Author Topic: The Martian  (Read 19694 times)

big_slacker

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The Martian
« on: April 25, 2015, 10:55:34 PM »
Did a search and nothing came up, so sorry if this book has already been discussed.

The Martian by Andy Weir. A manned mission to mars goes bad leaving one crew member presumed dead but actually stranded.  He's a botanist/mechanical engineer and uses plenty of math, chemistry and good old fashioned duct tape redneck-rigging in an attempt to survive. Really fun book with a great sense of nerd humor if you're into that. Guess it's gonna be made into a movie, not sure that'll translate well.

Short except with some of the humor:

[11:52] WATNEY: The crops are potatoes, grown from the ones we were supposed to prepare on Thanksgiving. They’re doing great, but the available farmland isn’t enough for sustainability. I’ll run out of food around Sol 900. Also: Tell the crew I’m alive! What the fuck is wrong with you?
[12:04] JPL: We’ll get botanists in to ask detailed questions and double-check your work. Your life is at stake, so we want to be sure. Sol 900 is great news. It’ll give us a lot more time to get the supply mission together. Also, please watch your language. Everything you type is being broadcast live all over the world.
[12:15] WATNEY: Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)

Duchess of Stratosphear

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2015, 07:56:50 AM »
I just finished this and really liked it (although his log entries sometimes strained credibility--are you going to stop and do a log entry just after your rover turns over? Really?) Also, I'm not sure I buy that someone stranded in a hostile environment is going to be cracking jokes all the time, but in spite of that, I couldn't stop reading it! I'm not a scientist, but the science seems plausible and the explanations of it aren't too lengthy for those of us just reading for a good story. If it were made into a film, I would imagine that a cross between something like "Apollo 13" and "Gravity" would work.

I would imagine that the crafty DIY survival aspects of this book would appeal to a lot of the folks on this forum.

kvaruni

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2015, 08:13:10 AM »
Very good book, and I don't think the jokes or logs are off. The guy is stranded long enough for normalcy to kick in and humour is definitely something that keeps you going, whereas logs are a strong contemplative tool to come up with your next great idea. As a science guy, I'm impressed by the accuracy of the book. It takes quite a bit of skill to write a book that is both entertaining and scientifically believable. True, some ideas are out there (like the computer hack), but they definitely are in the realm of (remotely) plausible.

big_slacker

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2015, 08:35:13 AM »
True, some ideas are out there (like the computer hack), but they definitely are in the realm of (remotely) plausible.

The pathfinder hack thing, like you say is remotely plausible. I mean, it's not a big deal in linux to pipe to a logfile or hack together a manual (small) patch. But that hinges on the OS not being completely locked down/hardcoded as it might be on something designed to run a robot on the freakin surface of mars! But it's fiction after all. :)

Wupper

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2015, 09:38:44 AM »
I read the book a year ago. Didn't like it at all. Boring and repetitive:

1) Identify big problem.
2) Solve big problem.
3) Repeat.

Sorry, I know I'm in the minority, but the book sucked.


so.mpls

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2015, 09:05:17 AM »
I read the book a year ago. Didn't like it at all. Boring and repetitive:

1) Identify big problem.
2) Solve big problem.
3) Repeat.

Sorry, I know I'm in the minority, but the book sucked.

I'm with you.  The Martian was such a letdown for me with all the positive reviews.  You hit on my biggest issue with the book, but the tone of the protagonist was also unbearable.

"LOG ENTRY: SOL 10

So today I discovered [big problem] that will probably kill me within the next couple days. But oh well I'm pretty much dead already LOL!!"

"LOG ENTRY: SOL 11

Remember that big problem I discovered yesterday?!?? I totally solved it by [technical jargon].  Man I am so smart!!!!"

Repeat for 400 pages.


matchewed

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2015, 09:10:13 AM »
Praised for its accuracy with science and engineering. Cool to see a protagonist which solves things with his brain. Nice to see the various small players in the overall picture of a large scale human action.

Yes repetitive in structure, but consider the constraint of the choice in location... Also consider (almost) any story, hero finds challenge, hero overcomes challenge, repeat...

