Good Story, but Poor Physics
344691
I really liked the emphasis on prepping and the human interactions.  He has certainly read up on CMEs and EMPs.  But he goofed one basic detail of the physics.  If a CME comes shooting out of the sun towards the earth, it will strike the earth on the side of the planet facing the sun, I.e. during daylight.  Not between midnight and 3 am as portrayed in the book.  It is indeed possible that the CME will strike a glancing blow to the earth, early or late in the day.  That would fit the author's scenario of only the USA being hit.  And it is possible the CME could be long enough that it would fry electronics around the globe as the earth rotates, and the parts facing the sun are hit.  But it is impossible that the CME would loop around to hit only the dark backside of the earth after traveling in a straight line for millions of miles from the sun to the earth.
4660372
I was tempted to give it 1 star, but the story was too good. I gave it 3 stars because occasionally this story was very engaging. Sections of the story were kept me turning pages wondering what would happen next and I really enjoyed it. Other times the story was so bad I skipped entire portions of the series without losing any context (book 3). Which really was a let down when I was turning pages and then hit a dead spot (more than 1).
The author often just throws something into the story out of no where, without regard to the past story events, or in direct conflict to his own fantasy world, to simply move the plot forward because he couldn't think of anything.

Also be prepared for incredible racism, and sexism that the author thinks to be hilarious. A better title would have been "Swords. Sorcery. Bigotry"
1799084
I really like this story. Especially since I didn't like Siege very much. I would give this story about 4 stars. It's a fun adventure, and I really like how the big three bond again. It reminds me of the better parts of Star Trek V where Kirk, Spock, McCoy are camping in Yosemite (yeah, the movie was mostly awful, but to this day I still get a hankering to sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat when roasting "marshmelons".) The reason for the two stars is for the Kindle edition of this story. Most of the story is readable, but every now and then you won't be able to make out the double page spreads. For some reason even when zoomed in, you can't make out the text. I got the Kindle version because I needed to safe some space, but still wanted to read the story. I own a Kindle HDX, and I haven't had trouble with other Kindle formatted comic books. Although I really wish that all the Kindle comic's double page spreads would flip to landscape when you turn the tablet. If you want to check this out, get the print version.
575618
Overall the "The Martian" is an engaging story of survival, perseverance and and personal triumph (spoiler alert!) as well as an unfolding science lesson on many levels. Unfortunately one of the main premises of the book fails the plausibility test, the inability of the main character to communicate with NASA due to the loss of one antenna. One finds it hard to imagine that a genuine Mars mission would not have a communications system where everything would be networked by radio to talk with everything else using, in part, the satellite system orbiting Mars as well as direct line-of-sight communications and repeaters (the spacesuit, if unable to communicate directly to a satellite could do so through a rover with more power and a better antenna, for example). But then, we would have much of a story, would we. The loss of communications forms the basis for much of what happens to The Martian.

There are a few scientific errors as well. Putting circuit breakers (or fuses) in parallel in an electronic circuit does precisely nothing, they go in series, Andy!

The book is also a bit tedious due with far more detail about daily activities than is necessary for forming a good story. The overall length of could have been reduced by at least 1/3 and been just as effective.

Finally, the overuse of the 'F' word is totally unnecessary and actually detracts from the story. I didn't count, but this books has more 'F' words and other expletives than any book I have ever read. Maybe I live a sheltered life.  After this visit to Mars with Andy and Mark, I think I'll stick with good ole' Mother Earth.  But a shorter trip to the Moon would nice!

Over all, the Martian is a goo
924959
I enjoyed the story and the characters, but there are a number of technology issues that bugged me like the glossing over of the tech and software used and the misuse and, seemingly, inappropriate use of some tech terms and software.

I was also bugged by the villian of the story. Their motivation was iffy especially since they could of left town and started their own business.

In summary, i enjoyed the characters (especially the protagonist), but i wish the "tech" was more accurate and detailed.
3625560
The story is pretty interesting and thoughtful.  The science is pretty weak making the story seem more like fanasty.

Some of the writing seems targeted at children rather than adults, very repetitive descriptions, of weapons with long tough sounding names.
3497470
This is a great premise for a science fiction story, but this would have to be rejected by Analog or Asimov's. That's possibly why this isn't marketed as science fiction. What you have here is third-rate. (admittedly, there's a lot of stuff out there marketed as science fiction that is fourth or fifth rate)

The basic idea is well described on the dust jacket - someone who invented a time machine has created a party that takes place on his 100th birthday (April 1, 2071) that takes place at the abandoned Boltzmann Hotel in a New York City with very many abandoned buildings and few people that seems to be getting more abandoned with time.

