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Andy Weir – The Martian | Review

Title: The Martian

Author: Andy Weir

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 372

Rating: 4.5*/5

Andy Weir – The Martian

I guess I made a mistake with this one because I watched the movie before I read the book. I actually think that the movie was a pretty good adaptation of the book and that they did a good job of representing it. Sure, that meant there were no surprises in store for me when I read the novel, but that didn’t really hamper my enjoyment.

I probably don’t need to spend time explaining the plot of this book because it’s been talked about a lot. What I will say is that people are right when they talk about Watney’s sense of humour in it, and I was particularly impressed by the fact that it was originally self-published before being picked up by a mainstream publisher.

It turned out to be a super enjoyable read, and the only real problem that I had with it was that some of the more technical parts got a little boring and kind of slowed it all down, so I ended up skimming over them. But at the same time, I also think it was necessary to give the book an authentic feel, and from what I can understand all of the science is well-researched and entirely possible.

Andy Weir

So for me at least, The Martian is worthy of the hype, but I’m also not surprised that Artemis received mixed reviews. Weir’s writing style really works with this kind of book, but I’m not convinced of how versatile it would be. But if you judge this book for what it is, it’s just a decent sci-fi novel with mainstream appeal. And the fact that it has mainstream appeal means that you’re pretty likely to enjoy it if you pick it up.

I’m also pleased to say that even though I’d already seen the movie, the book was still a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed the references to Watney reading Agatha Christie to keep himself sane and while I initially found them jarring, the switches in perspective to what was happening on earth actually added a lot to the story. I enjoyed it. Go read it some time.

Mars

Click here to buy The Martian.

Andrew Johnson – Factory Farming | Review

Title: Factory Farming

Author: Andrew Johnson

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 274

Rating: 3*/5

Andrew Johnson – Factory Farming

The first thing to mention is that I read this book as part of the research for a new novel that I’m writing called Meat. Meat is set on a factory farm, and so I picked up this book as one of the half-dozen or so most well-reviewed non-fiction books I could find about factory farming and its effects.

There were two main problems with this book. The first was that it was perhaps overly technical, which caused by eyes to glaze over from time to time and which stopped me from absorbing as much of the information as I potentially could have. The author has a very dry writing style which conveys a lot of facts but which doesn’t really bring them to life. The other problem was that by now, it’s quite a few years out of date. I haven’t checked the publication year, but from the legislation that it covers I’d guess it was written in 1989 or so, around the time I was born.

Still, I did learn some fascinating stuff, predominantly around the different tests that have been carried out on the capacity of animals to feel pain. There was one test that found that cows would rather brave the cold at -20C to sleep on straw rather than sleeping in the warm on a metal grid, and another that found that chickens get so bored that given the choice between completing a task (such as pecking a target) for food and simply being given it, they’d rather work for it.