The Martian
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Martian |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | Andy Weir (author of the book), Ridley Scott (director of the movie) |
| Date(s): | 2011 (book), 2015 (movie) |
| Medium: | book, movie |
| Country of Origin: | US |
| External Links: | The Martian - archive backup of official website |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Martian is a science fiction book by Andy Weir, about an astronaut who is stranded on Mars and the efforts to rescue him. It was initially serialized for free online but later picked up by traditional publishers, after which is became a hit as a trade paperback and received a popular movie adaption.
As of July 2022, it is still considered a Yuletide fandom, with approximately 700 works across AO3 and FFN.
Overview
Book: published 2011.
Movie: released 2015.
The movie cut several plot points for time and slightly changed the ending but overall is a pretty faithful adaption.
Major Characters
- Mark Watney -- the protagonist, stranded on Mars
- Melissa Lewis, Rick Martinez, Beth Johanssen, Alex Vogel, Dr. Chris Beck -- the other astronauts from the same Mars mission as Watney
- Mindy Park, Venkat Kapoor, Mitch Henderson, Teddy Sanders, Annie Montrose, Rich Purnell -- NASA employees who play major roles in coordinating Watney's rescue
Fandom
The book received a lot of praise for its technical elements, both the thoroughness and accuracy of much of the science and the approachable nature in which the book explained it. Andy Weir famously wrote an orbital simulation program to plot out the flight plans of the spaceships in the book, and fans recreated his work to figure out the specific dates that the events of teh book must have taken place. [1]
The original book was often epistolary in nature, with much of the story told through Mark Watney's diary while stranded on Mars, emails and other communications between NASA personnel, news broadcasts and social media response from the public. Perhaps reflecting the epistolary nature of much of the book, social media and outsider POV fics are very popular.
A lot of the most prominent works in the fandom were written for Yuletide.
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfic
- You Know You Have a Permanent Piece of My Medium-Sized American Heart, Archived version by tricatular -- a post-movie social media fic.
- Tidings of comfort and potatoes, Archived version by filigree (figureinthecarpet) -- Mindy and Mark exchange emails while the latter is stranded on Mars
Fanart
- Time to science the shit out of this by u/PeculiarThomas -- recreation of the Ares-3 base with Mark's potato field done in Fallout 4
- “Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man”, Archived version, phone lock-screen art inspired by The Martian
- untitled, Archived version by foxjockey, 2022 -- illustration of a scene from the movie
- Per usual my “quick” space theme went wildly out if hand..., Archived version by koipondering, 2022 --illustration of a scene from the movie
- I put too much effort into a shitpost for my SOMA and The Martian crossover AU I’m workin on., Archived version, by zennyaia, 2022 -- crossover AU with SOMA
Other
- You know a little detail I love in The Martian book?, Archived version, meta by rainbow-femme, blondejaneblonde and others discusses how the book artfully matches the thoroughness of its technical explanations to match Watney's own level of familiarity with the subject.
- There are many disadvantages to being a botanist, meme from 2023
Resources
- The Martian Wiki on Fandom.com
- The Martian (Weir novel) Wikipedia entry for the book
- The Martian (film) Wikipedia entry for the film
- r/themartian subreddit
- #the martian tag on Tumblr
- The Martian - Andy Weir book tag on AO3.
- The Martian (2015) film tag on AO3.
- The Martian - Andy Weird filter on FFN
References
- ^ Of Course The Martian Fans Used Math And Science To Solve One Of The Film's Great Mysteries, Archived version. Published 6 October 2015.