The Martian: the book

Review of The Martian by Andy Weir

Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.
But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

 My Review:

Okay peeps. Long time, no hear. I am sorry about that, I really. I only have all the usual excuses about school, which brings me to my next point. I am here to discuss The Martian, not a literal Martian obviously but the book with that same title. In another future post I will probably also give my assessment of book versus movie however this time I focus strictly on the book.
 

Our main character is a guy named Mark Watney. He’s not just any guy but to answer your unspoken question, he is not a Martian. He is, however, an astronaut. He gets left behind for dead during a mission to Mars. You don’t get far into this book before you realize that Mark is wise-cracking type scientists who likes to make jokes about almost everything, even his mistakes.

So what does a guy like that do on Mars? Well apparently he just keeps making jokes and working out the science to stay. And that brings me to his personal mission or goal which is simply to stay alive until NASA can come and get him.

As per my usual, I will start with the positives on this story. First, it is an interesting concept. When I first heard about the plot it struck me as being a twist on the man stranded on the deserted island plot except that you’ve upped the ante because now he has to worry about being able to breathe as well as grow food “on a planet where nothing grows.” So it has that going for it.

Second, as I said before, Mark Watney is a funny guy. For the most part he is a likeable character although I have to admit it took me a while to figure that out. Some of his remarks came out more of bitter type of funny which I didn’t care for too much but as the story got going I started to really appreciate his sense of humor. I got the point where I could ignore the objectionable parts and enjoy the story.

Third, some of the other characters are also funny and fun to read. I loved Venkat Kapoor, for example. It was nice to read a major Indian character in an American story and I can only say—it’s about time. Lewis and her disco collection were also useful in serving as the butt of Watney’s jokes.

The aforementioned objectionable parts for me, well it was really one objectionable part—the language. There are a ton of fbombs in this one. I might have stopped reading it altogether due to that fact alone except for two things:

• ·      It was a class assignment (I couldn’t believe it but I finally got to read a novel for a class assignment, how awesome is that!)
• ·      It was a really interesting plot.

That being said, you might want to consider that if you are going to read this book. Also, I wouldn’t recommend it for younger readers. In fact, I would probably suggest adults only.

The other down side was that I didn’t always understand the science behind it and that made the scientific explanations hard to follow. I guess that’s my fault though for not understanding more about science.  And since I didn’t have time to research it while I was reading it, I got lost in a few places. However, that didn’t mean that I wasn’t able to follow the story. I got all the major plot points and even most of the minor ones; I just didn’t understand how they happened.

So I recommend it only if you can either stomach or ignore the language. Otherwise, you might want to consider the movie version instead.

Brothers in Exile

Review of Brothers in Exile by Joe Vasicek

Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: Deep in the Far Outworlds, a derelict space station holds the bones of a long-dead people—and a beautiful young woman locked in cryofreeze. When the star-wandering brothers Isaac and Aaron Deltana find the sleeping girl, they soon realize that they are her only hope for rescue. If they don't take her, then slavers certainly will.

With no way to revive her, they set a course for the New Pleiades in hopes of finding someone who can help. But a storm is brewing over that region of space. After a series of brutal civil wars, the Gaian Empire has turned its sights outward. A frontier war is on the verge of breaking out, and the brothers are about to be caught in the middle of it.
They both harbor a secret, though. Somewhere else in the Outworlds is another derelict station—one that they used to call home. That secret will either bind them together or draw them apart.

My Review:

I apologize in advance for not prioritizing correctly this week but it seems this next review is again for the Sci-Fi genre which is something I usually don’t do. That is, I try not repeat genres too much with the exception of Historical Fiction which is my favorite. I will try to do better next week.

Our novel, or novella, is the story of Aaron and Isaac, two brothers travelling out in space. Their home planet ran out of room for them as well as opportunities so they took off as space traders, which was something of a tradition among their people but only for the oldest son. However because of their situation, their father sent both of his sons out.

Things seem to be going fine until they reach a space station where almost everyone appears to be dead. Everyone except a girl covered in henna tattoos and frozen in a cryogenic state. They can’t figure out how to thaw her out so they take her with them, along with the other cargo they’ve collected, to prevent her from being discovered by slavers and made into a slave. Now they need to find someone who has the equipment to thaw her out and to do that they may need to search the galaxy.

Thus, begins Aaron and Isaac’s adventure. I won’t give any spoilers here, that’s not my style. But overall the story is good. The characters are interesting. The only that I didn’t like about this book were its use of the word “very,” which is meaningless, and because there were some other errors that probably could have been caught by hiring a good editor. Still, it is a free book, or at least it was last time I checked. If you like Sci-Fi, you might want to check it out. Not sure I like it enough to follow the series though.

