The Martian (Paperback, 2014, Broadway Books)
Paperback, 400 pages
English language
Published July 6, 2014 by Broadway Books.
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
--back …
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
--back cover
I have no idea why I didn’t read this book earlier. It is a fantastic story that kept me reading until I was done (a day and a half!).
I’ve always wanted to take a trip into space, but certainly not if it ends up like Mark’s.
I went in with the understanding this was a book about a bunch of whatif science problems so enjoyed it. The author did a good job of keeping things moving forward without getting too bogged down in detail. The structure of the story meant the protagonist was maybe the most upbeat superhuman I’ve met so it there was no emotional stakes but that was by design.
Content warning Minor spoilers about character-building
The Martian still rocks. It has everything that I love in those YouTube video where they walk you through their process of making a cool new machine (https://youtube.com/watch?v=vsTTXYxydOE&feature=share).
A few times throughout the book, Mark’s plans went out the airlock and he expresses his frustration and hopelessness to the log. Then in the next log, he’s back to working the problem. He decides to survive “off camera” and I think that we missed an essential part of his character.
Obwohl ich den Film schon kannte und wusste was passiert war das Hörbuch doch bin zum Ende spannend und fesselnd.
读完这本书是几年以前的事了，我记得我是在Kindle上读的，也记得读到(.Y.)时的大笑不止。主角乐观幽默的性格让整个旅程都相当有趣。
Really intriguing tech short story. Read it twice.
