The Martian

Did you know that The Martian began as an online self-published book? According to NPR, it was picked up by a small Canadian audiobook company. Andy Weir was surprised that any company was interested in his book “by a dork for dorks”. When Random House asked about publishing physical books, Weir first had to get permission from the audiobook company Podium Publishing. They let Weir buy the book back so he could publish with Random House.

Greg Lawrence, a co-founder of Podium: “We weren’t looking to grab some rights and then hold onto those at the expense of the author, especially – it’s not just the author’s livelihood; it’s his dream. You know, it’s what he wants to do with his life. We didn’t have any interest in standing in the way of that.”

It ended up being a win-win situation for all parties. Thanks to the Random House marketing, the audiobook got a big boost in sales, the physical book came out, the movie was a hit, and all of us “dorks” got to have an awesome time reading, listening, and watching The Martian. (Npr.org)

About The Book 📚

Title: The Martian

Author: Andy Weir

Publication Date: 2014 (first published 2011)

Publisher: Broadway Books (first published by Crown Publishing)

Suggested Reader Age: Adult

Genre: Science Fiction, Humour

About The Author

“ANDY WEIR built a career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, THE MARTIAN, allowed him to live out his dream of writing fulltime. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects such as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail. He lives in California. Andy’s next book, ARTEMIS, is available now.”

My Review

› Ares 3 is on a Mars mission after successful Ares 1 and 2 missions. Everything is going well until a huge sandstorm causes the team to abandon the site and launch the rocket back to earth. Mark’s team members witness him be whisked off in the storm and his suit reports to them that he has no life signs. They take off in tears.

The thing is…his suit malfunctioned after being punctured by a piece that flew off the station. Now Mark is stranded on Mars alone. His first task is to find a way to communicate with earth and figure out a food source to last 300+ days, which means putting his botany knowledge to work and discover a way to make Mars ground fertile to grow food. He’ll also need to figure out a way to get more water.

“One thing at a time.”

The first 58 pages are all Mark, then we get to meet the team at NASA. Mitch is the flight director. Venkat Kapoor is the director of Mars operations. Annie Montrose is the director of media relations. Mindy Park monitors the satellites around Mars and she’s the one who notices the pop tents have been deployed AFTER the Ares 3 team had already left the planet. NASA gets to work trying to figure out a way to bring Mark home, while Mark faces one life-threatening problem after the next.

› I use the CAWPILE method to rate books.
0-3 Really bad
4-6 Mediocre
7-9 Really good
10 Outstanding

› Characters: 10

› Atmosphere: 10

› Writing Style: 10

› Plot: 8
a little slow and repetitive.

› Intrigue: 10

› Logic: 10

› Enjoyment: 10

Average 9.7
1.1-2.2 = ★
2.3-4.5 = ★★
4.6-6.9 = ★★★
7-8.9 = ★★★★
9-10 = ★★★★★

My Rating ★★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• The Martian made me laugh, cry, and hold my breath wondering if Mark would survive and how he would solve the next problem. There’s lots of swearing, so I’d recommend this to readers 13+. If you liked the movie you’ll LOVE the book.