Mon Nov 02, 2015 10:15 pm
#1415458
I read an article about it in one of the national news websites, and was intrigued/impressed by the back-story.
I then spent all of about 10 minutes searching t'interweb for a free download.
I then finally found a use for the Kobo my wife bought for me last year (it already had 1000 books on it, only one I read was "Last Chance to See" by a Mr D.Adams, had sadly never read it before).
I then spent the next 4 days doing something I've not done in decades...reading every moment I had the chance!
Yes, the science is wrong in so many places and at so many levels. The writing is absolutely not the best ever.
However, it took me back to a time in my life where I was young, the world was a very precarious place - but we had such hope for the future. Carl Sagan was "the man" in the way that Steve Jobs was until not long ago, except the only similarity was the penchant for turtlenecks.
I laughed out loud on the bus reading it. I waited until my colleagues had gone to lunch, so I could spend time alone reading the book.
It definitely had the feel of something that had been written chapter-by-chapter. Critics hate that, but to me it gives a raw and authentic feel.
Above all, it reminded me how much I love to read a good science fiction yarn.
I know from talking to you lot over the years that many here are basically engineers at heart. Flying is the epitome of saying "f*ck you" to the laws of nature/physics/economics. The author of the Martian is a kindred spirit, pure and simple.