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 What is Clara Viegas reading...

 

THE MARTIAN de Andy Weir

2011 - Published by the author

2014 – Published by Crown Publishing Group.

2015 - Adapted to the cinema by Ridley Scott, with Matt Damon playing the mai character.

Andy Weir (1972-    )

The North American author, software engineer, lover of Physics, science fiction and space issues, describes a scientifically correct story (as possible for a literary work, according to the author), of how the ingenuity, intelligence and perseverance of a man helps him overcome unthinkable obstacles.

Sinopsis

In the story, each astronaut on this mission to Mars has two specialties. Mark Watney is a mechanical engineer and botanist. A strange combination, but one that turns out to be fundamental. The way he integrates and applies his knowledge in the search for his survival, demonstrates how the skills developed throughout his life now help him try to maintain it, having to solve new and complex problems. I didn’t count how many “shit” or “I’m fucked!” appear throughout the book, but he always does so with a great sense of humor, and perfectly understanding the desire to say them! As Andy says in an interview at NASA, it was the constant scientific verification of each story line (and others that don't even appear) that sometimes led him to explore situations in the book that didn't work. In this interview it is very interesting to see how science helped him develop the book's argument. In fact, (spoiler allert...) not everything goes well, which forces the protagonist, astronaut Mark Watney, to learn from his mistakes, to redo his calculations, involve other variables, etc. making the story, as he says, much more interesting. I believe that conveying this idea - that we learn from our mistakes - is as important as showing how obstacles are overcome, in addition to making the protagonist more human and closer to us.

 

Further reading:

David Fish. Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir. 6 March 2017.https://medium.com/@dsfish/book-review-the-martian-by-andy-weir-c26b76bbecbbTom Shippey. Book Review: 'The Martian' by Andy Weir | 'Red Rising' by Pierce Brown. 7 February 2014.https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-8216the-martian8217-by-andy-weir-8216red-rising8217-by-pierce-brown-1391811778?tesla=yNASA Office of the Chief Scientist. Andy Weir - The Martian: How Science Drove the Plot. 2015https://www.nasa.gov/ames/ocs/2015-summer-series/andy-weir