The Martian by Andy Weir

[justalurkr]

I am listening to a most delightful book, summed up by one reviewer as a cross between "The Martian Chronicles" and "Castaway," in which an astronaut gets marooned on Mars because reasons.

So far, my favorite quote is as follows:

“He’s stuck out there. He thinks he’s totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man’s psychology?” He turned back to Venkat. “I wonder what he’s thinking right now.”

LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.”
― Andy Weir, The Martian

And concerning Watney's efforts at improvised survival:

“Everything went great right up to the explosion.”
― Andy Weir, The Martia

My impression is old school astronaut sci fi with a pop culture update. If you haven't read it yet (and I am apparently behind the curve by about a year on this) I can highly recommend it.

Comments

[nialla]

“Also, I have duct tape. Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store. Turns out even NASA can’t improve on duct tape.”

“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”

I've gotten so many people hooked into reading or listening to this from the library. Even people who normally don't do SF, because this is more of a "realistic" story that's about surviving by your wits, your shits, and duct tape. :)

ETA:
“Also, please watch your language. Everything you type is being broadcast live all over the world.
[12:15] WATNEY: Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.)”

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Watney is irrepressible. Of course, so is Annie the press person. "GET ME A F#CKN PICTURE."

[nialla]

You know they're making a movie that should be out this year? The casting looks good, but I'm curious to see if the gut the language. You can only say the f-bomb once and hope to get a PG-13 rating, and sustained cussing at any level is an R. I'm not sure they'd be willing to go with an R because PG-13 draws from a larger audience pool.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

The other thing is the technical exposition. There are some hefty chunks that are likely very well-phrased handwaving, though they sound pretty valid to me. Hollywood has a nasty habit of handwaving even harder.

As to the cussing, it's part of Watney's charm and I hope they go with the R rating.

[nialla]

The writer did do a lot of research to make things sound realistic, but since it's set slightly in the future, there's some wiggle room for the tech.

I'm not sure how Hollywood will handle the dialogue at all. Will they keep the log entry style, or just show him talking to himself to explain things to the audience in a dumbed down style they're so well known for.

I'm hoping for an R as well, but I think it's one that Hollywood will want to be accessible to a larger audience. Aside from the language, it's otherwise pretty clean, with only references to sex happening off the page.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Listening to the book, I ship Watney/Martinez.
Checking the casting, I ship Watney/Beck.

I'm a shallow bitch.

[nialla]

One with good taste. ;)

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

It would also make sense to ship Venkat/Watney, but theirs would be a cerebral love.

[nialla]

A cerebral love between two smartasses of varying degrees.