46 years ago mankind set foot on the
moon. Where is the next stop? The answer seems to be Mars.
Mars resides at an average distance of
225,3 million km away from our earth. For centuries, Mars captured
the human imagination with its dramatic red color, inspiring more
science fictions than any other planet in our solar system. Outside
fictions, Mars draws enormous interests from the scientific
community. Scientists eagerly anticipate the potential knowledge that
could be unveiled from exploring Mars. Knowledge that may shed light
into our own existence in the universe. Meanwhile, Mars is also the
major candidate for interplanetary colonization. This is because Mars
is arguably the most habitable planet in our solar system after
Earth. The space program focuses heavily on Mars, where NASA is planning to send humans to Mars in 2030s. So 2 decades from now,
mankind will likely set foot on Mars. The technology already exists
to get people there, and going to Mars is no longer the stuff of
fictions. What an exciting era we are living in!
But the environment on Mars' surface is
hostile to humans (due to a lack of atmosphere and low temperature
rather than green Martians). This means, a mission to Mars involving
astronauts comes with high risks, and must be meticulously planned
and executed with fine precision. Any incident or miscalculation during such a mission can create life-threatening dangers for the astronauts. In fact, take a moment and
imagine this disastrous scenario: You belong to a team of astronauts
who landed on Mars. Then a terrible accident struck. Your are left
alone, stranded on Mars with limited supplies. The communication facilities are broken. Everyone thinks you
are dead. How will you survive on Mars and seek rescue?
The above scenario is the premise for
The Martian, a critically acclaimed, sci-fi thriller written
by Andy Weir and published in 2011. A movie adaption of this novel,
directed by Ridley Scott, is on its way to the cinema in October this
year. I read this novel during a weekend and absolutely loved it! The
movie adaptation could be good, but I highly recommend this book even
if you are planning to see the movie. In this book review, I wish to
provide a short, no-spoiler overview for this novel, then explain why
I recommend this book.
Synopsis:
Astronaut Mark Watney is one of the
first humans to walk on Mars. But will he become the first human to
die on Mars?
Why do you mean Mark could die on Mars?
Ok, this is what happened.
Six day ago Mark and his crew landed on
Mars. The code name for their mission: Ares 3. They were about to
write a new page in history, when a fierce desert storm assaulted
their camp, forcing them to abort the mission and evacuate. During
the evacuation, an accident nearly killed Mark, knocking him
unconscious and separated him from the rest of the crew. Mark's
teammates thought he was dead. With a heavy heart, his team evacuated
from the surface of Mars and returned to their spaceship.
When Mark regained consciousness, he
found himself lying alone in the sea of pebbles on Mars. He is
stranded on the red planet with limited supplies. As if his ordeal is
not disastrous enough already, the storm also destroyed the
communication devices, eliminating any chance to contact his crew and
NASA.
So here is Mark's dilemma; even if he
can somehow send signals to NASA, he will still run out of supplies
and starve to death before they can rescue him. Furthermore, time and
supply are not the only enemies threatening to kill Mark. In Mars' hostile environment, a single wrong move means a quick death. Yet,
Mark Watney is not about to lie down and die. Padded in his space
suit, and armed with his quirky humor, Mark steadfastly engaged waves
after waves of obstacles, initiating “project Mark Watney
survives”. The first ever “made on Mars” project in history. In
this project about survival, Mark will tax every revenue of his
scientific knowledge and engineering skills, and subject his iron
determination to the harshest trials. If Mark fails, then he will
gown down in history as the fist permanent resident on Mars... in
death.
My thoughts on this book:
I absolutely loved The Martian!
In the process of writing this review I did some research about this book on the
internet. I discovered the fascinating background
story that gave birth to this novel. The Martian's author Andy
Weir, is a computer programmer by trade. He is also a huge space
nerd. According to an interview, Andy revealed before The
Martian took the shape of a novel, it was originally an idea that
he came up with for a mission plan to Mars. He designed this plan based on existing
technologies. When Andy began to work on the disaster scenarios for
his mission plan, then it evolved into a story, which Andy molded
into a novel by creating a fictional character called Mark Watney.
