Andy Weir’s The Martian (picture from goodreads)
My problem when reading a book is always constant urge to read another page.
Andy Weir’s The Martian is one of the books that kept me doing so.
Title: The Martian
Writer: Andy Weir
Format: e-book
Language: English
Page: 300
My review will be in English, Indonesian version of this book review.
I found out about this book from Goodread’s polling. At that time, I was ambitiously set my reading challenge to 50 books for this year. The Martian is the 7th book I read so far.
At first, this book was not so appealing to me. The first few pages of the books show map of some unknown land, well at least not that I know of. Apparently it was a map of Mars’ surface (remember the title of the book is The Martian! :P).
The story then started with Sol 6 log entry from a surviving astronaut that was left behind by his team during an unusual storm attacking their martian exploration mission. He survived being blown away by a storm and got separated from the rest of his fellow team mate who managed safely reached their spaceship that will bring them back to Earth.
Well, sol is day count in Mars which is shorter a few hours compared to Earth’s 24 hours daily round the clock.
The story then continued for many sols later telling in detail how Mark Watney -the astronaut’s name which amazingly survived the hazard- fought his way to save his very own life. Not until sol 42 which is chapter 6 of the book another character is introduced. It was a bit lonely reading sessions I had until sol 42. I got the very same feeling as when I was watching Tom Hank’s Cast Away. Lonely and helpless. But right after the introduction of the NASA people, I feel relieved that this Watney will get some support later on in the book.
How to rescue Watney then became the focus of the book after how he tried to save his very own life. Well, along the book, Watney was still trying very hard to keep himself alive until his rescuer came and picked him up. A very unexpected ending of this book kind of surprised me.
Well, story wise it was good but not the one with extraordinarily twisted plot or any unexpected development, meeting any native martian, for instance. But the strength of this book is how Andy Weir described everything from Mark Watney’s way of thinking in very detailed way for everything he was doing. Did I mention that Watney’s character is an engineer and a botanist?
So I got to know how to seal a leaking space suit, growing potatoes in martian atmosphere until how to convert short range two martian explorer rovers into a trailer for 3,200 km journey to next martian exploration project after his for the rescue. I bought it that Watney could survive on Mars for a year and a half.
This book is definitely satisfied my hunger for science fiction and deep space exploration after last year I watched Gravity and Interstellar. I imagine how would be the movie for this book.
If you are into this kind of genre, I recommend you to read.
Indonesian version of this review
PS: I learn this pagination from Bang Rifki‘s submission in BEC’s English Friday challenge. Thank you Bang for the inspiration! 😀
[BookThursday] Andy Weir's The Martian
19/02/2015
jampang
ah… saya penasaran sama film cast awaynya tom hanks. soalnya nonton nggak sampe selesai. begitu nemu judul cast away di server, langsung aja copy. begitu dibuka dan ditonton… eh ternyata film korea 😀
nah, mas ryan nyoba bikin halaman ini koq belum berhasil yah? mas dani bisa…. jadi bingung
dani
Ahahahaha. Film korea ya Bang. Belom pernah tahu tuh.
Mas Ryan lagi coba nih kayaknya Bang. Makasih ya ilmunya. 🙂
Faraziyya
mas Dani, ada paragraf yang dobel tuh di awal. #oot
nice review, anyway ^^d
Buku ini goodreads choice best sci-fi kan ya?
ah, space-theme novel/book masih sulit buat saya. Ini aja baru mau nyoba baca novelisasi interstellar -,-“
dani
Aaaaak, terimakasih yaaaa.
Iya ini nominasi goodreads choice best sci-fi/ Hihihihi…
Interstellar dinovelisasi? Wah serunya..
Masya
Wah harus baca inii
dani
Iya Masya, seruu! 😀
Ferdy Lpu
di mars ada oksigennya kah? kok sampe setahun lebih masih hidup aja. padahalkan baju astronot paling bisa beratahan beberapa hari aja.
dani
Nah itulah Fer menariknya buku ini. Baca deh.
