I gave up on PHM after about 75%. Just couldn’t make it through anymore. And I’m someone who rarely ever DNFs anything – I’m just stubborn like that.
Despite some truly interesting sf concepts, the book failed to hit the mark in every other department. I think first and foremost it was the writing that made me cave. The prose is just wooden and elementary on a level I couldn’t handle anymore. I know it’s supposed to be a fun popcorn book and not literature but still – even for disposable entertainment it was bad.
Another issue I had was with the main protagonist. He was just annoying without anything interesting or compelling about him as a character. In fact, he kinda reminded me of a Redditor – smug, self-righteous with some of the most groanworthy quips and attempts at humour I’ve experienced in a MC in a while. I’d always read the quotes and memes people posted from this book on Reddit and think “huh maybe it’s actually funny in the right context?” But no, it isn’t really.
Rocky was a cool character though so I’ll give Andy weir credit for that. But still not enough to force myself through the book. It’s weird because The Martian was kinda poorly written too but I still enjoyed it way more because the protagonist wasn’t as irritating.
by Monkey-on-the-couch