Duchess of Stratosphear

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2015, 12:24:14 PM »
I read the book a year ago. Didn't like it at all. Boring and repetitive:

1) Identify big problem.
2) Solve big problem.
3) Repeat.

Sorry, I know I'm in the minority, but the book sucked.

I'm with you.  The Martian was such a letdown for me with all the positive reviews.  You hit on my biggest issue with the book, but the tone of the protagonist was also unbearable.

"LOG ENTRY: SOL 10

So today I discovered [big problem] that will probably kill me within the next couple days. But oh well I'm pretty much dead already LOL!!"

"LOG ENTRY: SOL 11

Remember that big problem I discovered yesterday?!?? I totally solved it by [technical jargon].  Man I am so smart!!!!"

Repeat for 400 pages.


Yeah, I think these are valid criticisms of the book's structure and stylistic shortcomings. I think the ideas were just so intriguing to me that I was able to overlook those things and keep reading. If a book's strengths can make me overlook its considerable weaknesses, it kind of comes out looking like a good book to me. But, of course, everyone reads differently.

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2015, 01:44:41 PM »
I read the book a year ago. Didn't like it at all. Boring and repetitive:

1) Identify big problem.
2) Solve big problem.
3) Repeat.

Sorry, I know I'm in the minority, but the book sucked.

I described this as his entries alternating between, "Well, I'm fucked" followed by "OK, it's not as bad as I thought." The humor kept it together for me--I LOVED it and am looking forward to the movie with Matt Damon.

That said, eh, to each his own. If you didn't like that one, plenty more books where it came from!

davisgang90

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2015, 01:51:37 PM »
I really enjoyed the book and look forward to the movie.  Not sure I'd have picked Matt Damon though...

matchewed

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2015, 02:10:06 PM »
I really enjoyed the book and look forward to the movie.  Not sure I'd have picked Matt Damon though...

Definitely should have gone w/ Affleck...

forummm

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #11 on: May 23, 2015, 08:18:52 AM »
I'm looking forward to reading this one. It's supposed to be very accurate with the science involved. I wish I had gotten it when it was still free.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/02/14/2014/andy-weir-the-martian.html

Moostache

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #12 on: May 23, 2015, 08:27:35 AM »
I thought it was a fun book. The narrated version was great and may have "distracted" me from the repetitious nature of the source material but... I suspect when you are living on borrowed time and have a ticking clock racing directly at  you things sort of become that way.

One day at a time, biggest life threatening problem solved first, and plan how to get out of mess.

MgoSam

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2015, 01:45:42 PM »
Listed to this book and loved it. The narrator did a great job and I thought that main character was funny. Heard that Ridley Scott was directing the movie, cautiously optimistic to see how it is.

I also loved how the writer wrote it on his own and self-published it. Then when it became big, publishers came a callin'. This guy can write.

arebelspy

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #14 on: June 13, 2015, 03:05:34 PM »
It was decent.  Pretty quick read, read it on a plane flight.

Don't expect anything spectacular (it was definitely overhyped), but for light fiction where you don't expect amazing plot/character development, it was decently amusing.

By far my favorite line (hidden for small potential spoiler if you're in the middle):
Spoiler: show
"Houston, be advised: Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man."


Recent XKCD on The Martian:
https://xkcd.com/1536/

Also the author, Andy Weir, wrote one of my favorite short story pieces ever, The Egg:
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

Well worth the 5-10 minutes it will take you to read.
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PKFFW

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #15 on: June 14, 2015, 01:55:19 AM »
Great story.

I couldn't find the like button.

So let me just say "like".

:-)

sheepstache

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #16 on: June 18, 2015, 04:38:51 PM »
I was surprised at how many people were thrown off by the tone. Dude's an astronaut. You don't get to be an astronaut without having a metric fuckton of resilience.

Plus, he mentions at some point needing to learn how to edit the journal once he realizes he might make it. I'm assuming he managed to do that.


MgoSam

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #17 on: June 19, 2015, 01:24:21 PM »

Also the author, Andy Weir, wrote one of my favorite short story pieces ever, The Egg:
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

Well worth the 5-10 minutes it will take you to read.