This means, while The Martian is
identified as science fictions, but every scientific fact mentioned
in this book is legitimate, and almost all technologies mentioned in
this book are either in existence or can be made (including the ion
engine). In other words, The Martian is a believable,
scientifically accurate “sci-fi” novel, grounded in real science
and existing technology. Does this mean The Martian is a dry,
academic novel? Nope, not at all. In fact, this “realism” is integrated perfectly into the storytelling to create a captivating novel.
Speaking of the story, The Martian
tells a very simple story, but it is a gripping story that will move
you emotionally while keeping you at the edge of your seat. The book
is divided into two narrating arches. The first arch follows Mark
Watney's endeavors to survive on Mars, and it is presented in the
form of log entries. From these log entries, readers come to know
Mark's character, who is a very positive guy packed with an abundance
of good humors. Some of his log entries are so funny that I could not
help but laugh heartily until my stomach began to ache. Mark is a very
likable protagonist. When I was reading this book, after I read the
first 5 pages, I already liked Mark and wished he could survive his ordeal.
Mark also narrated his thought
processes, and how he formulated solutions to tackle the
insurmountable obstacles facing him on Mars. These narrations are
very technical. I was fascinated by the science and technology in
Mark's narrations (probably because I have a perceptual interest in
these things). However, I have heard some readers were overwhelmed by
the technical descriptions. I do not think the appreciation for this
novel is hinged on understanding the technical stuff mentioned in
the book. Instead, I think the technical stuff serves as a part of
the characterization, where Mark is portrayed as an individual
possessing excellent problem-solving skills, and he is highly capable
of critical, and rational thoughts. These qualities are a part of him
and played roles in the storytelling. In other words, have you seen
the TV series, MacGyver? If so, then reading how Mark Watney
solved problems to survive on Mars, is like watching MacGyver perform
feats of engineering ingenuity to combat the bad guys. Yet, Mark is
not flawless. In this book, he made human errors that can kill him.
This made Mark a very believable character, and readers can really
feel the sense of danger for Mark as he tried to survive on Mars.
The second story arch follows the NASA
workers, Mark's teammates (and the rest of the world, so to speak) who tried to
rescue him. I really liked this part of the story, because every
character has an egalitarian quality about them. They set aside their
petty differences, and worked together to save Mark at personal costs
and sacrifices. After I read the book, I realized the book never provided enough descriptions to help me visualize the physical appearances of these characters. Yet, their characters stood
out so vividly in my mind and I felt like I knew them. This is another aspect I love about The
Martian, the book does not overly describe the details, but the characterization is so impressionable that I felt I knew every character and their personalities.
The second story arch is also tied to
the main theme in The Martians. That is, human beings have
this basic instinct to help each other out. This instinct transcends our differences like gender, age, culture or
nationality (Actually, as a side note, we can also observe this instinct in animals from experiments). Yeh sure, there are some jerks out there who don't give a crap, and sometimes the world looks
like a cold place where no one cares. But when we walk down the street
and see people lining up to donate blood at Red Cross, or when we turn
on the TV and see people organizing rescue teams to help victims
struck by natural disasters, then a realization dawned on us that as long as there is human compassion, then we
are not really alone or isolated in this universe, even if we are
millions of kilometers away from Earth on Mars.
I am not going to reveal if Mark Watney
survived or died at the end of the book. I think you should read the
book to find out. The Martian is the best stand-alone novel
I've read in years. If you are going to read one fictional novel this
year, then I recommend The Martian. If you are planning to see
the Ridley Scott movie in October, then I still recommend reading The
Martian before watching the movie. The bottom line is, The
Martian is a fine novel and it is worth taking out a few hours of
your time reading it.
P.S. People often say you should not
judge a book by its cover. In the case of The Martian, this
novel has both excellent contents and a stunning cover. I don't
usually talk about book covers in my reviews, but I really like the
book cover for The Martian. The cover arts is simple, but
beautiful and striking. It totally captured the essence, and the
atmosphere of the story.
Until the next time, happy reading!
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