Obviously subjective, but I had seen The Martian before I read the book (many years after seeing the movie), and liked the book way better than the movie. Read Project Hail Mary right after finishing The Martian, and enjoyed that one even more. I guess the writing is a bit dry, but it kind of makes sense and I quite like it. I'm cautiously optimistic about the new movie.

> Never read the Martian but I was told it was the same thing.

That's the very feeling I had when I read 'The Martian'. While I was reading it I actually thought something to the tune (It's been years now) "This reads like a movie".

Guess that explains why the movie is so faithful to the book.

It was not at all originally intended to be a movie, it just translated to movie format very well, as some books do.

But sanitized for that PG-13 rating. Some might think it's immature, but I found the cursing realistic and extremely amusing.

Hey, look! Boobs! (.Y.)

> Never read the Martian but I was told it was the same thing.

The Martian was actually originally published in a serialized form, one chapter coming out every so often.

> It didn't start out that way though. "The Martian" began as a series of self-published chapters on Weir's personal blog.

> Then Weir decided to put the book on Amazon, selling it for the website's lowest possible price ($0.99).

* https://archive.is/https://www.businessinsider.com/how-andy-...

> Having been rebuffed by literary agents when trying to get prior books published, Weir decided to put the book online in serial format one chapter at a time for free at his website. At the request of fans, he made an Amazon Kindle version available at 99 cents (the minimum allowable price he could set).[9] The Kindle edition rose to the top of Amazon's list of best-selling science-fiction titles, selling 35,000 copies in three months, more than had been previously downloaded free.[9][11] This garnered the attention of publishers: Podium Publishing, an audiobook publisher, signed for the audiobook rights in January 2013. Weir sold the print rights to Crown in March 2013 for over US$100,000.[9]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(Weir_novel)#Publi...

In my opinion, The Martian had better writing. You could tell Weir was having a blast writing it, and his enthusiasm translated directly to the main character's love of science and enduring sense of humor in the face of almost constantly dying.

Hail Mary felt like it was trying to capture the same magic but missed the mark. The plot felt constructed rather than spontaneous and I couldn't relate much to the main character at all. I agree about the Hollywood motive. I'll probably watch the movie.