Wow, just read it and definitely worth the read. Loved it!

trailrated

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #18 on: June 19, 2015, 01:45:55 PM »
I read it in a day, was definitely enjoyable. Looking forward to the movie. Had me laughing out loud at certain points.

jacksonvasey

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #19 on: June 29, 2015, 10:43:40 PM »
I made the mistake of starting it at 10 pm.  I read for a few hours and realized it was 2 am, then couldn't sleep so  I stayed up and finished it.  It moves pretty fast for the first half, but it does get a bit repetitive.  Probably the result of how the book was 'developed'.

forummm

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #20 on: August 09, 2015, 12:53:17 PM »
Great book! I finally got access to a free copy. It was really well done and very engaging. I didn't plan to spend so much of the weekend reading it, but didn't want to stop. I like the science aspects of it and all the problem solving. I guessed where some of the solutions would lie like
Spoiler: show
making water
. It was also fun how the
Spoiler: show
modern day missions like Pathfinder and Opportunity
showed up and were part of the story. And all the great quips and drama moments are perfect for a movie. I'm not surprised they jumped on this one.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2015, 02:14:40 PM by forummm »

forummm

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #21 on: August 11, 2015, 12:32:34 PM »
I was thinking that we should invent a machine that
Spoiler: show
uses electricity (from solar panels) and CO2 and H2O to synthesize food. Clearly plants do that for us on earth using the solar power directly. But in space it would be a great benefit to have given the difficulties we have growing things up there. This book is a perfect example of how such a machine could have saved Watley's life much more cheaply and without all the risk that was taken. You'd probably only synthesize certain things so it wouldn't be a very diverse diet and you'd want to have bottles of vitamins to go along with the machine made food. But in theory you could live in perpetuity with just the vitamins and machine food as long as you had solar power available. The food would get turned back into CO2 and water that the life support systems would just process back into food.

Kimchi Bleu

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #22 on: September 01, 2015, 05:30:48 AM »
Saw the trailer for the movie so I had to read the book.  I really, really enjoyed it.  Loved the humor, the geekiness of the problem solving.  Just a great read.

midweststache

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #23 on: September 01, 2015, 06:08:57 AM »
I enjoyed the book, but I'm concerned about the adaptation. I think part of the reason the book was so enjoyable was because of the lighthearted narrative tone in the journal entries. For me, the voice (Watney's) absolutely made the book, and I think it will be difficult to recreate that tone in the film. I expect the movie to be way more big-budget action blockbuster than man-against-Mars.

tonysemail

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #24 on: September 02, 2015, 04:44:58 PM »
I also finished reading it this week and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

as others mentioned, it was a fast read with a very simple plot.

wordnerd

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #25 on: September 02, 2015, 05:06:15 PM »
I enjoyed the book, but I'm concerned about the adaptation. I think part of the reason the book was so enjoyable was because of the lighthearted narrative tone in the journal entries. For me, the voice (Watney's) absolutely made the book, and I think it will be difficult to recreate that tone in the film. I expect the movie to be way more big-budget action blockbuster than man-against-Mars.

Agree, especially with the casting of Matt Damon, I think they'll focus more action than the nerd-charm that made the book so endearing.

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #26 on: September 05, 2015, 09:57:20 AM »
I enjoyed the book, but I'm concerned about the adaptation. I think part of the reason the book was so enjoyable was because of the lighthearted narrative tone in the journal entries. For me, the voice (Watney's) absolutely made the book, and I think it will be difficult to recreate that tone in the film. I expect the movie to be way more big-budget action blockbuster than man-against-Mars.

Agree, especially with the casting of Matt Damon, I think they'll focus more action than the nerd-charm that made the book so endearing.

I dunno, there's a little nerd-charm in the trailer--you know, "I'm the greatest botanist on this planet!" Anyway, I always try to look at a movie as being more an interpretation of a book than just an acting out of it. (The most enjoyable thing I learned in grad school :-).) So, yeah, the movie may bring out the action more. It's a movie. I'm optimistic that it will be fun. It would be fun to go see in the theater but that would cost me like $75 with the babysitting, so I will probably wait. Sigh.

davisgang90

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #27 on: September 05, 2015, 10:55:54 AM »
I usually see 1 or 2 movies in the theater a year.  This will be one of them.

