The Martian by Andy Weir - My review

The reason I picked this book

This is a unique experience: I watched the movie in 2017, read it this week and rewatched the film once I finished the book. So it’s been 5 years since I watched the movie and I only remember two scenes the potato harvest and a nerd guy at NASA figuring out the shortest rendezvous to Mars.

I read ‘Project Hail Mery’ by Andy Weir last year, and it's easily the best sci-fi I've ever read. I tuned to it on audible and Ray porter’s narration is the best thing if you are looking to utilize the free credits of Audible. This year I thought I should try Martian. 

Martian audible version is about 11 hours and it took me three weeks to finish it, over this time you get to live with this character and walk along with him on the Martian planet, I must appreciate the movie version where we get to see the visual version like the opening scenes; the beautiful aerial shots of Mars and the events leading up to the accident were amazing and

Movie vs Book

If there is a movie version out there already, it's a natural tendency to overlook the book version, but trust me, the book has much more to offer. 

As collider.com puts it, "The Book Adores Science: The Movie Adores Thrills." Andy Weir strips down the hard sci-fi and makes it easier for the reader by adding humour and story. While the movie is thrilling, the pacing is pretty spot-on, yet there are some sizable jumps in time.

“The Book Adores Science; The Movie Adores Thrills”

The Martian: Movie vs Book Comparisons and Similarities (collider.com)

I feel like the filmmakers could have done a better job of representing the characters' challenges in the book. For example, I wish they would have included more scenes of the journey to Pathfinder. In the book, this is a crucial part of the story, and it’s really the last big “issue” Watney faces before he tries to escape Mars. But in the movie, they omit that struggle completely and show Mark travelling to the other base pretty quickly. I think this leaves out an important aspect of the story that would have helped connect the viewer to the character's experience.

I thought the whole story arc of him not being able to communicate with Earth while he was travelling to the Ares 4 site was incredible. The way he figured out the dust storms' movements and all. I would have rather ditched the Iron Man ending as well as that post-credit scene where he is on Earth and training NASA astronauts.

As a Reddit user points out, for some the movie makers changed the ethnicity of characters, from Venkat Kapoor to Vincent Kapoor.

Excerpt

Here is my Favorite excerpt from the book:

"Every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it's true. If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. This is so fundamentally human that it's found in every culture without exception. Yes, there are assholes who just don't care, but they're massively outnumbered by those who do. And because of that, I had billions of people on my side."

My rating: 5/5. even if you watched the movie, you should go and check out the book. 


Here is a fun thread from Reddit.
When you lend your "The Martian" book to a chemist. : funny (reddit.com)