darthyip: Right now I'm in the middle of both The Martian by Andy Weir and Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. The Martian is winning in the pure enjoyment category for me.

ddickinson: I was looking at The Martian a few days ago and was trying to decide whether to buy it or not. How are you liking the book so far? I assume since you are enjoying it then it will be a good read?

darthyip: Definitely recommend it. I feel the main character (which you spend the vast majority of time with) is engagingly written. Even through the more science oriented parts, he injects a lot of humor into it. I never felt bored through these parts.

If you read the preview they have on Amazon, it's a pretty good indicator of how the rest of the book reads (though the preview ends at an odd spot). Or at least how the approximately 60% I've completed so far reads.

Ragnarblackmane: Oh, I actually got a review copy of that book last year and would be curious to know your impressions.

This is part of my full review, this snippet was what I wrote on my goodreads page:

"It's evident that the author really knows his ancient military history and also fetishizes the Roman Empire as many antiquarian authors and historians do. Unfortunately that zeal didn't help him develop his characters in complex and interesting ways.Gibbins tends to use character dialogue to explain ideas and the implications for Rome. While I'm certain that many of the ruling class had conversations like that, I doubt they had them ad nausea.It reduces the characters to mere set-pieces.I wish rather than reading of the aftermath or having his characters discussing much of the battles and glossing over big parts, he would actually describe them.Though it's extremely difficult to do so given that there's hardly any documentation from the period, the man could use his imagination with his knowledge of these events like most historical novelists.
The final scenes and descriptions of the Battle of Carthage finally impressed upon me that this man could have written a much more exhilarating novel.

I'm of the opinion that reading nonfiction by archaelogist David Gibbins would be fascinating and insightful but this book has proven none of the former."

Punished_Snake: I almost completed fourth book now, but...okay, is very eay to read, but the plot just stopped. I mean, there are maybe two main events during the book, and then there are tons of useless chaters, or anyway chapters simply too long in which there's an event and then a lot of useless pages.

Crewdroog: Reading Brave New World. Was already quite disturbed by page 15, so, so far, so good.

ddickinson: I was looking at The Martian a few days ago and was trying to decide whether to buy it or not. How are you liking the book so far? I assume since you are enjoying it then it will be a good read?