The Martian: a book review

The Martian: a book review

Read a review of the book 'The Martian' to practise and improve your reading skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

Read the review of the book The Martian below.

Then do the exercises.

Review: The Martian

The Martian tells the story of Mark Watney, an astronaut on the Ares 3 mission to Mars. After a terrible storm almost destroys the ship and the base, the crew of his ship believe he is dead. 1) _____. Alone on the red planet, he has to survive until the next mission to Mars arrives.

While this novel is fiction, in some ways it feels like non-fiction. It is very scientific and packed with details about survival on Mars. Watney is a botanist and engineer, and he begins to grow food and produce water in his artificial camp. How does he do this? 2) _____.

The author is Andy Weir, and this is his first published book. In it he has created a realistic character. There is a lot of humour in the story, and the reader can identify with the emotions (although no one can really imagine what it's like to be on Mars). Watney admits at the beginning that he is in deep trouble, but he never gives up. 3) _____. Instead, what The Martian gives us is a realistic look at an intelligent person alone on a planet and trying to survive.

The majority of the plot takes place on Mars and is written in the form of Watney's journal entries. 4) _____. Unfortunately, the other characters in the book (his fellow crew members, the scientists at NASA on Earth) do not get much development and so they often feel one-dimensional.

I should also mention that the book is thrilling to read. You will be on the edge of your seat until the very end. 5) _____. It's good not only for space travel fans and scientists but for anyone who is looking for a unique and exciting story. The Martian was so popular that it was made into a film starring Matt Damon in 2015, but I recommend reading the book first.

Discussion

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Average: 4.2 (26 votes)

Submitted by Iordache Constantin on Sun, 24/01/2021 - 15:54

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Even though I've read many books, I would recommend "Humboldt's Gift" by Saul Bellow because it is translated in many languages, including romanian, hence it can be read by anyone. There are also plenty of books written in Romanian, which can have a very complex grammar even for native Romanians. One of them would be Mihai Eminescu's volume "Poesii".

Submitted by Minh on Mon, 18/01/2021 - 05:01

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Reading books is my cup of tea. Therefore, I read all kind of books. However, I am keen on reading business books because these books are interested in me. I would recommend one of novels which is valued in life " Think and Grow rich " of Napoleon Hill. I hope you can achieve some ideals from it.

Submitted by Thinthinmyoe on Mon, 11/01/2021 - 09:19

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I would like to recommend about the book named Look To The Mountain by LeGrand Cannon,Jr .It is written about the young boy and girl who are trying to find out new fields.The boy is strong, brave and honest.Finally, they are successful.This book is so exciting and interesting.

Submitted by Ehsan on Mon, 21/12/2020 - 08:37

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unfortunately, I don't like novels, science-fiction, and books like that. I prefer to read books that are related to applied sciences. I mean the books we can use in our life, activities, and work. these books can be economic, computer science, historical and etc. if I want to say some instances, they can be " Rich dad poor dad", "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets", "The Art of Thinking Clearly" and etc.

Submitted by farhad zada on Sun, 20/12/2020 - 06:09

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I would recommend a short story 'Berenice' by Edgar Allan Poe. I think it's for whom like reading, thinking, and being confused about schizophrenia.

Submitted by Geray on Sat, 21/11/2020 - 15:08

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I would recommend the book "The Shining" from Steven King. In my opinion this book is really excited and interesting. In this book, King show us pretty good dialoqes and characters. But for me it's very protracted and in some moments I want to sleep and it was just bored. But totally, book is awesome. Excellent job by excellent author.
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Submitted by danisep on Sat, 17/10/2020 - 19:19

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This year I haven't read a lot I have just reading about Python, a computacional language, by the way Python course by Eric Matthes is a great book to learn python and build basic knowledge in code, by other hand I recommend to read momo by michael ende it's about, the time and a girl that know listen and how busy jobs and some taks can stole our time lifes.

Submitted by senes19 on Sun, 04/10/2020 - 10:54

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I would recommend 'Dalai Lama Principles' that i am reading now. It is suggested especially to the new mother's and fathers. It is written according to the Dalai Lama's philosophy. When you have a baby, what should you do at first and then. You should read before think about having a child. It has very attractive point which you will look after to raise a child.

Submitted by Nehir on Fri, 18/09/2020 - 12:42

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I would recommend the book from John Green. It's name is Looking For Alaska. It is a romance book and it is sooo good. But also so tragical. I cried at the end of the book. It tells love between two student in a student resedence. Actually, we can't know did Alaska like Pudge. :)

Submitted by Roblox on Thu, 10/09/2020 - 13:55

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I recommended a book written by Hamka. He is a famous author and scholar in Indonesia. The sink of Van der Wijck was the popular book of his. It has been modified a lot in the movie. I would start with a book better than a movie.