Book Review: "The Martian"

4/5 stars

I love to read. If I had my way, I would be able to read a at least three books a month. But with my internship and my job, it is kind of impossible.

Since school got out, I have had the opportunity to read more books that I have been meaning to read (you can see those on my Goodreads page). And one of those books was The Martian by Andy Weir.

This very realistic sci-fi novel tells the story of Mark Watney, who has been left on Mars after a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate the planet. It is a great story about survival, science and the ingenuity of humanity.

I found this an extremely easy read, even with all the science jargon. I was able to finish this book in four days and by the end of the novel, I was racing to see whether or not Mark would survive. As you may be able to guess, I have not seen the film adaptation yet. I wanted to read the book first. Now that I have, I am so excited to see how the film stacks up to the original.

One of the more fun parts of reading the book was seeing "Schiaparelli" on almost every page. One of the end goals for Mark is to get to the Schiaparelli crater, so he (and the other characters) are constantly talking about it. Giovanni Schiaparelli was an Italian astronomer in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He discovered "canals" on Mars, so he got a crater named after him! My family is not sure whether or not we are related to him and his family (which includes the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli), but there is a very high possibility. It has been a pet project of mine to research our family history and to try and find the link between our two families.

Next on my list is The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. I'll let you know what I think.

Thanks for reading!