A review by chrisljm
The Martian by Andy Weir

adventurous challenging hopeful informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Ngl I was confused for about 20% of the book because of all the math, science, and engineering. My brain was working overtime to understand and imagine everything. I tried my best but I'm pretty sure I was making shit up sometimes. But nonetheless, I still appreciated the amount of science and research that went into this book and it felt incredibly realistic (but what do I know, because I will not be fact-checking at all). 

Although I enjoyed Project Hail Mary much more, this was still good and I was invested in the mission to save Mark Watney as well. The humor gets kinda childish, but it still made me laugh a few times. 

I will say I was curious on how Andy Weir was going to handle the narrative of Watney being the only man on Mars and trying to survive and make it back to Earth. I thought it was very much going to be a solo mission and so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that we were also going to get the pov of the crew on Earth who are also working to save Watney's life. I think this is what I enjoyed most about the book, that even though Watney is physically on his own on another planet, he's not in the fight alone because he has a whole team and crew working with him to save his life. It was very touching to see the amount of people working to save one person. 
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