OCT - The Martian

October review for Eclectic Reader's Challenge 2015: The Martian by Andy Weir, 2011. [Sci-Fi in Space category]

My Mark Watney is a little beaten up too...

First of all, let's make one thing clear. I think space is terrifying. Sure it's exciting and the Unknown and all that, but something about the complete and total loss of control and disconnection from pretty much everything in the world is just really unsettling to me. I didn't see Gravity because the previews of Sandra Bullock flying through space agonizing over not being able to reach anyone really REALLY unsettled me. So I'm not entirely sure why I picked this up. Other than it being a category requirement, and all. I suppose I could've gone with something like more hard-core sci-fi rather than something so grounded in my reality, but the point of this challenge is to push your limits, eh?

So the plot of The Martian by Andy Weir is that an American astronaut named Mark Watney was part of a manned mission to Mars that was aborted only six sols in (a sol is 39 minutes longer than a day, I learned) due to a freak accident and Watney was left for dead. But you know what? He wasn't dead! Right here we start to get into horrific territory, my friends. If the fact that the Mars Curiosity rover sings happy birthday to itself once a year makes you a little sad, imagine a person doing that. I know. Devastating. But somehow, Weir kept me invested enough in the workings of Mark Watney's mind to ignore the fact that I was scared shitless (even though this could never conceivably happen to me. But still). In the preview for the film adaptation for the novel, Watney, played by Matt Damon, says he's going to have to "science the shit out of this planet" to survive. That was really the striking part for me, watching the way Watney's mind worked, the way he methodically tackled the completely plausible cause-and-effect mishaps that plagued him, and how he persevered.

I feel like it would be very easy to wax poetic about the way that this story is really all about perseverance of the human spirit and working together to overcome all odds, but Weir makes those statements pretty clearly towards the end of the book, so I'm going to let him have his day. What I would like to talk about, however, is an article by Weir about the humble and nerdy beginnings of this story. Basically Weir said he planned his own manned mission to Mars and learned everything he could, and then slowly realized that there was an amazing story hidden in his obsession. I truly enjoyed Weir's prose, the way he allowed Mark's voice to carry through the communications he was logging for posterity, and differentiating them so from the chapters set back on Earth--or, God forbid, the third-person descriptions which set off an eerie feeling that serious shit is about to go DOWN. At least from my relatively basic understanding of space and science, everything seemed plausible, believable, maybe made moreso by the fact that Watney wasn't necessarily an expert either, explaining all his conclusions and laying things out for us readers. Yes, he is probably a zillion times smarter and obviously better under pressure than any of us, but he was likeable. Down to Earth. (HAH. That was a joke. Because he's stuck on Mars. Get it?)

I don't want to spend too long on this book/review, as I have approximately 3,000 words to catch up on in NaNoWriMo (because I'm a masochist who loves being too busy for her own sanity), so I will end on this note: Space has long since been considered "the final frontier," but in recent years it has not had the allure that it had in the 60's and 70's when spaceflight was on the tip of everyone's tongues. Andy Weir and his characters brought space back into the forefront of our minds (at least in my humble opinion), made us realize that the final frontier still has a LOT more that we don't understand and haven't even scratched yet. And while I think the possibility is super exciting, I am more than happy to leave the scratching to some other brave soul while my feet are firmly planted on solid ground.