Vasilisa

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #28 on: September 30, 2015, 04:22:42 PM »
I enjoyed the book; good story, good humor. Enough detail to suck me into the story and being a gardener myself I loved that he was a botanist.

Favorite quote: "Hell yeah I'm a botanist! Fear my botany powers!"

sheepstache

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #29 on: October 01, 2015, 10:56:58 AM »
I enjoyed the book, but I'm concerned about the adaptation. I think part of the reason the book was so enjoyable was because of the lighthearted narrative tone in the journal entries. For me, the voice (Watney's) absolutely made the book, and I think it will be difficult to recreate that tone in the film. I expect the movie to be way more big-budget action blockbuster than man-against-Mars.

I just watched the trailer and they do seem to feature every single explosion I can remember in the book.  It's not unheard of for a preview to feel more action-packed than the movie. The danger I worry about is they give way more time to the rescue mission than it should have compared to the survival period. The other danger is if they do re-create the tone of the book, their audience has been misled by the preview. But I think the premise of the survival segment for people who are paying attention; I mean, potato growing is going to take some time. And they're throwing around numbers like four years, fifty days, etc. I can't be the only one who realizes that previews can be heavily weighted toward action and adjust my expectations accordingly.

Also, I really wish they'd cast Frances McDormand instead of that cleft chin waif from Interstellar.

GuitarStv

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #30 on: October 01, 2015, 11:47:54 AM »
I recently read this book.  It was a fun read . . . for about the first third of it or so it was pretty hard to put down.  By about half way through there was some repetition going on which took a little of the shine off the book, but it was still enjoyable to the end.  I'm looking forward to the movie now.

Moonwaves

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #31 on: October 01, 2015, 12:26:46 PM »
I saw the trailer yesterday and then came across a review today where I realised it was based on a book. And lo and behold, there's a thread. Must try and read the book. I'm on Robinson Crusoe at the moment and that's also a whole lot of <problem> <I fixed it 'cos I'm so fantastic> repetition. The Martian definitely sounds like way more fun. :)

sheepstache

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #32 on: October 01, 2015, 01:20:24 PM »
Wait! Watney has a wife and kid in the movie?? That puts a totally different spin on it :(

Philociraptor

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #33 on: October 01, 2015, 02:40:30 PM »
Wait! Watney has a wife and kid in the movie?? That puts a totally different spin on it :(

The American family-fetish is strong, filmmakers probably thought it would make him more approachable.

sheepstache

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #34 on: October 01, 2015, 03:45:20 PM »
Could be. It seems contrary to hollywood, though. Why give up the romantic tension of who's going to jump his bones when he gets back?

arebelspy

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #35 on: October 12, 2015, 11:59:12 AM »
I've heard nothing but great things about the movie, that it's quite faithful to the book (except for something at the end?), keeps a lot of the nerdy feel, but is also a great action movie.  Very high praise from many people.  Anyone see it?
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Argyle

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #36 on: October 12, 2015, 12:22:04 PM »
No, he doesn't have a wife and kids in the movie.

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #37 on: October 12, 2015, 12:30:49 PM »
No, he doesn't have a wife and kids in the movie.

Co-worker at work assured me of this, thank goodness. She said it was simply "creative editing" on the parts of the trailer-makers.

sheepstache

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #38 on: October 12, 2015, 12:37:38 PM »
No, he doesn't have a wife and kids in the movie.

Co-worker at work assured me of this, thank goodness. She said it was simply "creative editing" on the parts of the trailer-makers.

Whew. Thanks y'all.

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #39 on: October 12, 2015, 05:36:31 PM »
I've heard nothing but great things about the movie, that it's quite faithful to the book (except for something at the end?), keeps a lot of the nerdy feel, but is also a great action movie.  Very high praise from many people.  Anyone see it?

I saw the movie in 3D (definitely unnecessary) and enjoyed it. I recently finished the book so the details were pretty fresh in my mind. The Martian landscape was my favorite thing about the movie and found it to be entertaining but... the humor and details in the book were so much better than what they left in the movie. And yes, the ending strays a bit from the book.

Duchess of Stratosphear

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #40 on: October 12, 2015, 05:43:09 PM »
Just watched the trailer! I might have to splurge on seeing this one in the theater!

