The Martian: A Novel

Ein super Buch! Ich liebe den Schreibstil über alles und den Humor des Hauptcharakters. Der Film zum Buch hat mir auch schon sehr gut gefallen, das Buch überragt diesen jedoch Perfektion nochmal um einiges. Große Leseempfehlung!!

FEEL FREE TO ASK ME QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BOOK!I would like to start this review with a note that is both a positive and a negative. I do not read any book, this is because I am never captivated and cant really empathize with the character and I never feel like I am there. But on to the review."About this version of the product*The book came to me in pristine condition it was truly breath-taking how beautiful the cover is. The book is well sized and honestly this is one of if not the most beautiful and durable books I've bought. There is also a map in the beginning which is awesome since I was cross referencing it so much which made me feel very immersed.*About the book SPOILER FREE PART*The Martian is the most well written, funny, serious, and emotional book I have ever read. This is in part because of the amazing writing. Mark Watney is a charismatic, smart, and resourceful man. In the face of adversity he always manages to crack a witty joke that always made me chuckle or just burst out laughing (No im not psychotic, i don't think). The writing makes you really feel like you know mark which is one reason why you empathize and really feel for him.The Atmosphere is great really selling the barren expanse and devastating loneliness of the Martian lands.*Note: I found that using some noise cancelling headphones and playing some white noise, like the wind, really helped to sell the effect of being on mars*. After only a few pages I had a very clear picture of how it looked at the HAB and I only wish I could take a picture of my thoughts.The story jumps between the perspectives of Mark Watney on mars, Nasa and JPL on earth, and the crew on Hermes the space station the went to and from mars on.*General Consensus*I should have added some photos, including my favourite quotes.This is the best book I've read. I'm so sad its over yet so happy I've experienced it. Andy Weir is my new favourite author and i will be purchasing more of his novels no doubt. Please do yourself a favour and read this book. I cannot recommend it enough. 1000000 / 10*LIGHT SPOILERS, what happens at the beginning*The book is about the main character Mark Watney's journey surviving mars after being abandoned there by his crew. What happened Watney and his crew consisting of, Lewis the commander, Vogel, Beck, Martinez, and Johanssen were six days into a 52 day mission on mars where they would gather science and conduct experiments when suddenly a large storm hit. The storm was so bad they had to evacuate but on their way to the MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) mark is struck by debris and is lost. The crew cannot find him and assuming he is dead abort without him. Mark wakes up and makes it back to the HAB, where he will live for the next (wont spoil how long) number of sols. He has a lot of problems along the way but manages to fix them in amazingly creative ways, I mean I cannot stress enough how glued my eyes were to the pages intrigued and worried about what would happen next.I wont spoil any more of the end because it would ruin how heart-breaking and heart-making (if that's a saying) a lot of the moments were.

...e o final é de tirar o fôlego.Weir usa uma linguagem fácil e muito bem humorada.É fácil imaginar Matt Damon no papel do protagonista Mark Watney; tão fácil que eu mesmo havia imaginado ele no papel antes de sequer saber que a longa-metragem já estava até com data de estréia definida. Jessica Chastain como a comandante Lewis também será excelente, sem dúvidas.Apesar de alguns trechos meio técnicos, que talvez nem todos entendam ou apreciem, a história é uma aventura eletrizante, que te prende do começo ao fim. Eu havia parado nos 42% do livro, e quando o retomei, li até o final. Recomendo, e mal posso esperar pelo filme.

