The Martian
2011 • 384 pages

Ratings2,424

Average rating4.4

15

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for years. In that time I built high expectations that grew larger whenever I heard people talk about it. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace or something, but it was disappointingly only an okay read for me. 

Left behind on Mars, astronaut Mark Watney keeps a log of his survival efforts. The book follows his attempts to contact his crew so he can be rescued. 

I love the plot of this so much. Everything about it. What I didn't like was the narration style. It's not even the writing style itself as it works perfectly for this situation, rather, the overall voice. I guess I had imagined something more sophisticated sounding. A lot of it was comedic, which is great, I just don't think I was in the mood for it. 

I've heard many good things about the audiobook which I also own. I think I will revisit the book sometime that way and see if my opinion changes. 

May 17, 2023