The Martian by Andy Weir

 The Martian by Andy Weir

1 Star

Let me start....I loved Project Hail Mary. It was a 4.5 to 5 star book for me. So my friends and I tried reading The Martian and it significantly let us down unfortunately. If this is your favorite book, that is awesome, but it didn't work for me.

This is my first 1 star book EVER too. Normally I DNF before this, but reading with my friends, I powered through...

I realize I am somewhat of an unpopular opinion but here we go:

We follow Mark Watney who gets stuck on Mars and separated from everyone. They think he died but he didn't. Thus comes the most insufferable journal entries known to man.

Every chapter is basically:
“Good news: I solved the crisis.”
“Bad news: here are seventeen pages explaining HOW I solved the crisis.”

It was just TOOOO much science, chemistry, equipment details. I wanted to know who Mark was. Not how to grow potatoes with poop. 

The ending was the worst for me because we spent all this time for it to be like, anyway, "this happened, lol byeeee". I was like we spent this entire book watching this man calculate oxygen molecules and all this build up for such a lackluster ending. 

You mean to tell me....he spends a year alone on Mars eating potatoes fertilized with poop nearly dying all the time, communicating like a caveman when he can and that ending was it?

Here is what I needed:
- emotions, more than just sarcasm
- the world reacting and more depth 
- the processing of what actually happened
- a prologue that actually walked through the pre-events before everything happens

- the after scenes after that ending
- ANYTHING but the massive about of cursing that happened. 

The cursing was lazy at this point. It was way too much. I can deal with some language in a book but 60-70 F words, 60-70 S words, 20+ Lord's name in vain at least, it was just ridiculous at this point and for shock value.

It felt like Andy Weir got tired after explaining science for 350 pages and suddenly remembered he had somewhere to be. The only thing I can say I liked was the folks at NASA lol.

Ending was too abrupt. Andddd that's all I got folks. 

Skip this one.

Read Project Hail Mary instead. :) 

Content warnings: Strong language/profanity throughout, Intense survival situations, Isolation and loneliness, Near-death experiences, Injury/body trauma descriptions, Explosions and accidents, Starvation/hunger themes, Medical procedures/self-treatment, Discussions of human waste/feces (fertilizing crops, sanitation, etc.), Anxiety/stress/panic situations, Character presumed dead/abandonment themes, Claustrophobic environments, Mild alcohol references