Andy Weir’s path to publication is a non-traditional
one. According to Wikipedia, he began
writing science fiction and publishing on his website, as well as working on
several web comics, for years before his big hit. The Martian was originally published
online in 2011, stemming from the idea to explore scientifically and
technically what it would take to survive on Mars, once again on his
website. It gained popularity and Weir
would place a copy for sale on Kindle at 99 cents, the lowest price allowed, before
becoming popular enough to be traditionally published in 2014 by Crown
Books. This makes this book significant
as one in a gaining trend of self-published works slowly gaining the respect
that they deserve and the path towards more traditional publishing. While far from the norm, Weir is a perfect
example of the potential of self-published works and the markets they can tap
into. The Martian is a fairly
hard science fiction novel, something that in terms of popular science fiction fell
out of fashion as general trends moved away from a very clinical style of speculative
fiction towards more plot and character based stories. Andy Weir’s pitch for The Martian, at
least when discussed after its release, is an essential blend of the two, taking
the time to explore how Mark Watney survives on Mars after being stranded by
his team. It is set 34 years in the future
(from the perspective of its publication) where the third manned mission to
Mars is cut short after six Martian days, a dust storm causes the rest of the
team to flee while Watney is seemingly killed by a piece of machinery.
Weir’s novel is an interesting beast, at least in
attempting to review it. It bounces back
and forth between two formats, the first person logs of Mark Watney which take
up the majority of the novel and third person limited prose giving the reader
insights to NASA working around the clock to rescue him and the rest of the Ares
3 mission on their way back to Earth (and later back to Mars post mutiny to
rescue Watney). Of all of the books I’ve
read and reviewed, I do not think I’ve ever come across one that even attempts
to switch perspective like this, nor doing so sometimes in the same chapter. This could be a quirk of the original format
of the novel, being published in serial installments, but it doesn’t feel like
Weir is being unintentional with the way he is switching perspectives. It should be something that disrupts the
narrative and drags you out of the story, but it isn’t. Watney’s perspective is the most prevalent but
the lead in to the shifts in perspective, especially the first one, is done so
excellently and quickly you hardly notice the shift happening. The Martian also succeeds at easily
conveying the scientific material, something Weir focuses on throughout the
novel as a possible way for a man to survive on Mars based on what a potential one-month
mission would have on hand. The science
is not dumbed down for a general audience, but conveyed in a way that lays out
what exactly Watney is doing, while the larger scale projects at NASA
(especially any building of rockets) are given just enough information for the
reader to understand the principle but none of the details. This leads to the book being a genuine
survival guide for Mars if it weren’t for discoveries of the red planet after publication
that would make specifically the way Watney gets crops to grow false.
If there were one place where The Martian falls
the slightest bit flat, it would be a lot of the characters not being entirely
fleshed out, especially those who aren’t Mark Watney. This makes obvious sense since they all have
to share about a quarter of the book while Watney is physically logging
everything else, and that the book ends without an entirely proper resolution
for everyone. Weir had honestly knocked
it out of the park with a near perfect first novel. It reads incredibly as a survival thriller in
space, something where I don’t want to give away pretty much anything that
actually happens in the plot outside of the vaguest premise and the setup. If you somehow haven’t gone and read this, go
do that. 10/10.
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