The Best Books I Read in 2015

While several of these books came out in 2015, a few were out earlier and one comes out in January. So here they are in the order I read them, my favourite books read in 2015.
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The Martian by Andy Weir - No real surprise here.  It's such a fun book and the movie adaptation was great.  It was pretty refreshing seeing a science fiction man vs nature story.

The Skull Throne by Peter Brett - I LOVE the Demon War saga, and this book upped the ante.  Can't wait for the next book to come out.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman - This book made dragons feel fresh again. Brilliant writing with a protagonist I really felt for.

Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal - Another series I loved and am sad to see come to an end. This Regency/fantasy mash-up worked better than I would have expected. I'm curious to see what Kowal will write next.

Binary by Stephanie Saulter - The second book in the REvolution trilogy, both of which are excellent, thought provoking science fiction novels.

A Darkling Sea by James Cambias - a great first contact novel set deep within an alien ocean.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - An absolutely brilliant debut about colonialism and what someone's willing to do - and give up - to achieve a goal.

Against a Brightening Sky by Jaime Lee Moyer - Third in a series set in 20th Century San Francisco, it combines fantasy elements and mysteries. Some great characters too.

City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett - The unexpected sequel to last year's brilliant City of Stairs is equally awesome.  It's out January 26th (so my review isn't up yet) and is definitely worth picking up.

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear - A super fun steampunk romp with a wild West feel to it.

Movie Review: The Martin

Directed by: Ridley Scott, 2015

Pros: brilliant performance, shows all the people behind the scenes of a space mission, accurate science for most of the film

Cons: not as tense if you’ve read the book, ending diverges

IMDb listing

When Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is left behind on Mars by his fellow Ares 3 crew during a ferocious sand storm, he must work hard to survive until a rescue attempt can be made.

This is a wonderful man against nature story closely adapted from the novel by Andy Weir.  It shows the resilience and determination of someone faced with terrible odds, told with a wry sense of humour and, when things inevitably go wrong, despair followed by renewed hope. 

Matt Damon gives an amazing performance as Watney, showing a full gamut of emotions.  I was also impressed by the supporting cast, particularly Donald Glover as the astrophysicist who figures out an important solution.  I loved that the cast was large and diverse, showing both the number of people necessary to run space missions and the fact that space should be a global endeavour, not run or controlled by a single nation. 

While the storm that forces the crew off of Mars isn’t scientifically accurate, most of the rest of the things that happen in the film are (with the noted exceptions of the ‘Iron Man’ manoeuvre at the end of the film and the spaciousness of the Hermes). 

If you’ve read the book the film isn’t as tense, since you know what’s going to happen.  The film also trims out some of the crises Watney faces in the novel.  Having said that, they did an excellent job adapting the source material, keeping Watney’s sense of humour as well as showing all the dangers he faces.  There was a bit of unnecessary repetition at times with relaying messages, where both the writer and reader would say the same lines out loud.  On the other hand, I liked how they showed the NASA team testing things on earth at the same time Watney’s doing them on Mars.

There’s a bit of divergence in the ending.  The film’s does something unscientific but then has a better denouement than the book.

I saw the film in 3D.  I wasn’t thrilled with the 3D format I saw it in (polarized glasses), as it took my eyes several minutes to adjust to the effect, and later in the film I had to adjust to it again a few times (not sure this is a criticism of the film or the glasses as I’ve never had this happen before and I’ve seen several 3D movies with different glasses).  The effects, though not filmed for 3D worked well with the technology.  The first time you see the Hermes space ship is magnificent.  There’s a decent number of shots that gave good depth of field to make it worth the extra if you like 3D.

I thought the Ares Live marketing campaign for the film was brilliantly done.  I also appreciated that the footage in those trailers wasn't in the film.  The videos added to the film if you saw them, but weren't required to enjoy the film itself.

If you like science in your movies, give this a go.  It’s very well filmed and highly entertaining.

Video: Our Greatest Adventure

I really enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir, and can't wait for the film to hit theatres in October. Though I know the story, I'm trying to avoid the trailers because I want as much of the movie to be a 'surprise' as possible (for a story I've read).

But this background video of the Ares mission on "Star Talk" by Neil deGrasse Tyson is awesome.

Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

Pros: tense, compelling, humerous, hard sf

Cons: swearing, some exposition

Mark Watney is presumed dead after being hit by flying debris and having his suit depressurize during the evacuation of the Ares 3 mission on Mars in a dust storm.  But hours after his crew departs on the only ship, Mark wakes up.  Now he’s alone on Mars with no way home and supplies only designed to last a crew of 6 for 31 days.

This is a novel of survival under extreme conditions.  It’s predominately told from Mark’s point of view via daily journal entries.  Mark is a resourceful man with a dry sense of humour, which helps keep the novel upbeat even though things are constantly dire.  It’s a compelling book that’s hard to put down with lots of tense moments.  

It’s also hard science fiction, meaning there’s a good amount of science explanation and mathmatics going on.  Most of the time it’s quick and engagingly told (often using humour).  Communications are reproduced with the time lag and flight times are dictated by real physics.  According to an interview I read by him the only scientifically inaccurate point in the book is the dust storm on Mars at the beginning of the book.

There’s a fair bit of swearing, which I’m not keen on, but a lot of it was understandable given the circumstances.  My only other complaint is that a lot of necessary information was given in conversations in ways that - though they worked in the text - would sound odd in real life.  So, for example, people would say things like “It’s nice to be back in Houston.”, rather than simply “It’s nice to be back.”, so the reader would know where the conversation was happening.  Similarly, people often explained things to coworkers that their coworkers should know, like how various scientific things work, or what they’re called, so that the reader would learn this information.  It’s a catch-22 in that the reader needs the information and there are only 2 ways to get it across, via dialogue or exposition.  Dialogue is the more interesting way of reading it, so he made the right choice.  And most people won’t notice he did this, they’ll just enjoy the fast paced story.

This is a fantastic book and I can understand why it made so many top 10 lists for 2014 and why it’s been optioned for film.