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #41 on: October 12, 2015, 07:49:57 PM »
Columbus Day is our annual date night, since it's a federal holiday but the kids still have school, so we went to see it.

We both enjoyed it.  I was a Caltech undergrad and spent a lot of time at JPL as a younger man, so I appreciated the nerdcore bias even when it was deliberately overblown.  Though JPL must have changed since I was there, or else they took some serious cinematic liberties with the location filming.

The movie definitely skips over some long chunks of time, like one scene just starts with "7 months later..." I also found myself disturbed by some stupid details that were not well covered, like "I haven't had a shower in over a year" when we just saw him showering on Mars like five minutes ago.  And the relationship with the rover that he spends so much time in felt like it should have been important but was glossed over in the movie.  I suspect real astronauts would find his free use of profanity upsetting, as they're pretty heavily drilled on communications strategy before making the program. 

There were a few key turning points in the film that were badly telegraphed about 30 seconds before they happened.  I understand the need to build tension with music and stuff, but it felt clumsy to have a character say something like "well it might be okay as long as scenario A doesn't happen" and then immediately cut to the location where scenario A is about to happen as the music continues to build.

And I think Damon missed a golden opportunity to win major acting cred by actually undertaking a weight loss regime ala Christian Bale to get super skinny for the role, instead of using obvious body doubles.  Dropping like 50 pounds for a movie is like guaranteed oscar material these days, but I suppose famous rich people can't be bothered to diet.

There were a handful of pro-science tidbits like "Mars will come to fear my botany powers" and "I'm going to have to science the shit out of this" that I suspect were intended to become internet memes.  Easily quotable, appealing to internet and science nerds.

And lastly, I thought they could have spent like and extra five minutes at the end giving us a bit more wrap up on the characters.

Still, totally worth $15 and a weekday afternoon.  Recommended.

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #42 on: October 22, 2015, 08:30:12 AM »
+1 to Sol's analysis.

Gorgeous shots of Mars Martian surface - albeit CG - gave a really satisfying idea of the solitude that was a bit harder to comprehend in the book.

Arebelspy, you read it in a plane flight?  Geez I need to work on reading faster...

Also, I think they absolutely nailed their target audience.  Andy Weir is a young engineer and writes his first novel about overcoming difficult technical challenges in a realistic new-frontier setting. That rings bells with about 75% of the people I know.

arebelspy

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #43 on: October 24, 2015, 01:08:32 AM »
Arebelspy, you read it in a plane flight?  Geez I need to work on reading faster...

It was a long flight. 

Quote
Also, I think they absolutely nailed their target audience.  Andy Weir is a young engineer and writes his first novel about overcoming difficult technical challenges in a realistic new-frontier setting. That rings bells with about 75% of the people I know.

Yup, which meant his "tone" of the amusing but immature (and nerdy) stereotypical guy played pretty well.
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Leisured

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #44 on: November 06, 2015, 07:55:01 AM »
The movie is magnificent, and absorbing. The audience watches the ingenious efforts of the hero to stay alive almost spell bound for two hours. What struck me afterwards was that the film is almost faultless; there is nothing to dislike. In some parts of the film, the hero drives in a rover through hypnotic landscapes. I was surprised to learn afterwards that the landscapes are digitally altered versions of real landscapes, the alteration being mainly in sky colour. I will not say any more than  that; you might want to enjoy the landscapes for their own sake.

On one occasion, the hero observes that this is the first time in history that a man has had an entire planet to himself, a striking idea.

I live in Australia, and there are landscapes in Central Australia, accessible by slow train, over a a a large area, that are similar to the more boring areas of Mars.

Just see it.



 

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #45 on: May 21, 2016, 03:17:58 AM »
I read the book a year ago. Didn't like it at all. Boring and repetitive:

1) Identify big problem.
2) Solve big problem.
3) Repeat.

Sorry, I know I'm in the minority, but the book sucked.

I'm with you.  The Martian was such a letdown for me with all the positive reviews.  You hit on my biggest issue with the book, but the tone of the protagonist was also unbearable.

"LOG ENTRY: SOL 10

So today I discovered [big problem] that will probably kill me within the next couple days. But oh well I'm pretty much dead already LOL!!"

