The start of the book has a lot of scientific explanation, which I understood as necessary to explain what was going on, but for someone like me who would rather not get all the details, it became dull and I lost interest often. The Martian reads like an exhibit at a museum, narrated by someone who intends to teach while showing diagrams of the science of the space ship and the environment on Mars. This narrator makes some funny jokes along the way, but the story is mostly a glorification of science and how we can use our understanding of it to survive in the extreme dangers present in space. The choice of narrator was a great one, so I recommend consuming this via audiobook if you can. He has excellent comedic talent and switched well enough between voices. The timing he uses for the funny parts may not be as funny if read.
I’m going to mark a spoiler here of my favorite one liner, which even as I write it may not be that funny read. I don’t want to ruin the joke though, so read at your will. (view spoiler on Goodreads)
The stranded astronaut has a smart alec personality, as do some of the characters on Earth, which adds humor to an otherwise dry read through descriptions of science. Other than that, there is not much character development. This is purely about survival. I kept listening because audiobooks are easier to get through if I’m not that interested, but I reached the end not caring much and was not blown away by the conclusion.
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Timothy C. Ward
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About Timothy C. Ward
I absolutely loved this book. Most of the science was over my head, but I was fascinated by the technical descriptions, and the majority of the humor was spot on. The book’s major weakness, I felt, were the parts back on Earth, where there was zero description of anything, which made those portions fall into the talking heads trap. For me, the stuff going on on Mars was good enough to forgive the Earth parts. I also listened to the book and would recommend it to readers of hard SF and/or survival stories.
Hmm… This was going to be one of my next reads. I don’t mind it getting into science, providing the context is interesting enough to justify it.
Harder to skim an audio book if the details are bogging down the narrative.
As you can see from Jordan’s response, some people, heck, a lot of people, love this book. I’m more of a character story guy. This was more a problem solving story, where if you’re interested in the problems that an astronaut would face on Mars, you’ll probably really enjoy this. I like suspense, but am not so interested in how one creates a farm on Mars.