Where is Ray Walston when you need him……   **

The most boring movie I have ever seen was Gravity. The Martian would be in the running for the most boring book I have ever read.

Andy Weir can write about the technical aspects of being in space and seems to have done a great deal of research, but technical accuracy does not equate to a good novel.  Writing in first person as Mark Watney, the astronaut stranded on Mars, Weir goes into painstaking detail as to what it takes to survive on this desolate planet.  I found myself speed reading through these parts as they were not only boring but amateurish.

When the story finally switched to third person, I was hoping for a better read, seeing that this book was a best seller. I was disappointed. The other characters are clichés and caricatures of NASA stereotypes.

Weir’s attempt to provide drama by bringing in obstacles to hinder the rescue attempt and Watney’s survival fell flat for me. While meant to add suspense most of these were too easily remedied to be worrisome.

The final scenes of the rescue attempt were melodramatic and left me saying, “Okay, that was boring.”

This one gets two stars, one for Weir’s technical expertise, and one for keeping me reading, hoping something exciting might happen. It didn’t.