The Martian
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- jtb26
Such an excellent book, and it's being made into a movie. Any one else read it? If you haven't I highly recommend the audio book it's incredibly well done.
- dasohr0
it was okay.
- monospaced0
I haven't read this one, but I'm a huge sci-fi fan. Thanks for the recommendation; downloading to Kindle :)
- Word. Let me know what you think.jtb26
- I especially like reading them before seeing the movies.monospaced
- Don't read that i09 article then, a little spoilery.jtb26
- The first line was a warning, so I resisted.monospaced
- docpoz0
I will check it out.
- detritus0
Is this that 'as technically accurate as possible' book that was written and published by the author direct to internet?
If so, I'm amazed to hear it's a good read too - I was under the impression it was aimed at nerds with a technical bent.
I might have to pick up a copy..
- the author recently said the astronaut would have died from radiation exposure. He wrote that bit of science away for the story to move forward.zenmasterfoo
- jtb260
Detritus, you're correct. It's supposedly very accurate, walks through a lot of science and math. Though, I think it does it in away that's not at all oppressive. The writer mixes it in with the characters sense of humor and also in away that drives the plot forward. There's always a sense of urgency, or importance to it so I didn't particularly mind it.
- monospaced0
So I went and bought this book again, only to see that not only had I already purchased it, I had already read it awhile back. Definitely a good story, but leaves a lot do be desired when it comes to the actual storytelling/writing part. Yes it's super accurate, but overall slightly unrefined in its prose. The story is simply amazing and something I can see being made into not only an amazing story for the big screen, but also an emotional one, an aspect that wasn't fully realized in the book. Some film directors are pretty good at injecting feelings into stories that need them, and this is one. I can't wait to see it.
- I keep thinking about Gravity, and how it was pretty white-nuckled tense at times due to the film-making. In a book it might not have been so intense.monospaced
- I think some of the suspense is lost because it's narrated in the form of mission missives, they're in the past tense often so some of the drama is lost.jtb26
- based on who's involved in the film, it should have a fair amount of dramamonospaced
- Oh totally. There are a number of moments I'm looking forward to seeing recreated on screen. Particularly one of the early moments with NASA.jtb26
- Beeswax0
Didn't read the book just watched the movie.
My criticisms;
- Why would NASA jeopardise shitload of money, years of investment, tons of scientific research and valuable crew members for a guy that's left behind because of nobody's fault?
- Why would China do the same thing?
- What is the main motivation/lesson of the story?
- Why did Mark Watney got pissed when he learned that they didn't let the other crew members know about his survival? (which created a whole unnecessary drama section)
- Lastly, two hostile/competing country cooperates to save the world or a person with all uber cool, smart, dedicated, strong-willed group of people and a happy and emotional ending. Have I seen this before million times in hollywood? Stale formula...
I think the scientific accuracy, innovation and curiosity is the main power of the story, which most of it is left in the book. Do you think the emotional additions in the movie made it better?
- NASA propagandautopian
- I can't ever enjoy a movie, it's never accurate as it should be, full of things that don't make sense, for a scienfiction flicks it should be more gooder??GeorgesIV
- NASA didn't. The crew decided to do it.monospaced
- Crew's decision.
China's equipment.
Solve one problem at a time.
Because crew feels at fault.
Yes.brandelec - I thought the choices R. Scott made were pretty reasonable. There's so much story telling done in the visuals to make up for the verbal exposition.jtb26
- The ending was weak sauce in the book too. I think some of that was studio nonsense.jtb26
- wanda0
what's the typeface used in the end credits?
not Bourgeois, I mean the one that looks like Sofia Pro
- uan0
- So many silly frivolous: pie charts, graphs, sliders, a various UI bullshit. NASA's UI looks nothing remotely close to this Hollywood BS.utopian
- Reminds me of Oblivion's UI design.utopian
- this was also supposed to be the future too though.Al_dizzle
- How do you know utopian?monospaced
- Nasa Control room: http://www.nasa.gov/…wagshaft
- JPL:
http://snowder.com/b…wagshaft - ^ looks like a sun studiosureshot
- nb1
- feel1
saw the movie this weekend, and its a movie about matt demon chewing something
very weak story, just cool because of the scientific stuff, but only that
- chewing something?monospaced
- brewing something?omg
- yeah it had so much potential, but fell flat.yurimon
- jtb262
I'll watch spaceships flying through space shot by ridley scott on replay for the rest of my life thank you very much. I got a pretty visceral feeling watching people on the space walks.
There's so much from the book in the movie for the keen observer that I felt like they did a reasonably faithful job while still creating a movie that was capable of delivering at the box office. I really don't think you could have done a whole lot better with the source material than that. I think a lot of what made the book enjoyable over so many pages would have gotten old really fast on screen - or perhaps rendered it into an arthouse flick. The later maybe wouldn't have gotten enough money to have it look so good. I can't really shit on them for that.
I could have done without some of the edits to the climax. I would have preferred an R version of this where their isn't so much cliche dancing around the word "Fuck".
I think Mark's duel engineering background is missed. Some other spoilers stuff towards the middle to end that I understand cutting, but would have enjoyed immensely as well.
- GeorgesII2
if you don't have time to read the book, listen to the audiobook,
it's a very awesome story
- sureshot1
The only thing I liked was that he could grow potatoes.
- Bullitt1
Was half way through the book when I went to see this... Not great, book was better by far.... shit soundtrack also, he turned it into a bit of a farce really.