A Book Review: The Martian

The Martian
By: Andy Weir
My Rating: 5/5

Guys, stop what you're doing at this very moment and go read this book!  Yes, even if you're in the middle of reading my review, I'll wait.

*Waits patiently on you*

Okay, now that you're done, we can get into the review!

Mark Watney, botanist, engineer, and first man to be alone on Mars.  After a severe dust storm forces the crew to evacuate Mars, Mark finds himself alone on the surface clinging to life.  His crew believing him dead flee from the red planet just before their only form of escape fatally tips over.  Having made it safely onto their escape ship, the whole crew wishes there was something more they could have done to save him.

Mark is on his own.  The first step was to grow some food.  Being a botanist did come in handy on Mars!  To grow food, Mark needed to "make" more water.  This is where the book lost me a little.  I'm sure someone else could read this and understand just fine, but it just went slightly over my head.  With some potato plants growing he started to use his engineering skills.  Mark starts brewing up ideas for communication.

After about a month of mourning, NASA takes a look at Mars. They would have to make any images they found public, so for obvious reasons they were very hesitant.  With a nudge from an administrator of NASA Venkat finally caved and gave him the satellite time he was after.  They expected to find a body, but instead they found Watney alive!  There was no way to communicate with him, but they knew he was alive and were working on a way to get to him.

Mark planned to travel to the Pathfinder site.  NASA lost contact with that rover long ago, but he's an engineer, fixing things is his job.  All he knows is if he can make it there he may be able to communicate with Earth, and let someone know he is still alive.

Its been a long time since I've actually wanted to read a book so full of suspense.  After seeing the movie, and hearing such good things about the book I talked about it so much I got it for Christmas. (Thanks Issac!!)

I have so much that I want to say about this book.  I'm a sucker for anything written in journal format and most of this book was done just like that.  Watneys humor kept me laughing through the darkest parts of his journey.  It kind of made me want to be an astronaut.  Kind of.

Stephanie Need this book for yourself? Here's a link to its Amazon page! I do get a small commission if you use my link so it's a win-win! Thank you for your support! The Martian Amazon Page

Ender's Game, A Review about the book (mostly)

Ender's Game
By: Orsan Scott Card
My Rating: 4.5/5 Loved it, will probably read again


This book seems a little intimidating at first, science fiction, space travel, and aliens.  No thanks, I would normally skip over that one.  To be honest, I only picked it up after watching the movie.   My boyfriend actually let me borrow his copy of it after he read it and said it was extremely good, and even better than the movie.  So that got me thinking "huh, I wonder how the book compares to movie."

The first thought I had was "wait, the kids are six?! I don't think they were that young in the movie!"  The answer is no, they did not show them that young.   They start off in battle school, training to fight an inevitable return attack by the Buggers, an alien species that almost wiped out humanity the first round. All of the kids grew up watching videos of the final battle with the Buggers. Then finally a heroic fighter pilot sacrificed him and his fighter jet to blow up the "mother ship" hoping that would put an end to the bloodshed.

Ender is a third child, which was unheard of, during the time in the books and was very uncommon.  Ender grows up before our eyes, and rather quickly.  He is so smart for only being six (must have something to do with being a special third child) and outsmarts bullies that are way larger than him.  His siblings, Valentine and Peter both went to the battle school Ender is in.  Peter failed out for being too quick to turn to violence and Valentine didn't make the cut because she was too kind.

The movie left out most of the subplot about Valentine and Peter, which I understand, but it is a shame.  For kids they are both highly intelligent and think like adults.  They were honestly two of my favorite characters in the whole series. 

With so much action, and a young unknowing hero, I couldn't put this book down and flew threw it.  So if you think this book it too intimidating, like me, just give it a chance!  You may just be surprised, I know I was.

Stephanie 




Want to start the series get the book here.  If you buy the book on Amazon with my link I do get a small commission.  Thank you for your support!!