The Inventor comes back, or his intention is, to come there once every year on his birthday - according to his watch, since he long ago got disconnected from regular time. People older than the character at the time are Elders, and people younger are Youngsters.

He gives each of his identities nicknames. There is Yellow, Screwdriver, Seventy, The Drunk (the book actually never bothers to tell the name of the main character) and then there's The Suit, which is the protagonist on his 39th birthday. The story is mostly told by the Suit. Things go wrong.

By the way, the protagonist might be something of an alcoholic, but that's not a problem. The way it's all worked out, or not worked out, is.

What it reads like, once it gets going, is a nightmare. A nightmare, because in a nightmare you get a whole series of bad surprises. A nightmare never makes any sense. A story shouldn't have so many bad surprises, and if it has them, some of them should be explained right away. (although with no surprises, there might not be any story at all)

Then, later, it segues into Alice in Wonderland - Alice in Wonderland, because you have other characters that are doing things that don't make any sense, and that happens in Alice in Wonderland. You've got people taking books from the New York Public Library (I guess Sean Ferrell didn't hear of the plan, all way in the Two Thousand Teens to take most of the books in the main building and move them to New Jersey) and putting books virtually at random inside Grand Central Station. There's some hints that time travel might explain that too, but that's it. The book also, at one point, shifts narrators for two dozen pages to a woman friend of the main character in telling something of her back story.

Then later, we get back to the building, to something like "Die Hard." Die Hard with paradox problems. Big paradox problems. That might work in an action movie, where maybe people might only want to watch the action, but it's not so good in a novel.

The book never resolves its paradoxes. In fact it seems to say two opposite things at the same time - things can't be changed, and they can. Things can only happen as they did before, but also you can get untethered.  On page 18, I read: "I'd learned the hard way about the uselessness of interrupting past events." But on page 107, I read: "Blazer leaned in. "Why can't we recall what you are experiencing? Why are we all untethered" And you get both points of view at once on page 143. In the first half of the page Seventy says to the narrator: "All you have to do is keep her from going to the hotel."  Further down: "We don't need to go back. We already know you do."

The book never resolves its paradoxes. Did I repeat myself? That sentence should not have appeared twice. Did I get untethered?

Many many things, are never explained, even after you've read the whole book. I don't know if the author has some ideas in his mind, but he doesn't put them in the book.

This novel needs a thorough rewriting by Robert Silverberg. Maybe Ferrell can pay him some money and get this made into a good story, because it has the makings of one, but it isn't one now.
3717001
This is a type of story I like, if it wasn't it would only rate 3 stars.  The story is fun and fast paced, but the characters and story line are a bit simplistic.  The obstacles a bit too easy to overcome.  Challenges like logistics, research and training are fixed way too easily.

I would only suggest this book for people who really like this genre (sci-fi, first contact, military, technical).
574914
While the overall story and universe are interesting and fun, one of the primary characters, Pike, seems awfully dense considering his mission, the events which happen related to that mission, and how long it takes to accept facts he should have already known, instead of having them told to him.  Also, the story needs editing in terms of basic sentences missing words, using incorrect pronouns, and being incomplete.  Seems like there was one of those in every chapter.

Positives - cool bad guys, nice political twist with the bad guys, fun space battles - you know.  The stuff Nick always puts in his stories.

Will definitely read the next one, because the heavy-handed handling of the one main plot event can only really happen once and that's already done.
1659949
Although the novel is well written it is extremely slow. In my opinion far too much time is spent on scientific explanations that are not really necessary to the story which, in places, sounds like a textbook on physics. I think it would have been better if the author had concentrated on writing an action/adventure novel and focused on that with a minimal emphasis on science. In my opinion the story can't compare to Ray Cummings' "A Princess of the Atom," which I think is a much better and more interesting novel.
3058502
This is a decent book. The story, in theory, would have been a solid one. Rather, the issue with the book rests in the fact that the story does not move quickly along. It kind of lingers about and, at points, becomes a little bit of work to read.
4323759
Overall, a good story with interesting concepts that is worth your time. It's a little long and could have used a bit more editing to tighten the story.
Two gripes:
(1) The science. Any reader with just high school science under their belt will recognize some logic and physics holes that you just need to swallow and move on. In some parts of the story, the science was researched and others not so much. If you can accept the film Armageddon, you can accept this book.
(2) The bad guys. They're a tad over the top, like a 70's era James Bond evil doer. There's nothing subtle about them, I prefer when the bad guys have some complexity.

