The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 7 December 2015
by Andy Weir
In July of 1969, Michael Collins became the most remote human being in history when the Apollo 11 command module he was piloting passed around the far side of the Moon, while his fellow astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, touched down for their historic first footsteps in the Sea of Tranquility. Collins was more than three thousand miles away from the nearest person. And the three of them were another couple hundred thousand miles away from the rest of humanity. It must have been a profound experience of solitude. Imagine, then, being stranded on Mars. Mark Watney, botanist and engineeer to the Ares 3 mission is left for dead during a powerful wind storm. His fellow astronauts head for home on their aborted mission. Watney is now millions of miles from the nearest human, none of whom, at least for the moment, knowing he is alive. It is a thought experiment of profound isolation and the innovative thinking that can help a man survive. The author asks: "Given the equipment abaondoned on Mars, with no means of communicating with Earth, can this man survive and eventually be rescued?"
To make the story work, enough has to go wrong, so that our hero is abandoned alone on Mars, but enough has to go right, so that Watney actually survives his initial abandonment. This is difficult for a storyteller who wishes to stay close to the realities of modern space flight, as any NASA mission to Mars would certainly have a huge number of failsafe mechanisms in place to assure the safety of its crews. Indeed, some of the story creaks under the stress Weir places on it. Yet, the satisfactions of Watney's survival and Weir's research more than make up for these momentary weaknesses. It is a modern adventure of Robinson Crusoe as told with modern technology and an abiding respect for science. The story is told in a fast-paced, entertaining style full of -- but not too full of -- satisfying mechanical detail that gives it a riveting immediacy.
Ares3 is the third mission to Mars. In April of 1970, the third mission to the Moon, Apollo 13, experienced an accident that could easily have killed its crew. The inventiveness and imagination of that crew, and of the many at NASA who brought them back safely, are background themes in this book. Whatever you think of the turgid NASA bureaucracy, the rank-and-file workers are competent and dedicated people who have given the world an enormous legacy of discovery and adventure. It seems that Weir would like us to remember that.
So, can a man survive alone on Mars, for over a year, including long, unplanned journeys across the surface, and do it with just the resources available for a month-long six-person stay? Mark Watney is sort of an interplanetary MacGyver, he is competent and dedicated. He approaches his fight for survival by filling his days with the necessary tasks to adapt, repair and extend the life of the equipment he has. The notion of an instant death is never far away, but he doesn't dwell upon it. He does it all with help from millions of miles away, along with some disco music and reruns of 70s sitcoms. His is an extreme case for a kind of attitude that should help us all get through our days.
In the end, Weir, who began this story as a blog (followed by a Kindle book, followed by a major bestseller, followed by a movie), puts together an engaging modern adventure of a trip to Mars. His greatest achievement with The Martian may be that he makes a mission to Mars seem not only imaginable, but possible.
Also by Andy Weir: [Artemis]