Book Review: The Martian, by Andy Weir

So let's talk about The Martian, by Andy Weir.

I actually first came across this book in a local book store on the Staff Picks wall.  Having never heard of Andy Weir (who actually e-published this book a few years back), I simply looked at the cover and thought - you know what?  I don't read enough contemporary science fiction.  I'm pretty great at classic SF, but the recent stuff is all sort of hit and miss with me.

So I cracked open this book on Saturday morning and within about ten pages I was hooked - think (minor spoiler here) Castaway mixed with Apollo 13 and you can get a pretty good idea what to expect from the novel.

The novel itself focuses on a Botanist/Engineer accidentally left behind on a Mars mission (again, sorry for the mild, chapter 1 spoiler), and his attempts to survive on Mars until he can be rescued.

First of all, considering the book is pretty much the definition of hard SF (Science fiction focusing on scientific or technical detail) I was really blown away by just how readable the book was, it felt an awful lot like Scalzi's Old Man's War or Wilson's Robopocalypse for sheer page-turning enjoyment.

If you haven't picked up any SF in a while, it would really be a pretty great place to start, the story is fun, fast paced and definitely thrilling.  I will absolutely be keeping an eye out for what Mr. Weir comes out with next.

Book Review: Amped

Last June I read the Daniel H. Wilson novel Robopocalypse and absolutely loved it.  It was fast paced, had a great cast of characters, and left me with some pretty haunting (and terrifying) images of a robot-assited world after the robots turn against humanity.

A couple weeks ago while wandering around downtown Edmonton during a lunch break at my new job, I came across Amped in a bookstore.  I liked the logo (see left), and figured my wife and both of my daughters had enjoyed Robopocalypse, so why not check it out?

Since I got it from the library two weeks ago, my wife and both of my daughters have read Amped and assured me that it's exactly the kind of book they think I'd like.

And after starting the book at 6:00 this morning?  They were totally right.

The book takes place in a near future where a significant minority of the world's population have been "Amped," meaning they've had their brains augmented with a Brain Implant designed to help them get around mental and physical disabilities they have - (the program started by helping kids with learning and physical disabilities and moved on to veterans and others with physical disabilities), the problem is that the people who get the implants don't just get to be normal - they are smarter, faster and more efficient than regular people.

The book begins with a court case which ends with Amped people loosing their status as protected citizens in the United States.  Everything goes downhill from there.

Structurally the book is similar to Robopocalypse in that it mixes chapters with news clippings, but as there is one main character and it is told from a first-person perspective, the novel is a little tighter and moves very quickly.

Without giving away too many spoilers - it was fun, if the stuff I've said makes it sound like a book you'd like to read, I'd suggest picking it up.

Genre Character of the Week: Cormac Wallace

Last Friday I had the pleasure of reading Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse. This book, which took me a day to read is bascially as disaster-movie-style novel set in a near future (our cars drvie us around and most people have robot butlers) where all of the robots in the world get switched to evil and attempt to destroy mankind.

The novel is being made into a movie in 2013 and although the novel does, at times, read like a film treatment, it was an incredible read, full of excitement, robots and a lot of horror. As my pet sub-genre is post-apocalyptic fiction, I've got to say this works incredibly well for me, it features a large cast of engrossing characters, and specirfically this week's genre character, Cormac "Bright Boy" Wallace.

The book follows eight characters through the build-up, the event, the aftermath and the eventual rebellion against the machines. Cormac begins his journey in Boston, and ends up swept up in one of the most frightening wars imaginable, because unlike an alien or zombie-based apocalypse, Robopocalypse feels much more like a nuclear one, an end of our own devising.

What I like best about Cormac is that he is definitely the stories every-man; he's not a soldier, computer genius or politician, he's just a kid swept up into something really terrible. Through it all however, he always does his best, and like most of my favourite characters, he learns.