This was chosen as my book group's book for April, 2022. Someone's husband had read it and we were looking for something different. Reading it was a struggle for all of us because so much of it is scientific information about how one might survive if left behind on Mars. Although the central character is somewhat interesting and we certainly root for his success, we don't get much of a back story on him. We are in the moment instead.
For those who haven't seen the Matt Damon movie or read the book, an astronaut is believed to have died and is left behind on Mars by his mission members. The book concerns how he survives and how he is eventually aided by NASA and his former team mates.
Is this really science fiction? For me it's a novel that uses a lot of science to solve its problems, but I always thought of science fiction as less grounded in reality than this book was. Everything that happened in THE MARTIAN could easily happen in our current space program.
So that became our biggest discussion. What is science fiction? Isn't this really an adventure story?
10 comments:
This could be classified as either, really, Patti, I think. Glad you're discussing it; it's one of my husband's top sci-fi/adventure/whatever reads of the last few years.
I agree with Margot. THE MARTIAN could be classified either way. Some readers complained that they got bogged down in the all the science and tech. The movie version of THE MARTIAN skimmed over all that stuff.
Yes, the movie was easier than this, which really had a ton of stuff we could barely follow.
It is without doubt science fiction.
Definitely Sf. I didn't read this, but I read his newest, Project Haul Mary. It started out fine but problem, solve, problem, solve and on and on I felt bogged down midway through.
There's a lot of sf which is grounded as much as possible in the most mildly speculative technology...science fiction so-labeled began in a big way in SCIENCE WONDER STORIES and AIR WONDER STORIES as as much of this kind of thing as possible, though some more fanciful fiction was mixed in (publisher Hugo Gernsback had been originally drawn to sf as a teaching tool for young proto-engineers and scientists). And John Campbell, the most influential sf magazine editor of the 1940s, famously said he looked for stories which would seem like contemporary adventure or otherwise plausible "today" stories in the future. This, too, wasn't always true of what he published, but it was a commonly-bruited credo.
Science fiction isn't one thing so much as a number of things that are to some degree related, dealing with how characters, whether human or otherwise, but usually pretty human even if not, deal with things in the context of a situation which is different from the present in plausible or arguable ways, changed by a single or usually by multiple factors of technological development, societal development, or placement in a situation rather different from the author's current consensus reality but still developed with concern for some relation to possibility as currently understood (such as on other worlds, in other times, in arguably plausible other sets of dimensions, etc.). Contrasted with fantasy, where a certain element of intentionally impossible (as currently understood) matters will be entertained. And then there are hybrid approaches.
Meanwhile, the eventual commercial publishers of THE MARTIAN made Every effort to make sure the bookstores and everyone else, as far as they could control it, Would Not refer to this rather obvious example of near-future sf as sf. Much as the publishers of the science-fantasy novel READY PLAYER ONE had done the same.
Perhaps because they wanted to sell to the woman who was shopping with her friend at a Borders a couple of decades ago, and when her friend held up a copy of the then-new paperback of Tess Gerritsen's GRAVITY as a possible purchase, said to her, "That looks like Space Crap."
Then again, we have more and more people buying a fair amount of sf and fantasy and alternate history (or "counterfactual") or climate-change fiction (another very old strain of sf) as if it's a New Thing, and Certainly Isn't That Space Crap.
Fascinating question, Patti. Maybe it could be considered cross-genre. when I read a book where it is science fiction (or fantasy) and a mystery, I think of it as a mystery, but I am sure others would consider the other genre primary.
Another example of hybridization, Tracy.
Basically, he question Is it not science fiction if it has too much (sort of) Real Science in it? is pretty much like asking Is something a mystery if it has too much (sort of) Real Investigation/Detection in it. A romance if it has too much concern with attraction, passion and (sort of) long-term viability.
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