I searched and don’t see this book mentioned so I’ll do it here: if you like Science Fiction, you will want to read this book.
go read it and come back so we can talk about it. I’ll wait.
and a Thank You to Tuckerfan for suggesting it.
I don’t have a kindle and don’t care for reading books on my iPad anyway, but I did order the hardcover. I’ll check back in after I’ve read it; hopefully middle or end of next week.
I read it and liked it but had to skim some of the complicated stuff in the interest of just finding out what happened next! Had it been me I’d have spent a lot more time thinking about the amazing/fucked up aspects of the whole situation, than you know, actually doing anything about it.
This would be the same Andy Weir that gave us the fabulous *Casey and Andy *and Cheshire Crossing.
It goes next on my to read list.
Looks good. I did JUST start another book, but I ordered The Martian. Love having plenty to read, thanks.
This is a very good book; the Mars technology and planetology is impeccable. Makes me want to go there and grow potatoes.
I mostly didn’t do this, although I am usually all about What Happens Next and not so much for the details. while this book was all about the details.
mostly, the author made it interesting, IMO, and mostly explained “the complicated stuff” in a way that was readable.
does this board have spoilers? well, I don’t see where. made me want to grow some potatoes, too.
I finished it a couple of months ago, after hearing an interview with the author on the radio or a podcast or something. It’s a great hard-science, near-future tale. Reminded me a little of Heinlein or Steven Gould (wrote “Jumper”). It takes you into the mind of the main character and describes his thought process for how he figured out the problems he was facing.
I had a hard time putting it down, since I like stories about smart characters overcoming their problems.
I recommend it highly.
J.
Put {SPOILER} / {/SPOILER} tags (replace the curly bracket with square ones, i.e. [ and ] ) around the content you wish to conceal, so if someone clicks and finds out
MARS IS MADE OUT OF PEOPLE!!!
…it’s their own damn fault. Make sure to preview before posting to confirm the formatting is correct.
OK, I’ll give it a whirl
it made me sad when the potato plants died!
I bought the e-book some weeks ago and devoured the novel pretty quickly. Definitely hard science fiction, which isn’t as common as I’d like it to be. I definitely recommend it.
I enjoyed it, and hope the movie stays relatively true to the book.
I’ve been meaning to read this for months. I’ll start this weekend so I can play.
And I had boo idea that this was the same guy. I’ve read Casey and Andy multiple times.
I read it, it was OK.
Couldn’t tell if the author was being mannered and trying a bit too hard to write in the character’s style, or if that was the author’s voice. I’m not often a fan of the epistolary novel for this reason.
Some of the science was flat-out wrong, I can’t recall what - probably the biology/potato growing, since that’s more my field. Oh, I think it was something to do with pathogens in faeces. Yeah. Urgh. And wrong.
here is a review I feel like sharing
*“A book I just couldn’t put down! It has the very rare combination of a good, original story, interestingly real characters and fascinating technical accuracy…reads like “MacGyver” meets “Mysterious Island.”
— Astronaut Chris Hadfield, Commander of the International Space Station and author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
*
I looked up the wind speed and found it higher than my admittedly cursory internet search suggested for Mars.
Well, when Chris Hadfield says he can’t put a book down, you have to make sure he’s in a gravity well at the time.
I am fairly sure that missions to Mars will include some safe way to recycle human faeces into fertiliser - maybe not on the first mission, but probably on subsequent missions. Any viable CELSS would rely on this sort of recycling.
I read this a few month back, truly great, I devoured it in a day or two. I also agree with the crowd, it’s got a hard sci-fi element to it, and the ending is hilarious. There is also a story I read last year that reminds me a lot of this story. In it, a contest winner gets a ride to orbit and ends up stuck there…that sound familiar to anyone?
I really enjoyed it. Very realistic sci-fi, or at least it was written in a way that made it seem very realistic.