Quake3World

No, this thread is not about Geoff but about the Matt Damon movie based on the novel of the same name. It's about a manned mission to Mars that gets aborted 6 days after touchdown on the planet due to a massive dust storm. One of the six crew members doesn't make it back to the launch vehicle and is presumed dead. In reality he's still alive and needs to survive on the barren planet somehow. Problem is, the original mission was meant to last 31 days while a rescue mission could take years to reach him. Not to mention he has no way of telling anyone he still lives.

Here's the trailer:
[youtube]Ue4PCI0NamI[/youtube]

After seeing the trailer for the first time myself sometime ago I decided to read the book first. I just finished it and it's 300+ pages of delicious nerdy cleverness and scientific ingenuity. A real recommendation if you like science fiction that's more Sci than Fi. It's like MacGyver in space at times.

looks interesting

cause red planet was shit

Hey thanks Eraser. I was looking for something new in this genre. Who is the author of the novel?
Never mind: Found it.

Andy Weir is an American novelist best known for his debut novel The Martian.

Wiki

Gonna check it out.

Started reading this a few days ago, so far so good.

This is the first book I've read in one sitting since I was a kid. The Martian is total hard science and even the guys at NASA who read it thought Weir had an inside guy. It turns out Weir just Googled a bunch and relied on his blog readers to correct mistakes. This book was originally just a bunch of blog entries and his readers asked him to release it in novel form. Amazon doesn't let you give it away for free, so he had to charge $.99 and it ended up being a best-seller.

Also, he wrote 2 other novels before this one and failed to get them published after trying forever. Then he stumbled into The Martian.

Eraser, have you read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson? I'm 1/3 of the way through and it's another good hard science novel. It's about what happens to humanity after the moon breaks apart and they have to flee Earth to survive. I'm not sure what sort of time frame the book takes place in, but based on the 2 years that have passed to far in the book, plus the diagrams on the inside covers, the story spans generations. Even though it's a massive 867 pages long, I'm enjoying every one of them.

SoM wrote:looks interesting

cause red planet was shit

Red Planet? The Val Kilmer movie of 2000?
Red Planet - IMDB

Are you thinking Interstellar (2014)
Interstellar - IMDB

Haven't read Seveneves. Did have Snow Crash on my to-read list though.
I can also recommend Greg Bear's The Forge of God. It's not quite as hard science as The Martian (it involves aliens, not in a Star Trek way though) but it's a real page turner.

Whiskey 7 wrote:

SoM wrote:looks interesting

cause red planet was shit

Red Planet? The Val Kilmer movie of 2000?
Red Planet - IMDB

Are you thinking Interstellar (2014)
Interstellar - IMDB

He's talking of the former. It wasn't really good. I can't remember Val Kilmer in it though. Guess it didn't leave a memorable impression.

There's also a neat pre-mission character introduction video of the movie:

[youtube]S9UPrFKDbKA[/youtube]

Some of the crew facts and twitter messages are hilarious references to the book.

^nice

reminds me of dead island intro

Kind of weird watching this trailer with Matt Damon having seen Interstellar.

A black person would say that...

looks good

obsidian wrote:Kind of weird watching this trailer with Matt Damon having seen Interstellar.

He's being typecast!

scared? wrote:A black person would say that...

"I don't know what to tell you Geoff, but those kids of yours, they aren't black at all! And your wife isn't a fat hoe with the hots for big black dicks because you're so white and tiny."

Eraser wrote:There's also a neat pre-mission character introduction video of the movie:

[youtube ]S9UPrFKDbKA[ /youtube]

Some of the crew facts and twitter messages are hilarious references to the book.

Thanks Eraser, I enjoyed that a lot

There's a new promo video featuring Neil DeGrasse Tyson, whose hair has been painted grey for the occasion

[youtube]-fdKyszL1Zo[/youtube]

Transient wrote: Eraser, have you read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson? I'm 1/3 of the way through and it's another good hard science novel. It's about what happens to humanity after the moon breaks apart and they have to flee Earth to survive. I'm not sure what sort of time frame the book takes place in, but based on the 2 years that have passed to far in the book, plus the diagrams on the inside covers, the story spans generations. Even though it's a massive 867 pages long, I'm enjoying every one of them.

I second this
Just finished it last week, enjoyed the hell out of it.

I finished the book a few weeks back and I'm still thinking about it off and on. It's totally worth the time investment IMO.

Eraser wrote:There's a new promo video featuring Neil DeGrasse Tyson, whose hair has been painted grey for the occasion

Hey thanks for the video Eraser. Nice

Transient wrote:I finished the book a few weeks back and I'm still thinking about it off and on. It's totally worth the time investment IMO.

Yes

I just got back from the movie and it was great. I knew Matt Damon would do the role justice and he definitely delivered. There was a bit more focus on Earth early on, and with the other astronauts in general, but I think it was probably a good call considering the medium. They skipped the bit about the dust storm toward the end, but the rest of the crises Watney encountered held true to the original, and they weren't afraid to throw some science at the viewer.

Over-all an awesome movie, only slightly spoiled by the fucking twat taking selfies in my peripheral.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5818

LawL wrote:http://quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5818

Looks like Lawl's autism is playing up again.