There are a few rare books that you come across in your life that make you go – oh my gosh, this book is f*****g amazing!! The Martian by Andy Weir is exactly that kinda book.The premise is pretty simple actually. In the not-so-distant future, NASA has a crew of six astronauts on a manned mission to MARS (called Ares 3, so this is not the first). They land and everything’s dandy for 6 sols (Martians days) but right upon which a sandstorm hits. Our protagonist, Mark Watney, gets hits over by the wind and the other crew mates, presuming him dead perform an emergency exit off the planet. Only, he’s not really dead. He wakes up covered in sand to a dead planet. No humans around, no contact with NASA, and no way to get off the planet. Will he survive? And if yes, how?? But more importantly, what does this realization do to the humanity back on Earth?The book reads like a hard science-fiction and that’s not entirely a bad thing. If anything, it only lends more credibility to the narrative and all the wild science-y solutions that Mark Watney pulls out of his hat. But picture this, you’re the only living thing on an entire planet that is thousands of kilometers from Earth. No one knows you’re alive, and even if they do they’re pretty much helpless. What would one do? I thought hard about this, picturing myself in Mark’s situation. Of course he’s a trained astronaut and a botanist and I’m a…well, the point here is that where most people would have succumbed to the hopelessness of the entire thing, he fights and fights and fights some more!! And how!One moment you’re screaming your hearts out ‘NOOOOO! HE’S A DEAD MAN!’ and then Mark comes right up and says he’s gonna be alright. And you heave a big sigh of relief muttering to yourself cheerfully, ‘The bloody bastard’s gonna be fine!‘ That’s pretty much how most of the read went for me.And I have mention here that the author Andy Weir is brilliant! The kind of picture he paints of Mars, down till the smallest detail and the explanation to the various experiments conducted our protagonist – the science is all mostly accurate! And it amazes me for the kind of research and effort he had put into in crafting the entire book. I heard him say that he had to actually write a computer program himself to figure out how many days it would take for a spacecraft to travel from Earth to Mars. Yes, everything’s that calculated. So when Mark throws numbers and formulas at your face, it’s crazy to think that it’s all real. And that’s one more thing about this book, how utterly possible everything feels. This is not fantasy. The events and catastrophes featured in this book can actually happen in real life. That’s one more tangent my mind goes off to often, how would we react if something like this were to happen in reality? Wouldn’t the social media go absolutely crazy!? Wouldn’t there be numerous religious groups praying for his safety!And to say nothing of our protagonist himself. The large reason the book works despite the hard science is Mark’s sense of humor. I would put it somewhere close to Chandler Bing in that aspect. But he is not a brooder, he is a doer! And he cracks some amazing jokes throughout his journey. By the end of the book, you’ll really come to love this fellow.The other supporting cast are all well-etched out too. As an Indian, it was nice to see the character Venkat Kapoor as a high ranking NASA official (The name’s odd though. Kapoor is a North Indian surname while Venkat is definitely a Southie thing). I also loved the entire crew of Hermes. Especially Commander Lewis with her disco addiction.Andy Weir has struck gold with his first feature novel, and deservedly so. Books like this, they’re every bookworm’s kryptonite.

Some Spoilers.On the face of it, The Martian is a very simple book to write. Firstly, Andy Weir’s concept is a compelling one and history has shown us it was always going to appeal to audiences – a single man, alone and facing extreme adversity, and fighting for his survival, is one which seizes attention. Couple that with the landscape of that adversity being Mars – where the three most important features of our existence are missing, oxygen, water and food – and we know immediately, his time there is limited. There is a clock running and the suspense is building. Once you have that concept, the hard work is seemingly already done.Additionally, the tone is conversational – an educated man explaining events to friends. It reminded me of Andy McNab’s Bravo Two Zero crossed with Andy Cave’s Learning to Breathe. The act of writing the book, stringing together the sentences and pouring through the pages, cannot have been a tricky task for Weir as I know he spent three years researching his topic. It shows. It's why this book is so utterly compelling – it's real. We're there. We're next