Andy Weir

It’s funny how you can be disconnected enough to not realize, until it smacks you in your face, that you love a particular author. Andy Weir is that author in this case. To be fair, he hasn’t written a lot so not realizing I own most of his books is not that surprising. I haven’t mentioned it before but I probably own over a thousand. It’s time to share some thoughts.

Project Hail Mary is probably going to be my movie of the year. I picked up the book in between my first and second watch of the movie. I deeply enjoyed the differences between the two. The movie added a lot of fun to the concept. We need that. As much as Weir said the book is not political there is a lot of implications present. We aren't working together and we should be. It’s the small bits of hope in guards eating candy and making connections with what is foreign. Also really important to me, in both the movie and in the book, is the important of expertise. A women with all the power in the world still listened to the junior high school teacher. This is so so so so important to me. Teachers are so under valued and this one saved the world. They listened to scientists and fixed it: amaze, amaze, amaze!

One aspect I really enjoy about Weir’s writing is I believe his characters are intelligent. I don’t necessarily need the science to be exact and for me to fully believe the science with my own knowledge. It’s just so many authors want their characters to come off as more intelligent than the reader, or average person, and they really don’t succeed.

Here is another thought. When I was minoring in literature my classmates had a discussion on how bad the Hunger Games was written. Now I like a good syntax and prose as much as the next but I like a good story most. I wasn’t going to say the Hunger Games was bad. They had a point though, the author was a screen writer more than a literary one. I think Weir is an interesting case as his books are wildly popular movies but they have to have a lot of consideration on how they are translated to movies. I think this works because his characters are that, characters. The exposition of science gets chopped to bits and turned to visuals, go production team go, but the characters stay themselves in most ways.

All in all, I’m keeping an eye on this man now. In the mean time I’ll give The Martian another read.

Ps. It’s really fun to see how much Watney curses vs Grace. Also what is with rainbows and cannibalism? Explain.

Ps.

It’s really fun to see how much Watney curses vs Grace.

Also what is with rainbows and cannibalism? Explain.