Book review - The Martian by Andy Weir

(Cross-posted from my personal page and from my Goodreads page. Please feel free to friend/follow me there. I love books and love to talk about them!)

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I shall shout about it to anyone who cares to hear me. I listened to it in audiobook, over the course of about 4 days, which is very fast for a 10+ hour audio. (pro tip: listen while you cook dinner, fold laundry, or other mundane household stuff. I also listen on short, long, and medium length drives, and while I walk the dogs. My dogs are very well exercised at the moment.)

What I liked: this book has so much technical depth and detail. While that can be a bit burdensome at times (particularly in audio) I had a lot of appreciation for the manner it was told in, as the technical stuff was all very accurate and very tangible in terms of what the protagonist was doing with the information. No info dumps, just the protagonist dealing with Mars atmosphere and the equipment he had to survive. I mention this first because it’s something that is probably a barrier to some who aren’t traditional science fiction fans. Please, realize that the author isn’t expecting you to solve differential equations nor talking you through the boring bits. He’s focused on the life and death details of space travel. Pressure, chemical reactions, ways to change states, microbes, terrain, distance. These are fascinating when set in the context of an extra-terra exploration. THIS is why I read science fiction. THIS is why I write science fiction.

I also liked the author’s use of humor. There are many laugh out loud moments. To that end, though, a bunch of the humor is due to the very appropriate use of swear words. For example, when Mark has to compute a distance by figuring the length of the long side of a right triangle, and he concludes (since he has to travel the hypotenuse) “Because Pythagoras is a dick.” — I laughed loudly in the middle of chopping something and almost lobbed off a finger. As I try to mention in all my reviews, the curse words are the ONLY mature content (other than a mild reference about a man and woman sharing a room) and to me are an excellent introduction to appropriate emphatic cursing to make your point or convey your aggravation. Definitely fine for 14 and up, but would be appropriate for younger readers so long as you don’t mind the opening of the book which implements the f word several times. To good effect. Conveys mood, attitude, situational details all in a four letter word. Quite economical.

I have always enjoyed science fiction, and this book just blew my socks off because it blended that geeky science-y stuff (which I really don’t have a firm handle on anymore, lo these 20+ years since anyone asked me to care about any of it in detail) and human nature, and the little details of what it would be like in space. I write books about kids in space and like to include the details of what they would eat, whether there would be pets (I’ve come to the conclusion that OF COURSE there will be cats in space. Because cats.) what you do with your hair in zero gee, what you wear, etc. I loved the little details of Mark dealing with his daily routine. The communications with NASA were fascinating. The story kept me engaged the entire length of the book. The audio narrator talent is excellent and I will seek out other books he has narrated. Highest recommendation. Best book I’ve read this year.

Treat yourself to an audiobook this summer - please.

I am a huge crazy fan of audiobooks. I evangelize for them at every opportunity. Please let me take you down my audiobook rabbit hole so you can love them, too.

First, background. I may have occasionally listened to an audiobook as a child, it's probable. We were big library-goers. But I don't specifically remember doing so. Instead, at some point when my son was 6 and my daughter was 4 and I was more-or-less living in my minivan (in the "suburban mom" sense, not in the Chris Farley "I live in a VAN, down by the RIVER!" sense) I realized I needed to do something to keep me from going insane as the mom of two busy and mentally active/taxing children. I had recently come *back* to reading, having not had time to read for pleasure for most of my 20s and early 30s. And I was trying to find a way to get more time for reading. It occurred to me I could listen to books in the car while shuttling children from point A to point B and C and D and E and F and…

Enter, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on audiobook, read by Jim Dale. Ahh. I loved every minute of it, and listened while taking the kids to school and driving home empty-minivan'd. UNTIL. One day I took my daughter (4 at the time) in to her gymnastics class, then went back to the car and stayed in the parking lot with my son (6 at the time) and listened to another hour of HP. When my daughter got back in the car at the end of the class she was AGHAST that we had listened without her. I, for one, was astonished that she was really paying attention. She was FOUR FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. But alas, I learned then a lesson I keep having to learn over and over with this amazing child: do not underestimate her. Also, do not assume she's not paying attention. She sees/hears all. Little antenna, I call her. Tunes in to what is going on and pays attention.

At any rate, we began our family listening right then and there, and I no longer will listen to "our" book when both children aren't in the car. It's led to some funny business, where one or the other will ride with to take their sibling somewhere *just so we can listen some more* to whatever book we're on. And we are always on a book. In a book? Listening to a book. Always.

We've talked about audiobooks on The Prosers before, and we will probably keep talking about them as I'm far from the only fan (Melanie is totally a fan, which is why she vented her frustrations about some audiobook experiences!)

One GREAT way to get into audiobooks this summer is through the SYNC YA Audiobook summer giveaway. For the whole summer (starting a few weeks ago, even!) you can download for FREE one recent audiobook and one classic. FREE. Like for nothing. You can read a bit more about the SYNC program here, but know that they pair the classic and current titles in thematic pairs, and include quite a number of required reading titles from US schools. Great way for your teen to catch up on reading while doing the yard work you surely require of them, right? And in particular, I must insist that you get CODE NAME VERITY via the SYNC program, when it comes available the week of June 12. It is hands-down the best book I've ever read (yes, listening counts) and absolutely destroyed me in the best possible way. The narrators were spectacular. I bought the book in paper immediately after listening to it because I *had to feel the words under my fingers.*

As for some other titles to consider? As Melanie points out her her blog post from January, Middle Grade books seem to translate a bit better to audiobook, at least some of the time. There are also quite a lot of grown-up books that are good in audio, as my family is currently on the last disc of the last book of Brandon Sanderson's epic fantasy series Mistborn. But I'll keep my suggestions to the YA/MG-friendly side just for ease of use as a reading list for families. Not all families would be ready for the heavy themes of class divisions, institutional prostitution and murder, tyranny, abuse, etc. that run somewhat through the Mistborn series (but my 10 and 12 year olds have handled the content well and it's given us many conversation starters as we've worked through the series over the last 6 months.)

• The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander- one of our favorites. Start with The Book of Three. A great book for audio because many of the names are based on Welsh, and can be difficult to parse in text. Plus the narrator makes the various voices so funny.
• ANYTHING AT ALL by Tamora Pierce. In particular, though, start with Wild Magic. Allow some leeway for the so-so narrator (over-enuciator.) We loved this book and it hooked us on all of Tortall. We've listened to almost every book set in this world, my 12 year old son in particular has steamed his way through even the auxiliary series' set in this world like the Beka Cooper books. 
• The Alchemyst by Michael Scott
• Magyk by Angie Sage (the Septimus Heap series)
• Enchanted, by Alethea Kontis - my favorite book of 2013!
• The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen
• Charlie Bone books - by Jenny Nimmo
• Rick Riordan books like Lightening Thief, though I find the more recent titles of his get a little exhausting (maybe I'm just burnt out on the author?) as they are long and very action-packed with little downtime. 
• The Goose Girl (and really anything by Shannon Hale)
• The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (read by a full cast, one of our favorite ways to listen to books. Many of Shannon Hale's books are done by a full cast, too.) 
• My goodness, this is quite a list already but I know it's very incomplete! I'll work on adding more books to the comments, please add yours too!

Note: I didn't include Code Name Verity in my list above because it's a much more mature book, less kid-friendly, but I can't let it go without a mention. Code Name Verity was the best book I've ever read. Here is my Goodreads review of it.