Science meets Blockbuster
Bewertet mit 4 Sternen
Imagine: a spaceship gets to a foreign planet, the crew collects samples there until an emergency abort of the mission. They leave one guy behind, believing him to be dead. He finds shelter and finally also a means to call home.
Sounds familiar? It's the plotline of E.T.. And, surprise, also of the Martian!
The book is full of scientific stuff, and although I'm not a science geek at all I found it interesting nevertheless. Maybe because the writing is quite entertaining. It just doesn't truly fit the pretended purpose: a scientist writing to other scientists (he calls them 'future Mars archaeologists' at one point) wouldn't write in that colloquial manner (using Yay! Ta-Daa! repeatedly). But as soon as I got used to the style - and got to know Mark a bit better and saw that it fits his character - I accepted it and after a while I actually liked his humour. The only thing that stayed annoying was his constant use of "Remember," when he wanted to bring something to mind that he's mentioned before.
As I said, I don't know nothing about all the scientific facts, so Andy Weir could have told me anything here. If there are factual mistakes I had no way of detecting them - and that's good enough for me! Only thing I found a bit unrealistic was that Mark needs a maximum of one day to solve even life critical problems. But hey, maybe he really is that clever, and an encyclopedia on legs. You probably have to be if you want to become an astronaut at NASA. He is definitely a very analytical guy who always stays calm and takes "one problem at a time". Maybe that's the key to success. It was also quite impressive that Mark Watney at no point gets depressed or loses his motivation. He simply keeps calm and carries on - however bleak the situation might be.
After we have accompanied Mark on Mars for about 3-4 months, we suddenly switch back to earth and learn what's going on down there. From then on the book felt a bit like a screenplay for a Hollywood movie already, building up the tension by the parallel story lines, the limited time to get something together, the crazy idea how to maybe save Mark Watney after all. The grande finale was very thrilling and typical for a Hollywood Blockbuster. Did Andy Weir sold the rights for his book before even finishing it, or was he just a good visionary?
The ending was a bit abrupt I think, I would have at least liked an epilogue.
All in all it sure is a great book in a genre I normally don't read, but I'm not over the Moon, ähhm, Mars about it.