 

Unfinished

Review of Unfinished Kendra C. Highley

Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: In a world where genetically-engineered humans serve as slave labor to “real” humans, ten-year-old Quinn is an anomaly. Designed with superior intelligence and physical attributes, he lives and trains at Maren DeGaul’s lakeside mansion, being readied for some mysterious purpose as dictated by Precipice Corporation. Despite the comfortable surroundings, Quinn is frequently pushed to his limits by his human guardians, often learning lessons in pain and loneliness.
That all changes the day they introduce him to a new artificial, one who is both his equal and his soul-mate. But when Maren decides the new artificial is flawed and should be decommissioned, it’s up to Quinn to find a way to save his only friend.

My Review: 

For this week’s offering we delve into the world of Sci-Fi. Our main character is a young boy named Quinn. He is not a regular human but rather something called an artificial. I didn’t really fully understand what that meant because the context made it seem like it did not mean a robot but rather some kind of genetically-altered person. 

The people that he stays with then go on to create some other kind of genetically-altered person who is supposedly made just for him. His own personal Eve I guess except that her name is Lexa, a name Quinn has chosen for her. The book’s plot revolves around the adventures of Quinn and Alex as they attempt to break out of their environment—both literally and figuratively and attempt to find new lives that help them take full advantage of their potential.

My ranking on this one is simple. If I were using a five star rating, I would give this one a three out of five stars overall. 

The story is compelling but at the beginning it was hard to follow. Right after the chapter headings on most of the chapters it would read: Seven years ago. My first thought was, why not just wait till you get to that point in the story where it is the present and then put seven years later, just to indicate that seven years has passed? It makes more sense to me. But then the author kept doing that on almost every chapter and I was getting a little confused wondering if it was seven years before or after the last chapter. Finally there was a chapter in present day and if I remember correctly it had the heading “seven years later.” A bit strange but also convinces me that I was right and that the author should probably take out all those seven years ago headings.

The story itself was interesting though. It also became easier to follow after I started ignoring all of those headings. And now that we have travelled with the characters to the present point, the author asks us to take a journey with them to the next novel. It could be interesting but I am still not sure that I want to join them. For now, I have lots of other books to read though so I guess I best get cracking.

Contains:  mild swearing and elements of torture

 

Squatter's Rights

Review of Squatter's Rights by Hollis Rentchler

Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: Earth's colonization ship arrives at what is supposed to be an uninhabited planet and confirms you never know what to expect with a First Contact.

My Review:

This week we sashay into Science Fiction with our latest main character, Dr. Oxana Kharmadi. A scientist of the Terran peoples, we find her apparently inspecting another planet only to encounter a new alien race. And these aliens apparently have horns.

Although she is at first understandable wary, not knowing whether they are enemies or friends, she soon finds them to be friendly. Others on her team are not so sure at first. They don’t even know whether or not to trust her alone with the creatures.

She persists and soon a conversation begins despite the fact that their translator seems to have trouble understanding the new language. However Oxana suggests that they let their children play with the alien children. In the meantime they have come up with a new name for this race. They are Rcyyt.

I am not a typical Sci Fi fan so it is a good thing that this book is not your typical Sci Fi story, well, except for the presence of aliens. The story is about the humans, or Terrans, and how they relate to each other as well as the Rcyyt.

Everyone rushes around, hoping to make that first connection with Rcyyt while ignoring their connection with one another. And there is a lot of anger towards Oxana, first for her faux pas of accidentally kidnapping one their own. (You’ll have to read the book to find out how she manages to do that.) Then later for the fact that despite her mistakes, the Rcyyt seem to prefer her advice above all the other Terrans.

I liked the oddity of the story and the characters. Oxana and Iol are probably my favorites.

I can only think of one fault in the story. It is too short. And that's saying something since I usually don't like alien stories.

Daimones

Review of Daimones by Massimo Marino


Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: Could Dan Amenta be the last man alive on the planet? Death has swept away the lives of billions of people, but Dan and his family were spared. By whom, and why?
Surviving, to give meaning to their lives, and looking for other survivors lead Dan to discover the truth about the extermination of the human race.

The encounter with Laura, a young and sexy girl of Italian origin, raises ethical and moral questions that had never touched the Amentas family before.
Other survivors force Dan to confront his past to find answers to the many questions.
The past and the present come together and upset the fragile balance, physical and mental, which allowed the Amentas to find a new meaning to their existence.

