Review: The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm sure I'm not the only one who picked this book up just because it's soon to be turned into a star-studded movie directed by Ridley Scott. At least I had an idea of what to expect - survival, action, sci-fi, and bizarrely funny dialogue. This book has those in spades - but especially the last one. My uncle, who read this one before I did, warned me and my dad that Mark Watney's sense of humor was particularly juvenile. He wasn't kidding ("look, a pair of boobs!") - but hey, it works, because it's the perfect defense mechanism for a guy who's all by himself on a strange planet. It works so well, in fact, that I actually came to hate it when the narrative broke away from his log entries to focus on the human efforts to get him back home. Even though those are just as necessary to the story, they feel so much less entertaining in comparison.

My parents are dying to see this movie, and I'm sure we'll all end up going to the theater for it sometime in October. Preferably after I see Crimson Peak, though. But this movie, with its many great actors (and, of course, Ridley Scott at the helm), should be really good, even if they have to clean up most of Watney's dialogue for a PG-13 rating.

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