Put the science in science fiction, but at what cost

I had really high expectations for this one, considering its high rating and thousands of people commenting how funny and emotional it was. But it simply didn't reach the high I expected.

(Spoilers)

Let's make one thing clear: Andy Weir clearly has done A LOT of research to write this book. I've never read a book with so many fictional life forms being explained in this much detail. It's really admirable. But I also think it may be this book's biggest issue: it's just technical. Some explanations were necessary to understand the following story, but I think half of the theory could be cut. It made the book dense to get through and at some points just. Not fun. Boring even. I had too many days where I didn't feel like picking up this book because I wasn't up for a science lesson. But some people might be into that.

A second issue is that the more science you use to make the plot realistic, the more scientific inconsistencies become apparent. I'm no scientist by any means, but there were multiple occasions where I raised an eyebrow and wondered if certain explanations were true. Especially when it comes to sound. Upon researching some stuff on my own, I was right, which is a shame. But again, this book is way more scientific than any other piece of fiction I've ever consumed and goes way above my head most of the time, so the few inconsistencies fade in comparison.

Before I fully start ranting, let's make one thing clear: I really like Rocky. He's the best thing in this whole book. I love Weir's take on alien life. Very refreshing.

Let's talk about Ryland. This is the most clear case of a Mary Sue (Gary Stu?) I've seen in a while. Bro has no personality except for being "the quirky teacher guy ". At one point, a room full of incredible scientists LITERALLY talk about how he's not like the rest of them, he's special guys . He also has no character arc whatsoever. At one point, Weir tried hinting at some depth to his character, but it only lasted a quarter of a page and was never brought up again. Really a shame.

The rest of the cast is just as bland and lacking of any personality. The only "personality" we get are highly one-dimensional, often hinging on racial stereotypes (Chinese guy is serious, Russian woman likes vodka etc.). I couldn't connect to any of the characters (except Rocky), which causes the scene where someone dies to have no emotional impact at all.

Talking about emotional impact: this book has none of that. The only scenes that tugged at my heart strings were when Rocky and Ryland departed and when they reunited (But that might be because i love Rocky). Most 'emotional' scenes were mentioning that Ryland was crying for like, 3 sentences max. No build up, no cool down. It only threw me off any time it happened.

Which brings me to writing style. The writing style is just infuriating. The whole book felt like listening to someone talk about their travels but getting sidetracked every five sentences. I couldn't count the amount of times a sentence started with "Anyway," "So," "The point is"... You can use those expressions when two people are talking, but using them in narration just indicates a lack of coherence (imo). The story is constantly interrupted by long-winded scientific exposure or Rylands quirky, nerdy and often childish comments. Even in scenes that are supposed to be tense, the action is constantly interrupted by comments that just don't matter. It's really a shame.

Conversations between characters often serve to explain science some more and don't feel natural at all.

For a book that prides itself on being funny, the humor was just sad, really. All the jokes are just low hanging fruit and made me physically roll my eyes. I don't understand how so many people claim to have audibly laughed when reading this.

Some honorable mentions of things that annoyed me: the amount of times anyone talks about how cool/weird it is to be American, "science teachers just know that," all the kids in Rylands class admiring him and clearly not acting like actual 13-years-olds, Rocky not knowing how xenonite is made (you're telling me this space rock who clearly has vast knowledge of chemistry and physics has no idea how a reaction between two fluids work to make a material he uses all the time? Okay), ...

I like the concept of this book. I hate it's execution. I'll be watching the movie when it comes out and for once hope they don't stay entirely true to the book.