"LOG ENTRY: SOL 11

Remember that big problem I discovered yesterday?!?? I totally solved it by [technical jargon].  Man I am so smart!!!!"

Repeat for 400 pages.

That's how the movie felt to me. It consists of snippets of big problems and snippets of solving the big problems, which is quite boring.
The great thing about the book is how all the details are portrayed. All the analysis of how the awful situation came to be. All the survivability estimation. Those great, detailed descriptions of how the big failures developed, unnoticed.
Spoiler: show
Hab shooting the airlock out and launch failure

And, of course, the process of figuring out how to fix it all. The movie, of course, lacked almost all of the details, turning it all into a bland recollection of events with almost no drama.The whole point, to me, was that bunch of lovely, lovely engineering going on all the time. It probably takes a specific mindset to appreciate all of this, so yeah. A book for those who are into engineer-porn.

Dicey

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #46 on: May 30, 2016, 09:56:19 PM »
I live in a great Bay Area city. Our libraries run a rockin' One City, One Book program every summer. Hundreds of people read the book, then in the Fall, there are discussions and related programs throughout the community.

"The MartIan" is this year's selection. We were really hoping to have a program with the author, as he lives about an hour or so from here. Alas, he declined our offer. Seems he's so behind on his next book deadline that he's refusing all requests.

Seems to me if you're an author and a whole city is reading your book, you wouldn't mind basking in a few hours of adulation. OTOH, once your book's been made into a successful movie starring Matt Damon, it might change things.

Still, we're not giving up hope that he will get caught up on his next book and change his mind. Hell, we'll send a car and buy him dinner. Oh well, we can dream, can't we?

If anyone knows him (you never know, perhaps he's a mustachian), we're still hoping he'll change his mind, even on short(-ish) notice.

MandalayVA

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #47 on: May 31, 2016, 02:36:55 AM »
I live in a great Bay Area city. Our libraries run a rockin' One City, One Book program every summer. Hundreds of people read the book, then in the Fall, there are discussions and related programs throughout the community.

"The MartIan" is this year's selection. We were really hoping to have a program with the author, as he lives about an hour or so from here. Alas, he declined our offer. Seems he's so behind on his next book deadline that he's refusing all requests.

Seems to me if you're an author and a whole city is reading your book, you wouldn't mind basking in a few hours of adulation. OTOH, once your book's been made into a successful movie starring Matt Damon, it might change things.

Still, we're not giving up hope that he will get caught up on his next book and change his mind. Hell, we'll send a car and buy him dinner. Oh well, we can dream, can't we?

If anyone knows him (you never know, perhaps he's a mustachian), we're still hoping he'll change his mind, even on short(-ish) notice.

I imagine his publisher is cracking down on him big time.  When you have a book that turns into a phenomenon, the pressure to produce another one is intense.  Don't be so hard on him.

That being said, I didn't think "The Martian" was all that.  While the actual plot was really good, when he went off on technical tangents he lost me.  I'm not a regular science fiction reader but I've read enough to know when it's good.  Had he cooled off on the tech talk I would have enjoyed the book a lot more.  Maybe the movie is better.

lizzzi

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #48 on: May 31, 2016, 05:53:14 AM »
I just watched the movie on my computer, with no particular pre-conceived notions, and before noticing that there was a thread about it on this forum. I'm not an engineer or particularly scientific...just your normal , casual viewer. It was suspenseful and entertaining to watch, and I was rooting for Matt Damon all the way. The scenery was so beautiful and evocative. And the big climactic ending was edge-of-your-seat exciting. I would try to go in "cold" and just watch it for enjoyment...read the critiques later...and they are certainly on point, but don't spoil the movie for yourself by reading the comments first. Highly recommended.

forummm

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Re: The Martian
« Reply #49 on: May 31, 2016, 07:37:14 AM »
Seems to me if you're an author and a whole city is reading your book, you wouldn't mind basking in a few hours of adulation. OTOH, once your book's been made into a successful movie starring Matt Damon, it might change things.

He probably will get 7 figures for his new book (over time). That's pretty good motivation. And if he starts saying yet to distracting events, he just makes his life much harder and delays that payday.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!