to Watney, as terrified as he is – that slow-burn terror of an inexorable death that drifts in slowly from eh horizon.Yet, the reality is the task facing Weir was far more difficult. He solved the problem of creating his narrative voice through a device which is not particularly inspired – a ship’s log – but is nevertheless clever for two reasons. Firstly, it allows Weir a simple narrative voice, that of his protagonist, and the ability to see into his mind clearly. We identify with him completely and quickly. We are with him. We want him to survive. We are him. Secondly, we don’t know, from the outset, if he survives. The log is a permanent record and remains whether he survives or not. So, uninspired? Or simply taking advantage of the most effective way to tell his story? Does it matter – Weir uses a device which works.And he uses it to great effect.Initially, the POV shift to third person NASA took the story in a direction I was unhappy about – the strength of this book was Watley's narration and our insight into his character through his thought processes. His humour came through, his unwillingness to give in. Segueing to the third person from the first person is a technique I find contrived and disconcerting – if I am viewing events through the eyes of a (first person) non-omniscient narrator, to then see them through the eyes of an omniscient narrator in the third person simply does not work. Additionally, I was not convinced the story needed it, but the reality is it does build tension and it gives us a much-needed break from the sometimes too technical "this-is-what-I-did-next" Watley (nice as he is). So, I am willing to forgive the first-person/third-person contrivance because it drives the story nicely and I genuinely don't think Weir could have achieved what he did achieve – narrative flow and strong tension – any other way in the context of the story he was telling and the way he was telling it.Characterisation of Watney is excellent – we believe him from the very first moments. "I'm pretty much f*****. That's my considered opinion." In those eight words, we are told everything we need to know about Watney's personality. The subtle dig within the words "considered opinion" suggested his expertise and what he now thinks of it. We immediately know he's in trouble. We are compelled to read on, we simply cannot but read on. "I don't even know who'll read this. I guess someone will find it eventually. Maybe a hundred years from now." First person convention blown – we don't know if he's getting out of this. We see this log, and his scattered, dried bones beside them, being handled by astronauts years, even decades from now. All bets are off. This is serious. This is Into the Wild.The technical aspects of the story are integral to suspension of disbelief. Wanted (and so Weir) has to explain it to us because this is a story about fumbling for the final threads on frayed fabric, and somehow painstakingly sewing them into an escape plan. Every single thing Watney does needs scientific explanation otherwise the drama of his escape evaporates. Yet Weir manages to convey this in Watney's engaging, conversational tone so we don't despair at the detail. We love it. The quote I began this review with is the most telling example of the entire book: "Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped." So simple, so obvious, so much said in the sort of tone which implies 'What, you didn't know that?'The Martian has won all sorts of awards and plaudits and Matt Damon is set to play Watney. Ridley Scott famously doodled on his script, demonstrating just how captured his imagination has been by this brilliant book. It's a book we need, just like Interstellar was a film we needed. Something to persuade us that there is life beyond the confines of this one planet – that we can make it to the stars and beyond and that our seemingly petty differences pale in comparison to the vastness of the possibilities which lay in wait for us. Just as Robinson Crusoe captured the public's attention, so too will The Martian.

Man hätte dieses Buch sicherlich auch anders schreiben können. Und während ich mich durch die ersten siebzig Seiten quälte - ja, es war eine Qual - hätte ich mir wirklich gewünscht, Andy Weir hätte es anders gemacht.Zumindest hat sich meine nicht ganz ernst gemeinte Befürchtung, der Autor könne seinem mutterseelenallein auf dem Mars gestrandeten Astronauten irgendwann ein Marsmännchen oder -weibchen zur Seite stellen, um etwas zu erzählen zu haben, nicht bewahrheitet. Denn Andy Weir ging es darum, einen möglichst realistischen Roman über die Überlebenschancen eines auf sich selbst gestellten Individuums auf einem Planeten ohne Sauerstoff, ohne Wasser, ohne alles, zu schreiben.Realistisch sind wohl zumindest die sehr detaillierten Beschreibungen der