My Goodreads review: The Martian

[ankh_hpl]

The Martian by Andy Weir

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I love SF. I love Mars, and the whole idea of going to Mars.

But somehow I just couldn’t quite love The Martian.

I suspect this is due to my own limited tolerance for very hard SF, or the level of geekery required to rescue Mark Watney after he gets stranded. Certainly Andy Weir does his best to make Mark likeable and quotable, on subjects ranging from duct tape to Martian agriculture. I had no trouble believing that the science was at least feasible. And I did enjoy experiencing (as closely as anyone would probably want to) life in the Hab.

Unfortunately, every exciting turn of events seemed to be followed by several pages of technical detail. I skimmed what I could, understood not much of it, and felt a bit frustrated by the time the problem was solved and the plot continued. Though I cared enough about all the characters to want them to succeed, it was a relief in more ways than one when they finally did.





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