http://goo.gl/rkcxay
4.5 stars, really. Would have been 5, but I'm trying to be more selective with my perfect scores.
Anywho, this book was incredible on several counts. First and foremost is the science. Never before have I read hard science fiction so accessible, and the humor went along way toward that, but honestly the scientific applications just felt real throughout. The problems were consistently variable and escalated in intensity, and the solutions were always equal parts genius and digestible simplicity. Does that make any sense? If Andy Weir were writing this review, it probably would.
The Martian's tone is its other hallmark. In the hands of a lesser writer this could have been the grim tale of a man battling loneliness, depression, his environment, and those big, undefeated questions about the universe. In Weir's hands, however, we have a story that doubles down on the idea that the best cure to all one's ills is to laugh. At any moment throughout the book, the reader could pull back and feel terribly sorry for Mark, but they don't because they find him too terribly entertaining instead. Mark Watney is a Greatest Hits album of all the ridiculous and uninhibited things we hope we'd get to say in such a situation, coupled with all the heroic things we hope we'd be strong enough to do.
In short, this book is the epitome of the Man vs. Nature story, not only because the Nature of Mars proves the ultimate foe, but because the resilience of Man proves its equal.
Oh, and I'll definitely be seeing the movie. Hopefully Matty Ice does Mark justice.
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