Worth your time and money.
4412298
Great story and writing.  Disappointing basic science.  It is alright to throw around esoteric words from advanced physics.  But it is not ok to get the basic stuff wrong.  It just destroys belief in the rest of the fantasy science.  For example, the author correctly explains how gravity must be established in an orbiting platform through rotation and how the further you are from the axis, the heaver you become.  But then he fails miserably by saying a person orbiting a heavier body would weigh more than one orbiting a lighter body (Neptune v. Earth).  UGH
2377640
I enjoyed the story very much. I would have liked a little more science in the fiction. I also didn't care for the half-hearted romantic subplots. They felt more like making a statement then genuine plots. I wouldn't have minded if they had been fully fleshed out.
1038265
Given my love of Data, holodeck malfunctions, and bringing in random characters from the past, I should have loved this story, but I didn't. Like other reviewers have noted, the ending seemed rushed - I wasn't sure until the last 50 or so pages that this wasn't going to be continued in another book. There are a lot of other issues, however. Moriarty's magic escape from his containment is poorly explained, and his status as supervillain is used too often to explain his ability to do much more than he should have been able to do. Geordi is two-dimensional and seems very much the hapless sidekick here.

I also took issue with the author seeming to want to bring a present-day spin on everything as well - the casinos, the neighborhoods on Orion, and various other things are literally explained as reminding the characters of Earth in the early 21st century. It was like Lang was trying to write a bad first-season episode of TNG, and he did a pretty good job of it. And while I'm used to not always knowing every novel character, Lang introduces Albert Lee, who was apparently an Enterprise-D engineering contemporary of Data, Geordi and Barclay. And while he's discussed as if we all know about him, I can't find a single novel or canon reference to the character anywhere. This just screams of lazy editing, which is a problem I had throughout the whole novel.

If you're committed to the current novel timeline (and especially the Cold Equations series by David Mack), this novel is still worth a read, though I really wish a little more attention was paid to the details.
4009715
The Author tells a good story, blends his time lines pretty good. Entertaining with stories from the bible and all. I love multiple books and a continued story line, but I want a quoting spot at the end of each book. There is a fine line where that is accomplished, but this book failed.
Interesting, thought provoking, just a few tweaks and people could press religion comprehension on a new generation. One of these days it libel to be proven all the bibles stories are a little off.
 I will read the other books eventually, but disappointed in the book not standing on its own.
2611481
As a resident of Fairbanks, Alaska myself, I would love to give this tale five stars. But there are serious problems with it. It's obvious the author knows and loves Alaska, from the glaciers and the northern lights, to the people who live here and have been shaped by the land. But in his desire to share these feelings, he often becomes mawkishly sentimental.
The story spans millenia, and starts with a Native couple, a glacier, and an orb, and leads to first contact with a galactic civilization. Ambitious indeed, and unique in its use of Native culture, especially the music and storytelling.
It has a strong underpinning of science, real and projected: unfortunately it becomes virtually unreadable to a non-scientist. It reminds me of the very early days of science fiction when scientists wrote a lot of idea stories for Analog, Amazing and Fantastic. Many suffered the same fate as the tale-telling became too technical for the average reader.
The natural sciences suffer less: galloping glaciers and mastadons dot the landscape, as do meticulous descriptions of fire-building and white-water river running in a Zodiac. The book is weighted down with long descriptions, giving the feeling the author just didn't know how to edit himself -- what to put in, what to shorten.
And the writing itself is amateurish, clumsy, awkward, and sometimes downright hard to read. Here's an example: "He had only a spec [sic] of a clue what his amazingly enthusiastic red-haired, green-eyed young friend was going on about, but the display of energy and grace between Shanna and Laura was, well, sort of stimulating." Shanna is the redhead, and the reader knew that 200 pages ago.
If you're truly curious about science fiction set in Alaska, by all means read this. But check out the other ones, too, as they're usually better written. Email me if you want a list.