Ferdy Lpu
Bukunya b.inggris ya bang? Berat kalo b.inggris bang
Gara
Hm… although I’m not into this genre very much, this book indeed looks interesting (dimasukin ke daftar baca dulu, entah dibacanya kapan) :haha.
Saya juga kepingin tahu bagaimana cara bikin postingan seperti ini… :hehe. Ajarin, dong!
dani
Sori tadi kepencet Gara. Hihihi. Bukunya menarik banget Gara. I was also not to fond of this genre but after reading the book surprisingly I love it. 😛
Kalo buat bikin yang seperti ini nanti kapan-kapan gw bikin di blogging things aja kali ya 😀 Tapi yang punya ide duluan emang Bang Rifki 😀
Gara
I’m sorry but i can’t see your comment, Mas :huhu
Gara
Ditunggu postingannya Mas :hehe
zilko
A book which is able to keep me wanting to turn another page IS a good book! 😀
Damn I think this is a very interesting novel but I think it will be difficult for me to find a time to read it.
dani
Indeed it is Ko, a very good one in my opinion. May you can get some time to read it. 😀
Nadia Khaerunnisa
This might be so good and mind-blowing, but I’m still paranoid since the last time I read Life of Pi : this book is also about surviving, isn’t it? I can’t help the feeling pf loneliness and helplessness 😆
dani
Yes, it is Nad. Similar to Life of Pi. Hahaha, I can imagine how you feel. That was exactly what I was feeling while reading the book.
Nadia Khaerunnisa
Depressed but curious, so I’m tortured but need to keep going hahaha
dani
So. Will you read this book or not? Haha.
Nadia Khaerunnisa
mmm… I’d rather wait for the movie. Baca lebih bikin membekas di hati daripada nonton hahahah maybe because we often imagine ourselves as the main character 😀
dani
Ahahahahaha. Indeed.
nyonyasepatu
7 buku, bny juga Dan hihi. Aku baru 4
dani
Hihihihi. Ini bulan ini menurun kecepatan bacanya Mba. 😀
Pungky KD
Waaah seru kayaknya. nanti gw ceritain hanif. Dia lg suka hal2 yg berbau planet pak…..lg demen2nya ama tata surya…
dani
Kalau mau bukunya kasih tahu ya Mak…
Pungky KD
Mau lah pak…. 😉
dani
Nanti share inpoh di grup yaa..
Firman
Selalu suka pembahasan tentang luar angkasa.. pernah baca di NG edisi Mars, kalo kehidupan di Mars ada kemiripan dengan Bumi, jadi mungkin kalo bisa bertahan hidup sampai 1,5 tahun.
Tapi di buku ini lebih menceritakan kehidupan di Mars, penelitiannya, atau tentang Mark Watney gimana bertahan hidup di sana?
dani
Gimana Mark Watney bertahan hidup di sananya Man. Apa ajanyang dia lakukan adapting dengan perangkat yang ada.
rizzaumami
Ada roman-romannya gak Bang Dan?
dani
Nope sama sekali. Ada sih antara Watney sama kentangnya. Hahaha. 😀
Nia Sari Nastiti
Gonna read the books and the movies mentioned above since I really like Interstellar and a helpless-lonely journey :p
dani
hope that you will like them 😀
rabbani75
belum pernah baca ceritanya terima kasih dituliskan disni ya
Mawardi
nampaknya enak untuk dibaca mas thank telah berbagi
riemikan
Hebat masih mau baca scifi Dan. Aku sih muaaalessa, gak tau gak pernah tertarik baik buku ato pelem
myra anastasia
ebook, ya? kira-kira ada versi cetaknya gak, ya? Saya suka pusing kalau baca e-book 🙂
Lucille
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they use advanced article rewriter, you should read about it, just
type in gogle:
Rynildhat’s Rewriter
Jaka
makasih review nya gan 😀
Dani
Makasih sudah mau bacaa 🙂