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A review by actuallyjusthanne
The Martian by Andy Weir
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Contrary to most other movie/book pairings, I watched the movie of this book before I read it, which actually improved the experience for me? I don't know whether I would have picked up this book had I not watched the movie. I was browsing Libby looking for something that I would want to read and came across this book, so I borrowed it and read it all in one day. The main thing going for this book is that the writing style flows super easily and how easy it is to read: it is written very conversationally in various journal entries/logs from the point of view of the main character.
The writing style worked super well for this book: there was a lot of complicated science/tech language, some of which I understood, some of which I didn't. It was explained well I think, and in a way that it wasn't necessary to understand the science to understand the rest of the book, which is key in writing complicated sci-fi. The narrator is witty and makes his day to day interesting, and the plot and storyline moves super quickly.
The premise of the book was simple, yet interesting to follow. The stakes were sky high (lol, literally) and at every opportunity, there was a possibility of things going very very wrong. It was super interesting to see each subsequent challenge that came up and how he dealt with the issue in a self-deprecatingly funny yet super smart way.
My favorite part of this book was definitely the humor: the story is so easy to follow and is humorously written., which makes it really fun and easy to read, even though the topics/concepts it cover are a little/pretty dense.
To contrast, my least favorite part of the book was the weird sexist remarks. There were some remarks that were like oh okay this is just how Dudes be but then there were some remarks that were like . . . are you an incel, are you good? There was a whole passage about how he was doing some thinking about women "[. . .] if I could have <i>anything</i>, it would be for the green-skinned yet beautiful Queen of Mars to rescue me so she can learn more about this Earth thing called "lovemaking." It's been a log time since I've seen a woman. Just sayin'" (and then he continues). I'm not sure how to explain it, but some of the dialogue and messaging about women were a little sus.
In the same vein, there were a few particularly egregious passages where one guy's (heavily implied) autism was commented on pretty glaringly (including the words "childlike smile" and "beamed" as well as another guy's German accent/stereotyping was super strong. Not a huge fan about that.
I don't know what about it was the issue, but the random passages in third person kind of gave me the ick? like in the passage wherethe canvas popped and there was a whole passage about the actions of the canvas????? Reading that passage kinda really gave me the ick lol. I think it was how jarring the tone shift was that was the issue. There were a few other passages similar, and I also didn't like them, but they weren't as sus as that one.
All in all this book was really fun to read! It isn't one of my favorite books of all time, but it is definitely one that I would be interested in rereading again some day and is a good one that I would recommend to others.
The writing style worked super well for this book: there was a lot of complicated science/tech language, some of which I understood, some of which I didn't. It was explained well I think, and in a way that it wasn't necessary to understand the science to understand the rest of the book, which is key in writing complicated sci-fi. The narrator is witty and makes his day to day interesting, and the plot and storyline moves super quickly.
The premise of the book was simple, yet interesting to follow. The stakes were sky high (lol, literally) and at every opportunity, there was a possibility of things going very very wrong. It was super interesting to see each subsequent challenge that came up and how he dealt with the issue in a self-deprecatingly funny yet super smart way.
My favorite part of this book was definitely the humor: the story is so easy to follow and is humorously written., which makes it really fun and easy to read, even though the topics/concepts it cover are a little/pretty dense.
To contrast, my least favorite part of the book was the weird sexist remarks. There were some remarks that were like oh okay this is just how Dudes be but then there were some remarks that were like . . . are you an incel, are you good? There was a whole passage about how he was doing some thinking about women "[. . .] if I could have <i>anything</i>, it would be for the green-skinned yet beautiful Queen of Mars to rescue me so she can learn more about this Earth thing called "lovemaking." It's been a log time since I've seen a woman. Just sayin'" (and then he continues). I'm not sure how to explain it, but some of the dialogue and messaging about women were a little sus.
In the same vein, there were a few particularly egregious passages where one guy's (heavily implied) autism was commented on pretty glaringly (including the words "childlike smile" and "beamed" as well as another guy's German accent/stereotyping was super strong. Not a huge fan about that.
I don't know what about it was the issue, but the random passages in third person kind of gave me the ick? like in the passage where
All in all this book was really fun to read! It isn't one of my favorite books of all time, but it is definitely one that I would be interested in rereading again some day and is a good one that I would recommend to others.