The Martian

The Martian, Andy Weir

You know a book is good when it completely captivates you, even though you already know what will happen. In an unusual twist for me, I had already seen The Martian movie. But, when Mr 16 came home with the book and raved about it, I thought I’d try it too. I’m so glad I did, as it kept me very entertained for a solid few days.

Mark Watney is on a mission on Mars with five other astronauts. They plan to be there for 31 SOLs (solar days), collecting data, doing experiments, and whatever NASA has set them up for. But on SOL 6, a major sand storm hits, threatening the integrity of their departure vessel. As per protocol, they prepare to evacuate early, but in doing so, Mark is hit by debris which pierces his suit and all life support monitoring shows no activity. Unable to find him in the storm, all evidence points to him having died and the crew depart mid-storm, dock with their space shuttle and turn back for earth, on a journey of over 100 days.

Yet, astonishingly Mark has survived. He manages to get himself back to the Hab (the large habitat and work station for the team) and give himself the medical care he needs. He then turns to consider the very large problem he is in. Stranded on Mars. No way to communicate with Earth (it was the satellite antenna that hit him). If the oxygenator breaks he’ll suffocate; if the water reclaimer breaks, he’ll die of thirst; if the Hab breaches, he’ll explode. If all equipment works, he’ll run out of food and starve.

It is mainly written in the form of his log entries charting each challenge and how he works through how to deal with it. His priorities are food and communication. In time, NASA gets some idea what’s going on, and then we are introduced to a whole team of people on earth trying to figure out how to rescue a man on Mars who cannot be reached before he starves to death.

It’s very well written. It’s tense when needed, humourous and heartfelt at other points, quick moving and creative. I loved the way it dealt with real scientific and engineering problems by explaining them and attacking them head on. All in a way that’s very readable and understandable, but not by making it too dumbed down. There is a some swearing throughout, but that’s pretty accurate as to how most people would respond to being trapped on Mars.

For those who might consider the visual option of the movie, I also highly recommend that. It is a great adaption of this book. It’s not identical, but very close to it. In fact, possibly seeing the movie first was better for me, because I wasn’t waiting for things to happen which they didn’t show, and the additional level of detail in the book made that captivating as well. As with the book, I loved the fact that the science was integral to it. In fact, it seems like space movies are about the only format remaining where you really can’t ignore the science and maths (eg. Apollo 13, Hidden Figures)

At points in the book, you stop and wonder (and some characters raise the same question): how far do you go to rescue one life? Financially how much is one life worth? Hundreds of millions are spent. Mark himself ponders the question and knows the answer: humans have a basic instinct to help each other out. Consider our own real life situations of miners trapped underground, children’s soccer teams trapped in caves and we know the concerted effort that people will go to and work together to save other lives. The flipside of this is how often (when lives are not at stake in these dramatic ways), we tend to forget this basic element of our God-given humanity and choose not to care, and rather to attack, to provoke and to hate. I find that sobering.

This is a great book, and a great movie. Both highly recommended.