Book: The Martian by Andy Weir, narrated by R.C. Bray

Published February 2014 by Brilliance Audio|10 hours, 59 minutes

Where I Got It: I borrowed the audio book from the library

Series: None

Genre: Adult Sci-Fi

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive, and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills, and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit, he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

The Martian is such a great book!  I know I’m not the first person to gush about it, but if you haven’t read it yet, you really need to.  Especially with the movie out!

I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, and there is definitely a lot of math and science in The Martian.  But it wasn’t annoying and all of the detail makes sense.  It was explained really well, and I thought it was pretty easy to understand.  Also: pirate ninjas as a unit of measurement.  Really.

I was really glad I went with the audio book. because something about The Martian works really well as an audio book.  Maybe it’s because a good chunk of it is essentially Watney’s diary, with chapters of what’s going on with NASA.

I once heard The Martian described as MacGyver in space, which, with my EXTREMELY limited knowledge of MacGyver, is fairly accurate.  What Watney had to do to survive is astounding.  There were points where I really wanted him to make it, but there were also points were if he didn’t survive, I would have been okay with that.  Oddly enough, I would have been okay with any ending, because really, anything could have happened and been plausible. And especially towards the end, there were a couple days where I literally wanted to drive around aimlessly just so I could keep listening to see what would happen.  Which would have been a problem considering the fact that I had groceries in the car that needed refrigeration.

There were points where I couldn’t help but laugh (pirate ninjas!), and at least Mark Watney had a great sense of humor throughout the entire book.  I really liked Bray, who sounded like the perfect Mark Watney.  I don’t know that I’d seek out Bray as a narrator, but if there was a book I wanted to listen to, and he narrated it, I wouldn’t be opposed to it.  Also: I don’t know who else I’d cast as Mark Watney for the movie, but after having listened to the book, I think Matt Damon is a great choice for him.  I really need to see The Martian, especially given how much I’ve mentioned it already.

4 stars.  It wasn’t quite a 5 star read for me, but it was pretty close!  The audio book is particularly great, and I really recommend it.