Verfahren, mit denen der Astroaut Mark Watney sich eben doch nur mit Bordmitteln die lebensnotwendigen Basiselemente, vor allem Wasser und Nahrung, beschafft. Glücklicherweise ist der Mann Botaniker und Ingenieur, sonst würde das nämlich alles nichts. Mich als nicht sehr technikaffine Person haben die am laufenden Band gelieferten Daten, Zahlen, Abkürzungen fast erschlagen. Dabei bin ich es durchaus gewohnt, trockene Sachtexte mit einer Fülle von komprimierten Informationen zu lesen, auch solchen, die ich nicht vollständig verstehe.Nach siebzig Seiten jedenfalls habe ich das Buch entnervt beiseite gelegt.Was mich neben den techniklastigen, im Form von Logbuch-Einträgen geschriebenen Darstellungen vor allem störte, war die Tatsache, dass Weir darauf verzichtet, in irgendeiner Form auf real anzunehmende psychische Folgen einer eineinhalbjährgen Robinsonade auf einem lebensfeindlichen Planeten einzugehen. Mark Watney funktioniert von der ersten Sekunde seiner verunglückten Marsexpedition an wie ein auf Überleben programmierter Android, mit dem Unterschied, dass er auch noch über einen flapsigen Humor verfügt und ungefähr so zu einem imagnären Leser seines Logbuchs spricht, als wäre er selbst eine der Figuren aus drittklassigen amerikanischen Siebziger-Jahre-TV-Serien, die er in Ermangelung anderer Unterhaltung konsumiert. Ein normaler Mensch, dachte ich, würde, auch wenn er ein noch so intensives NASA-Training hinter sich hat, zumindest ansatzweise mal ein wenig verzweifeln. Wenn er nach monatelanger vollständiger Isolation und mitten im All nicht gleich ganz durchdrehen würde.Nicht so Watney, der sich bis zum Schluss seine markigen Kommentare erhält.Was nun aber als großes Manko dieses Buches gesehen werden kann, kann man ebenso gut auch als sein großes Plus deuten, und das war es letztendlich auch, was mich das Buch erneut zur Hand nehmen und mit wachsender Spannung zu Ende lesen ließ. Denn hätte Weir tatsächlich ein solches Psychogramm seines Astronauten gezeichnet, wäre dies nicht nur in Verbindung mit dem großen Anteil an SCIENCE in der FICTION für den Leser vermutlich unverdaulich geworden - es hätte sehr wahrscheinlich auch das schnelle Ende eines psychisch und moralisch gebrochenen Protagonisten bedeutet. Und um soetwas zu schreiben, muss ein Autor seine Figur nicht ganz bis auf dem Mars schicken.So konzentriert sich Andy Weir ganz auf die Rettungsaktionen sowoh durch Watney selbst als auch - nach einigen Kapiteln wechselt zum Glück auch die Perspektive - durch das Kontrollzentrum der NASA auf der Erde. Und wenn man sich dann erst einmal an die Passagen gewöhnt hat, sie sich eben lesen wie ein Physikbuch aus der Oberstufe, wird das Buch wirklich noch richtig spannend. Nicht zuletzt auch durch den geschickten Wechsel der Erzählperspektiven.Das Buch wird natürlich auch verfilmt werden. Viel braucht sich der Drehbuchautor dafür nicht mehr einfallen zu lassen, das ist alles durch Andy Weir schon so in Szene gesetzt, dass man es fast unverändert übernehmen könnte.

Log Entry: _The Martian_ Day 1I've never been much of a novel reader; I've always been the "Why read the book when you can watch the movie" type. I totally understand and acknowledge that it's a smart-ass attitude, and also recognize that it reflects a certain amount laziness and ignorance. Nevertheless, I'd say before I opened an account on Audible.com it had been at least 5 years since I last read a novel. I opened the account just over 3 months ago as a trial, because I spend 30-45 minutes each way driving to work, and frankly I had grown weary of all the NFL draft discussion, speculation, and subsequent analysis on sports-talk radio here in Jacksonville. Don't get me wrong. I think Blake Bortles is awesome and I can't wait to see him play for the Jags, but there are only so many ways you can analyze his throwing motion and potential before he ever plays an NFL game. Since I opened the account I've read [listened to] 4 books: one sci-fi thriller, one self-help, one classic and one educational. I really enjoyed the sci-fi so I checked the recommendations based on that book and found _The Martian_ by Andy Weir. I read some reviews, then read the first couple pages with the Amazon "Look Inside" feature, and I was immediately hooked. I also found that it was substantially less expensive to purchase the Kindle version first on Amazon, then purchase the Audible version in order to enable a feature called Whispersync. So I made the purchases and added _The Martian_ to both the Kindle and Audible libraries. I have no intentions of actually physically reading the book, but hey, money is money.I wanted to jump into the book immediately, but there was one obstacle. There is a podcast I listen to called "This Week in Photo." I moonlight as a photographer and I love the show. It drops every Friday