Dan discovers his final role in a plan with million years roots. Planet Earth is in the hands of an ancient power, and the survivors have to choose a future that has no past, or remain in a past with no future.

My Review:

The world ends not with a bang but with a whimper, or has it? Our main character Dan and his family wake up to find that everyone around them has inexplicably died. After driving back home, he must go in to survival mode and figure out the best way to take care of his family.

Miraculously, the Internet and other forms of technology still seem to be working so he attempts a Facebook ad campaign to see if any other survivors are around. He also conducts sweeps of the area while out looking for supplies to sustain his wife, himself and his daughter.

When he finds that there are in fact a few other survivors is he ready to deal with the consequences of an encounter with any of them? And what about the strange beings seen walking around the areas that seem to take an unnatural interest in the dead bodies?

The story is a first book in a trilogy and though I think I enjoyed this one, I really can’t see myself reading the whole series. I was somewhat disappointed in the ending to this one. I didn’t understand a lot of the scientific thought process that went behind it.

On the other hand, there was at least more closure in this story than you might find in my other novels in a series. I guess I just didn’t really get it. I won’t say more than that because I don’t want to give the ending away.

Unlike other reviewers I didn’t find the fact that the characters were scared of encountering other survivors when they hadn’t actually encountered any to be unbelievable. With all the looting and fear that would have accompanied these mass deaths I don’t think it would be unreasonable for the main characters to think someone might want to take the things that they had stored up in an effort to make sure that they too survive.

If you like science fiction or dystopian this book just might be for you. However if you are put off by sexuality or bad language you might want to give it a pass. I’d appreciate any comments you might have, particularly after you’ve read it.

Space Junque

 


Review of Space Junque by L. K. Rigel


Overview from www.goodreads.com: The DOGs want to destroy the world. The gods want to make a new one. The trick is to survive both.
At the end of the 21st century, civilization is at the brink of collapse. When hydroponics agronomist Char Meadowlark is warned of an impending attack by the eco-terrorist group Defenders of Gaia, she flees to the airport hoping to get off planet. The DOGs strike in the midst of Char’s escape, and pilot Jake Ardri offers her only hope of survival. He takes her to the orbiting Imperial Space Station, the seat of world government.

When the conflict goes global and the planet threatens to implode, ancient gods return to take control of humanity and impose a new world order. Char and Jake are caught up in a divine plan to save the world - but first they have to get through the apocalypse alive.

My Review:

I had a close encounter of the weird kind just now when I sat down to write this review. Though I got it for free as a Barnes & Noble e-book on their website, it is no longer listed on their website. I am not sure why but I did find a listing for it on Good Reads so I can thankfully still post a photo here. Sorry if the size is different.

This story is a novella introducing the Apocalypto series. Space Junque is named after the space ship that one of the main characters, Jake, drives a ship with that name and apparently likes to use it as joke.

“He winked and said, ‘See you at the junk, Tyler.’”

“She ran to catch up with Tyler. ‘What did Jake mean, see you at the junk?’


‘J-u-n-q-u-e. He takes private pays up to Vacation Station on the Space Junque. His shuttle. He use that line on everybody, man or woman.’


‘Ah. You want to see my Junque? Got it.’” P.13

The story begins however with Char Meadowlark’s attempt to get “off planet.” But leaving the Pacific Zone will not be easy. She barely escapes with her life though it cost her new friend Tyler his.

 I don’t want to give away too much of the story so I will skip most of the plot description and talk about characters. Char is our most developed character and the only one I felt that I got to know well during this little jaunt.

 
She is one of a few “natural born” people currently alive some one hundred years into our future. She also has a twin sister engaged to man who Char basically believes is just a mid-level government official. Her sister Sky has vanished but the fiancé, Mike, is looking out for her and gets her when he senses danger or does he know more than what he is telling?


Then there’s Jake, the cocky pilot who likes to make jokes, but takes his devotion to his friends seriously.
 
But I think my favorite character of all is perhaps Rani. An unusually tall woman with a slight Hindi accent who is tough enough to look out for herself but nevertheless cherishes her connection with her boss Jake. When she runs into trouble though, she must ask some unusual strangers for help.


The last thing I want to point out here is that this story has elements of both Science Fiction and Fantasy which was a little different for me. I was all settled in for Sci-Fi when suddenly we have a goddess thrown into the mix for good measure. Weird.

 Still overall, it was an interesting book and, mostly, a good read. I am still undecided yet though about whether or not I’ll read the sequels.

 

Contains: scenes of sexuality, violence, a few words that may not be for children