the Martian — Andy Weir
I read this book (about the first quarter of it) when it was still serialized on his website, and then about 8 or 9 years ago I read it. I remembered the basics of the plot. I saw the movie. I decided to reread it based on the recommendation of one of my writing group members. Honestly, I don’t remember why she suggested it but I think it was to get a sense of the style of first person, tension, drama, and consequences. It really is a fantastic story, told from the point of view of someone who was left for dead on mars. On MARS. The science is all well done except for the obviously bad initial setup—winds don’t get strong enough on mars to knock over an ascent vehicle. I read an interview with Weir where he said that was the one thing he left as fake, because he needed a reason to leave Mark Watney behind.
I really enjoyed the story on my second read. I don’t think I got much craft out of it; i don’t write in first person, I don’t write hyper-realistic fiction, and I don’t use the humorous dead-pan tone that Watney does. But it was good to see how the stakes draw in the reader and make me care. How do i do the same for my own writing? Well, I guess I will keep working on it.
I am trying to decide whether I want to read something new, or reread the Dune books. I’ll decide tomorrow.