afternoon-ish and, based on the last handful of episodes, averages roughly 75 minutes, so I normally try to listen to it on the ride home from work on Friday and finish it on my Monday drive to and from work. Since I've been listening to books, I've completely ignored TWiP, so now I have a 12 episode backlog. That's roughly 900 minutes, or 15 hours of TWiP. I haven't missed an episode in at least 5 years, and I have no intentions of missing any of these. Frederick Van Johnson is the host of TWiP, and ironically it was his sponsor pieces for Audible that encouraged and convinced me to open the account. So Frederick, THANK you for helping me to discover Audible! And **** you for causing this massive backlog. :)I'm making myself a rule that I cannot listen to any more books until I get caught up on TWiP. If I estimate that each leg of my drive to work is 37 minutes, it would take roughly 24.3 legs to work through the backlog of TWiPs. I'll factor in an estimate of 5 legs of silence (call me crazy, but occasionally I enjoy driving to work in silence), 8 legs to get my sports-talk radio fix, and I'll generously add 8 "random" legs for phone calls, music etc, and I'm at just over 45 legs. Considering that that's 4.5 work weeks I'll need to allot time for 5 more TWiPs which will be an additional 10.1 legs. So all total I should be caught up in roughly 56 legs, or 28 workdays, or 5.6 weeks. It's a long time, but when I'm driving to and from work, time is something I have plenty of. Time to get busy listening to TWiP.Log Entry: _The Martian_ Day 33I finished all the TWiPs and I'm glad I did it. A few days ahead of schedule too. It helped that I had a few evening and weekend photography gigs that were a relatively long distance from my house, so I had plenty of extra time to listen. From now on Friday and Monday are designated TWiP days. Today I began _The Martian_. 10 hours and 53 minutes. I used the Audible app to download it to my iPhone and listened to it the entire way to and from work. 9 hours, 36 minutes remaining.Log Entry: _The Martian_ Day 34One quick note. You may notice that my name is Jennifer, but that is incorrect. I opened our Audible account under my wife's Amazon account, which she had before we were married. You aren't truly committed to your spouse until you share an Amazon account. My wife is not nearly the geek I am, so I wanted to clear up any confusion before I went further. My name is James. Nice to meet you.I came up with a solid plan today. I *really* enjoyed listening to _The Martian_ yesterday and I have no reason to believe I'm not going to absolutely love the rest of the book. On September 19 I'm leaving for Tuscaloosa to photograph the Florida/Alabama game. It's an 8 hour drive each way and I'll be driving alone. This book would be perfect to pass the time. After some serious consideration, I've decided I'm going to suspend all listening of _The Martian_ until Sept. 19. I listened to sports-talk radio today while I devised a plan for my next listen.Log entry: _The Martian_ Day 35I was real gung ho yesterday about The Tuscaloosa Plan. It's a stupid idea, and I'm not doing it. I listened to the book for the entire drive to and from work, then sat in the driveway for an additional 4 minutes waiting for a good stopping point. I'm finding myself looking forward to getting back into the truck to listen to the book. This is a really good read [listen]. If you have any recommendations for the Tuscaloosa trip, I'm all ears. 8 hours, 17 minutes remaining.Log entry: _The Martian_ Day 36I listened to sports-talk radio in the morning today, and _The Martian_ on the drive home. During the drive home I had to endure one of the mini-monsoon wind storms that have become a way of life on summer afternoons here in Florida. I drove past 3 crashes on I-95 and traffic was pretty slow. It took me 1 hour and 13 minutes to get home. Didn't even notice. Then I sat in the driveway for a few minutes to get to a stopping point. 7 hours, 1 minute remaining.Log Entry: _The Martian_ Day 37When I first opened our Audible account, I made a personal rule that I could only listen to books when I'm in the car or when I'm exercising. Even with the childish attitude toward books that I explained above, I still cannot bring myself to actually *LAY AROUND THE HOUSE* while somebody else reads me a book. Granted, I've done exactly zero exercise so far, but hey this is a book review, not a confessional of my exercise habits. This rule, combined with the lack of exercise, does however severely limit the amount of book consumption I do on the weekends. Today is Friday. I listened to _The Martian_ in the morning, and TWiP on the ride home. 6 hours, 25 minutes remaining.Log Entry: _The Martian_ Day 37 (2)Friday nights aren't what they used to be. Back in my younger days