The Martian by Andy Weir

Published by Del Rey Publishing, February 2014. (Review copy received)

ISBN: 978-0804139021

384 pages

Review by Mark Yon

In our review of 2013 at SFFWorld, Rob and I commented on the growth of self-published writers, who with a bit of an edit, a polish and a quick dusting over by genre publishers seemed to be a phenomenon at the moment.

And, no sooner than said, here’s my first of those for 2014. Andy Weir’s first published novel is a tale of survival. On Mars. Alone.

An accident in a dust storm leaves Mark Watney on Mars, believed dead. The rest of the crew of Ares 3 escaped and are heading back to Earth, unaware that Mark is still living.

The first part of the book is Watney’s log, typed as a means of recording what happened to him, and his last words before he dies due to one of many possibilities: fire, lack of oxygen to breathe, lack of water, lack of food… it’s a scary list of ways to die.

Yet he doesn’t let it get him down. Dealing with each problem as it happens, such as setting up a means of growing potatoes from Martian soil and bodily waste, is both simultaneously clever and rather unpleasant.

All he has to do is survive until the next mission arrives… in about 590 days.

It starts off a little wobbly, if I’m honest. The first 50 pages or so are just log entries from Witney as he explains what he is trying to do and how he is going to solve the problems in order to survive. This part does get a little bogged down in the science and the maths, though it does show that his thinking is sound, logical and intelligent.

The downside of this is that, at times, the narrative becomes a little repetitive, rather like a ‘how-to’ instruction manual – ‘first I did this, then I did that’, etc. Reading how Witney deals with basic survival issues is ingenious, but the rather basic writing style and the sheer amount of exposition could be a little wearying for some readers. Part of the reason for this repetitive style may be that, as I understand it, when it was originally published online it was in a serial format, with readers having to wait before reading the next part, and that does come across at times. What happens here as a consequence is that some details are occasionally repeated which, although useful as a reminder, have only been read a few pages before.

I could further quibble over Watney’s need to explain everything he does or needs to do in so much detail, as the only people likely to read it at first are specialists like himself. Obviously though for the non-scientific reader (such as myself!) it does help explain the situation nicely.

Reading the story from one person’s point of view can become a little monotone after a while and I found that the first fifty pages or so needed perseverance at times. Luckily, the book picks up pace a little when Watney is rediscovered by NASA on Earth. The story’s perspective broadens at this point to involve NASA staff, the crew who inadvertently left Watney behind and the upshot of the bureaucratic machine whirring into action, combining scientific genius solutions with endless administrational meetings and bureaucratic tasks. The general public also suddenly become interested in this single survivor on a distant planet.

The tension of the tale is escalated when a rescue mission, or at least a survival package, is hastily put together. But Mark has over 500 days to survive until the support arrives. And for all his ingenuity, courage and endurance, there is danger every day. From ensuring his supplies of air, food and water to dealing with sandstorms, decompression, faulty equipment and a total lack of communication with other people, Mark Watney seems to generally manage. Considering the difficult situation Watney is in, his humour throughout is a nice counterbalance to the screamingly-bad events that happen just when you think he’s turned a corner. Watney himself comes across as a likeable and, most of all, believable character, with enough wit, humour and intelligence to survive.

Looking for comparisons, it’s sort of Apollo 13-meets-Robinson-Crusoe-on-Mars, and I guess for those who enjoyed the films Gravity or Moon*, this one will be a literary equivalent. Written in small, digestible chunks, The Martian is a prime example of the ‘I’ll just read one more chapter’ novel. As a great page-turner, this is a book that winningly deals with adversity through science and ingenuity. I was, in the end, totally won over by this book in its celebration of how humans can deal with anything the harshness of science and extreme environments can pose, and it kept me reading longer than I meant to.

The Martian is defiantly a science fiction novel, but a fictional tale with enough science in it to make it feel like fact. This is one for the aficionado who loves science fiction, but complains there’s not enough science in science fiction.

Recommended.

*including me.

Mark Yon, January 2014.

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