My book club finally started reading a new selection, and made my choice of books easier than ever. I asked the librarian for it, and was disappointed to learn that it was The Martian. The only pre-knowledge I had about this story I got from movie promos on TV. Since I don’t like Matt Damon unless he is playing Jason Bourne, the trailers did not impress me. I made a snide comment about the selection and my obligation to read every book the members are reading. She told me to skim it. “No,” I said, “once I start a read I suffer through it no matter how much I hate it.”
At home I put the book on the table, and walked away. Later, I walked by the book and decided to pick it up to read the first page just to get a feel for the story. That was the end of it for me. I never put it down again until bedtime.
The Martiani is the best book I have read in a long time. The premise was totally believable, the character was real, and totally funny. It takes quite a man to be funny when marooned on a planet eleven months from Earth. His attitude was one of survival, and he was expert at solving problems throughout. My background is in engineering and this story is loaded with heaps of technical jargon and science. All of it made sense and based on fact. This character put McGyver to shame.
Now that I love the story so much I will endure the movie to see if Damon did the story justice.
Filed under: Book Review, family, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged: Mars, Space | Leave a comment »
