The Martian

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

This story is exceptionally good! The premise of a human stranded on Mars with the challenge of surviving and living long term is fascinating. After about fifty pages, the book's writing style left me less than satisfied, in that it sounded to me like a hipster scientist/astronaut blog about his survival on Mars. The language is often terse, crude and casual. But then i paused long enough to step outside my own reading preferences to see that in fact, the delivery method is brilliant. I realized that i am not the primary intended audience, nor should i be. This story presents the the scientific facts, challenges and marvels of space exploration and travel in a language accessible to a young person today. My generation grew up with the challenge, inspiration, and hope of the Apollo missions and the beginnings of the Space Shuttle program. But since then, shorter term national priorities have eclipsed much of the space program during my middle adult life. Much has been lost as a result. The contents and message of this book are sorely needed with today's generation of youth. It is my hope that puritanical school systems will not ban it from reading lists because of the frequent use of popular yet crude vocabulary. Including this language makes the story more accessible, and frankly, more authentic to a young person (face it, they all know these words, the book banners are deluding themselves if they think otherwise). I loved this story, and the wealth of science, technology, and knowledge that is presented in such an creative way. I hope every high school student gets a chance to read and discuss this book as part of their basic science education. We need this grounded hope for the future, that has been lost since the days of Apollo. 5+ stars.

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