before marriage and kids, I would spend the evening at some loud disco tech, probably have way too much fun, and wake up Saturday morning feeling like I was hit by a Martian rover. These days we put the kids to bed by 8ish and I'm in bed by 11 or 12 and ready for an early Saturday morning. After the kids were tucked in I came back downstairs, clicked on the TV and plopped down onto my couch for some good old deceleration time.It's amazing how you can have over 200 channels and still not find a single thing to watch. Three's Company? Nope. Cubs game? Nope. Agatha Christie mystery? Nope. VH1 Behind The Music: Elton John? Maybe... Then I remembered, "Wait a second! Didn't I buy the Kindle version of _The Martian_ too??" My rule has always been that I can't listen to any books when I'm sitting around the house, but I never placed any restrictions on actually reading the books! If I'm willing to actually read a book, then that's a good thing, right?? When I first purchased the book, I never had any intention of physically reading it, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I went and found my wife's iPad (the kids' Kindles were on lockdown, and I don't know the password), opened the Kindle app, downloaded the book which was already sitting in the library, and what do you know? It placed me exactly where I finished listening to the book this afternoon. Isn't technology amazing??Log entry: _The Martian_ Day 40It was a super busy weekend and I didn't have much spare time, but whenever I did have a few spare moments, I tried to read a chapter or so. Jenn asked me twice this weekend if she should take my temperature. I declined both times. In total, I made it from page 152 to page 330 (out of 369). Today is Monday so it was a TWiP day. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to finish _The Martian_ tomorrow. Looking forward to it. 39 pages remaining.Log entry: _The Martian_ Day 41I woke up and went to work early this morning, just so I could get a jump on the book. I opened up the Audible app and started listening immediately. I remembered reading the words that I was listening to, and immediately realized I was out of sync. It seemed close enough though, so I decided it would be a good thing to just re-listen to some of the material as a refresher. Plus I was driving and didn't want to fumble with the phone. As it turns out, I listened to a total of 21 minutes before I got to any new material, and finished the morning drive with 56 minutes remaining. I'm sure the sync issue was something I did in my haste to start listening, but the fact remains; unless I have major traffic on the way home, it looks like I'll be altering my plans and finishing this book tomorrow on the way to work.Log entry: _The Martian_ Day 41 (2)I was left behind by my normal lunch group at work today. It wasn't their fault. I had implied that I was in for lunch but also said I needed to resolve a pressing issue and that it might take some extra time. They misunderstood and went on without me. Just to be clear, it was NOT their fault I was left behind. After a few minutes of scrambling around for another group, I finally came to the realization that I would be dining alone. Then I remembered the book. I had 56 minutes left in the book, and with a projected 37 minute drive home that evening, I would be left with 19 minutes of content, in what could potentially be the most exciting part of the book. So I decided to skip the cafeteria and go solo out to lunch, in order to close that gap and ensure that I will finish the book on the ride home. I chose an Applebee's that Google maps told me was a 9 minute drive from the office, plus I estimated 2 minutes each for exit and reentry into the parking garage. If I listened to the book from the office to Applebee's and back, I projected that I would have 34 minutes remaining in the book, a perfect amount to finish on the ride home. All went as planned and when I returned to the office I had 33 minutes remaining in the book. I finished out my work day, got back in the truck and immediately settled in for the finale of _The Martian_. There was some traffic but not much, and I completed the book with 7 minutes remaining on my drive home; just enough time to decompress and wrap my head around the whole of what I had just read and listened to._The Martian_ was without a doubt the most satisfying book I've ever read. I looked forward to every opportunity I had to listen to or read the book, and there wasn't a single point that I felt I had to trudge through or glaze over. I laughed and I cried.I hear a movie will be coming out in late 2015, starring Matt Damon and Directed by Ridley Scott. I can't wait see it, so I can be the guy that proudly boasts about how much better the book is.Highly Recommended, and not just for geeks like me.

