William
I first read The Martian in my pre-Goodreads days and I'm not 100% sure when, I do know it was before the movie was a twinkle in Matt Damon's eyes. When I first read this book I loved it, I enjoyed the science, the problem-solving and the (one sided) banter. It really reminded me of what I love about Asimov's writing, especially his short fiction. There's a problem that seems impossible to solve, let's look at what we've got and hack our way out. This is pretty much the same reason I like Sherlock Holmes.
Did I enjoy it the second time around? Absolutely, with one little caveat. I flew through the book, loving every minute of it - until the very last page where the story just stopped very suddenly. That was so not how I remembered it. I remembered a gentle and funny epilogue that eased the reader out of the extreme tension of the last scene of the book. I was sure it was there last time. I had a weird moment in which I considered the possibility I was in a parallel universe. Then I gave myself a mental slap for being a silly sod and instead started wondering if it was all a dream.
An internet search provided the answer - no I was not loosing my marbles, for some baffling reason they had removed the epilogue at some stage, leaving the story with the abrupt ending. The original (very short) ending can be found here:
https://the-martian.fandom.com/wiki/Original_Ending
Endings are very important, if you spoil the ending it can sour everything that went before. I'm leaving my five stars, but that is most definitely for the version with the epilogue. Now I'm off to cut and paste the epilogue back into my copy of the otherwise excellent The Martian.
I first read The Martian in my pre-Goodreads days and I'm not 100% sure when, I do know it was before the movie was a twinkle in Matt Damon's eyes. When I first read this book I loved it, I enjoyed the science, the problem-solving and the (one sided) banter. It really reminded me of what I love about Asimov's writing, especially his short fiction. There's a problem that seems impossible to solve, let's look at what we've got and hack our way out. This is pretty much the same reason I like Sherlock Holmes.
Did I enjoy it the second time around? Absolutely, with one little caveat. I flew through the book, loving every minute of it - until the very last page where the story just stopped very suddenly. That was so not how I remembered it. I remembered a gentle and funny epilogue that eased the reader out of the extreme tension of the last scene of the book. I was sure it was there last time. I had a weird moment in which I considered the possibility I was in a parallel universe. Then I gave myself a mental slap for being a silly sod and instead started wondering if it was all a dream.
An internet search provided the answer - no I was not loosing my marbles, for some baffling reason they had removed the epilogue at some stage, leaving the story with the abrupt ending. The original (very short) ending can be found here:
https://the-martian.fandom.com/wiki/Original_Ending
Endings are very important, if you spoil the ending it can sour everything that went before. I'm leaving my five stars, but that is most definitely for the version with the epilogue. Now I'm off to cut and paste the epilogue back into my copy of the otherwise excellent The Martian.