney is a strong character. It's easy to identify him as a person writing a log rather than reading pages of story. Also, the natural conflict in the story was believable and well timed. To me the story felt like MacGyver on Mars, which is cool. 2. Watney keeps his optimism throughout the whole time he is on Mars. I'm not sure how many people would actually be able to do that for 18 months, but it's a spirit I admire.

What I didn't like:
1. The swearing. There is a lot of profanity in this book. Maybe this is true to the kind of people who work in these fields. In the case of the PR person for NASA, I'm not sure there is more than three sentences where she does not use the F word. This feels like a lazy way to show the stress. The biggest issue is that I have with profanity is that I see it as unintelligent. Sure, most people use it on occasion, but the overuse of the words rob them of power and meaning. 2. The tacked on message to humanity (or observation of?) at the end. I would like humanity to be basically good, but while this book illustrates this, I don't believe it bears out in reality or in psychology. Mind this is based on personal observation, a little dabbling in psychology, and my theological perspective.

Overall, this was a fun, exciting story. Take out half the profanity and swearing and it might get a 4 star rating. Still, as fun as it was, this isn't one I'd read again, even if edited.