Review: The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Had the preview loaded from Amazon and my eyes on this book for some time. As it is getting filmed and fefe recommended it, I finally caved, started the preview this night before I took a hammer and killed the light, then bought it today. Actually an additional reason was that I do not like the main character of the CHRONOS novella [b:Time's Mirror: A CHRONOS Files Novella|25810884|Time's Mirror A CHRONOS Files Novella (The Chronos Files, #2.5)|Rysa Walker|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1435502500s/25810884.jpg|45666878] I started before. Nearly DNF'ed this with the first sentences, language! While the swearing is apt to the situation, I still think, the use of the same few swear words in US-based books, is a bad choice. Living in another part of the world (EU - Germany) and also consuming UK (and other)-based books and TV-series I cannot believe, that the US-Americans do not have better swear words, more inventive?! To new authors I suggest: make some up, or simply drop them! Just another example: The smile of a man who fucked with his car and didn’t break it. Shuddering to the image someone actually fucking his car... Could have used so many different words here, "meddled", "tinkered", etc. But "fucking"? In this case and sentence it is not the right word, and there are other places in the book where these words where used in the wrong context. From educated people like the Hero of this book (he has studied) I expect more. Reading on, the whole language is this book feels, hm, how to put it?, young and a bit simple, so "laypeople" can understand the tech (and bio), I am curious how this will feel and play out further on in the book. Story itself is interesting, so I will read on, but I must say, the language in the beginning was a turn-off, so far it has mellowed a bit. The tone throughout the book is funny, sometimes snarky or in rare occasions sarcastic. And not really a style I want to read, the tech could have been not as dumbed down lawypeople -like, more SF for me. But ok, I can see how this would appeal to the usual non-SF-reading masses. Still think this book is overhyped, as where others I did not like, [b:Gone Girl|21480930|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1432019852s/21480930.jpg|13306276] - I am looking at you. Not recommended, but still 3 stars, as the main idea was pure genius and I could not detect any mistakes or errors in the logic. It reads a bit like big long McGyver Episode. And given that there are a lot of twists, the ending was more or less as expected, the possibilities where rather limited, and I would really have liked to be surprised - but was not, sadly.

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