The Martian by Andy Weir, a resource list for the August book discussion at the Mount Vernon Public Library

Here are resources for getting the most out of the 2014 novel The Martian by Andy Weir, kind of like Apollo 13 meets Castaway, a sci-fi rendition of Daniel Defoe's classic novel Robinson Crusoe. 
Thus, the literary minded call this kind of "stranded-survivor" story a robinsonade.

(click on image to go to Amazon for more about the book and the author)

Mount Vernon and Knox County Public Library (click here for the library website)

Note: I didn't make the poster, which I like, by the way. It wasn't me, though, that made my name look so large on the page. Sort of screams, "MATT PRICE!!!!" The discussion, however, is all about the book. If you didn't read it, come anyway, and let's talk about Mars, space travel, science fiction, and other good books you've read recently.

Questions to Discuss

• What do you think it would be like to be the only person on the planet?
• Identify the struggles that drive the plot of this novel?
• What problems faced by Mark Watney are most realistic? Or less so?
• What solutions created by Watney were most ingenuous? Or less so?
• In what ways could the obstacles be considered man-made or human error? Which ones were just happenstance? At what point if any the issue of blame and responsibility arise in the story?
• Name the characteristics of Mark Watney that make him a survivor.
• Describe the character that resonated with you the most besides Watney?
• Andy Weir has said the technology used in the book is all currently possible except maybe not to the same scale. What technological abilities were mostly unknown to you before reading this book? 
• What drives the human fascination with space travel, and with Mars in particular?
• Andy Weir sets this story about one hundred years into the future, around 2115. Do you think the author's vision for traveling to Mars within the next century is even a remote possibility? Why is it worth doing? (or not)
• Buzz Aldrin talks a lot about space tourism as a way to promote space travel. If given the chance would you travel into orbit, around the moon, even beyond?
• In your lifetime, would you rather see humanity solve world hunger or travel to Mars?
• What's your favorite story, book, or film about Mars?
• What other stories, books, films are similar to The Martian?

Links to Related Books

The Past Dreams

The Present Visions

The Future Imagined

Maps of Mars
Of course, Google's map of Mars.
Geological and topographical map of Mars from the USGS from space.com.
Image gallery of Mars and its exploration from NASA.
The journey taken by Mark Whatney traced on the surface of Mars, for your convenience.

How Far Is it to Mars?
Distance to Mars animated in pixels.

Adam Savage Interviews Andy Weir -- The Talking Room

3:00 | Ion engines explained
4:20 | Delta V (change in velocity) 
5:48 | Vocational background as software programmer
6:48 | How would I put together a mission to Mars and what could go wrong? 
8:20 | All the technology exists but not scaled to the point that it is used in the book
9:25 | Plausibility of Watney's spacesuits--one of the ways Andy messes with current science
11:58 | Wrote a program to simulate orbits and constant acceleration . . . 14:00 | the details involved
12:48 | Written without NASA contacts
13:10 | Reference library is one computer and the wonder of Googling and a high school teacher
16:18 | When Andy describes the process of writing The Martian & the story of how he became a writer
18:30 | How long it took for the novel to be discovered from posting it serially on his blog and going viral to Kindle Direct to a paper publisher taking notice
20:00 | Scientific fact checking from fans
25:50 | Commander Chris Hatfield's appreciation: "How did you get the realisitic sense of being an astronaut so right?" Andy: "No contacts at the space agency, I'm just a space dork."
27:45 | The importance and intensity of astronauts and their ability to work together
29:30 | Perspective change in the narrative continues at 34:20
31:15 | Risk from the engineer to management

31:40 | Watney starts naming stuff after himself
32:10 | Visit to JPL 
33:20 | Watney triangle and pirate ninjas at JPL
34:45 | Adam's emotional response similar to the audience's helplessness to Watney's predicament
36:11 | Chemist fact checks the hydrazine
38:23 | Andy knows things that are really hard to learn about space travel
39:15 | Could have not brought cannisters with him
39:50 | Pull quotes from Chris Hatfield and Larry Niven
40:30 | Showing the math and makes it exciting
43:53 | Dead ends in the plot: start with problem and how does Watney solve it: cascade failures
45:40 | Backtracking to make forward progress
46:00 | Influence of Apollo 13 : make a whole book of that
47:07 | Armstrong solving the spinning capsule
49:00 | John W Young: a favorite astronaut
51:30 | Organization of research
52:20 | NASA has not asked for help
53:00 | Thoughts on the film Gravity & suspension of disbelief

The Martian film trailer (2015)

The Hermes Crew

Andy Weir, The Martian - Talks at Google

The Martian by Andy Weir audio book, part 1 with links to the rest

The Egg by Andy Weir, a short story in audio narration