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The Martian, by Andy Weir
I love Mars. Or at least, I love the potential of Mars and the renewed drive by humanity
(read: SpaceX) to get us there during what looks to actually be my lifetime. My kids may
even have a chance to go. As such, I really enjoy material related to this wonderful place
and was excited to finally spend a little time reading this popular book-turned-movie. Because
even though I love Mars, I'm really behind on media consumption so haven't even seen the movie
yet, thereby not spoiling the book.
It was with some discouragement, then, that I found the book which started off as such an interesting
adventure to settle into a 369 page long repetitive loop of crisis - MacGyver fix - stay eternally positive - repeat.
I am not sure what exactly I expected here, but it probably wasn't unending O2 calculations and discussions
of how many different ways ultra-strong habitat fabric could be repurposed with super tough gap sealers.
I suppose overall it was still a quick and mostly fun read, but it really feels for all of the 'things that happened'
like nothing happened. I understand that Weir is a tech guy, and obviously is also fascinated by Mars and
really wanted to conduct an extended thought experiment on how he could survive there alone for months and
months with some NASA approved supplies. Then he wrapped a plot around it and wrote a self-published book which
enough people liked that it got a real publisher and then a whole fancy movie! More power to the folks
who remained captivated by this tale the whole way through. I have to say that, even for someone who loves Mars
and also loves MacGyver, it wore a little thin.
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