Ein Mann. Allein im (fast) Nirgendwo. Und das ein ganzes Buch lang (so dachte ich am Anfang).Kann ich so was wirklich lesen?Ich brauchte nur in die ersten Zeilen der Leseprobe zu gucken, da wusste ich: Ich MUSS!!Dieser Typ (Mark) ist so humorvoll und sympathisch, dass man einfach wissen muss, wie es mit ihm endet. Und obwohl sich hier weder Aliens noch Zauberkräfte tummeln und die Szenerie so gar nicht für spritzige Dialoge oder rasante Action taugt, wird das Buch tatsächlich auf keiner einzigen Seite langweilig.Mark geht davon aus, dass das, was er in sein Logbuch schreibt/diktiert, früher oder später (vermutlich später) von jemandem gelesen/gehört wird, der mit seiner Mission vielleicht nicht genügend vertraut ist. Daher erklärt er seine Umgebung, sein Equipment und die technischen Probleme, mit denen er konfrontiert ist, für Laien -- gerade so detailliert, dass man sich etwas darunter vorstellen kann, aber knapp genug, dass technisch Uninteressierte sich nicht langweilen. Mit welchem Erfindungsreichtum (und Galgenhumor) er sich Überlebensstrategien ausdenkt und sie mit den vorhandenen Mitteln in die Tat umsetzt, ist wirklich beachtlich und sehr unterhaltsam. Spannung bezieht das Buch vor allem daraus, dass jeder Mensch naturgemäß auch mal Fehler macht -- hier aber der kleinste Denkfehler und jeder Materialdefekt gleich tödliche Folgen nach sich ziehen könnte. Und so ist Mark zu einem geraumen Teil seiner Zeit auch damit beschäftigt, Rückschläge zu verkraften und neue Lösungsansätze zu finden.In früheren Kritiken (amazon.com) wurde bemängelt, dass der Held angesichts seiner Lage einfach viel zu gut drauf wäre, um echt zu wirken. Das sehe ich nicht so. Bedenkt man, dass er (sich) daran festhält, zumindest ein Minimum an Forschungsdokumentation zu verfassen --ganz im Dienste der Mission, auf die er schließlich Jahrelang hin getrimmt wurde-- um etwas vorweisen zu können, falls er womöglich doch noch lebend gerettet wird, im ungünstigsten Fall aber dieses Logbuch sein Erbe für die Nachwelt darstellt, dann wird verständlich, warum er ständig in dem Gefühl lebt, ein Publikum zu haben und sich dementsprechend auch ein bisschen als Entertainer zu geben versucht. Nicht dass es nicht auch Momente gäbe, in denen er am Boden zerstört ist...Aber grundsätzlich ist er eben mutig. Labile Seelchen werden nun mal keine Raumfahrer.Dieses Buch erzählt kein Alltagsdrama, aber Science Fiction im herkömmlichen Sinn ist es auch nicht. Es ist auf andere Art phantastisch: Es beschreibt Geschehnisse, die definitiv in der Zukunft liegen, so "bodenständig" und realistisch, dass man schwören könnte, gerade gestern Abend wäre im Fernsehen über diese Mission berichtet worden. Es ist humorvoll geschrieben, ohne ins Komödiantische abzurutschen, und enthält genau die richtige Prise technischer Details, um fundiert, aber nicht trocken oder überladen zu wirken.Glaubwürdig, unterhaltsam, ein cleverer, sympathischer Protagonist -- kann ich für elf Euro wirklich mehr erwarten?P. S.: Ich hätte auch zweiundzwanzig bezahlt. Fünf Sterne!!