Andy Weir Books

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Andy Weir is the pen name of Andrew Taylor Weir an American novelist from Mountain View, California. While he has only attained popularity and fame in recent times, Weir has been an author from his twenties. Most of Weir’s works are classified as science fiction genre.

Andy Weir is best known for his debut novel, The Martian, which has been a huge worldwide success, and was later adapted into a film starring Matt Damon, which also went on to achieve global success. The genre of his work is science fiction.

Andy Weir was born in June 1972, in California, where he was also raised. From an early age, Weir had taken an interest in computer and specifically computer programming. In his teens, Weir went to work for Sandia National Laboratories as a computer programmer, before leaving to study computer science at the University of California, San Diego. Andy Weir did not graduate from his computer science course, but thanks to his extensive knowledge of programming, he went on to work for some of the biggest names in the industry, including AOL and Blizzard.

After leaving university, Weir started writing science fiction, which had always been his literary love, since he grew up reading the works of authors such as Arthur C Clarke. Although he never had any of his early work published, he would put it on his personal website for people to read.

The Martian, which gave Andy Weir his first taste of commercial success, was originally released on his website for free in a serialised form, and then released on Kindle 99 cents, purely at the request of some fans of Weir’s work. After making it onto the best-seller’s list on Amazon, Weir sold the rights to the Martian, which became a huge critical and commercial success. A lot of this success was down to the research that Weir had put into the story and in making it as accurate as possible, doing extensive research on technology that would be used in the various situations that come up in the book.

One year after The Martian was published, in 2015, the film adaptation of the book, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon was released.

Even as Andy Weir has been an active writer in the science fiction space writing several novellas, short stories and comics, it was not until the publication of his first novel, The Martian that his fame and popularity exploded. The Martian that was so popular that it was made into a movie and thrust many of his previously little known titles into the limelight, and launched his professional writing career.

ANDY WEIR AWARDS

Andy Weir’s most celebrated work has won several awards over the years. The Martian won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer at the 2016 Awards. Its screenplay version also won the Best Dramatic Presentation at the Hugo awards. In 2015, The Martian was the winner of the Best Translated Long Story at the Japan Seiun Awards. The Martian has also won Best Science Fiction with the Goodreads Choice Awards.

ANDY WEIR BOOKS INTO TV/MOVIES

In 2015, The Martian was adapted into a movie starring Matt Damon as the astronaut presumed dead and left stranded on Mars. Optioned in 2013, the novel was produced by Simon Kinberg with the screenplay by Drew Goddard. The movie went on to receive much critical acclaim and commercial success making it one of the most popular movies of 2015. It was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. It won the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes. Andy Weir’s The Egg, a short story was also adapted into a short film starring Phillip Hope and Harrison Lee.

BEST ANDY WEIR BOOKS

While the Martian is the most popular of Andy Weirs books, the author has several novels and novellas that are just as good as his debut novel. The following three are the essential Andy Weir readers:

The Martian: One of the best science fiction novels to come off the press in recent years, The Martian is a master class that showcased the skills of a master of the genre at the top of his game. A few days ago, Mark Watney was among the first humans ever to walk the surface of Mars. But a freak accident and a dust storm separated him from his colleagues, and believing him dead, they left him stranded on the Red Planet. What follows is the struggle of one man against odds stacked so high that it would seem nigh impossible that he could survive even for a month. Determined not to be the first man to die on Mars he puts in place his botany training to grow crops. He hatches an even crazier plan that he believes will make it possible for him to contact his bosses in NASA to tell them that he is still alive. Overcoming the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that he encounters with each passing day, he is starting to believe that he may just make it back to earth if he remains innovative enough.

The Egg: Originally published on galactanet, the author’s website, The Egg is the most popular Andy Weir short story. Thirteen foreign language translations are testament to its widespread appeal. The short story is a narrative of a dialogue between the reader who died in a car crash and God. Taking the reincarnation perspective of the afterlife, it explains how God informs the narrator that he would be reincarnated in 540 AD as a Chinese peasant girl. He also informs him that he had been reincarnated countless times over time. The entire universe is something of an egg in which the narrator hatches multiple times, until he has lived the experience of every human life, after which he would be reincarnated as a godlike being.

Artemis: Artemis is Andy Weirs first novel after the blockbuster, The Martian. Just like his first novel Weir writes a gripping science fiction tale which follows the life and times of Jasmine Bashara. Bashara is a twenty something year old with a prodigal and restless spirit who seeks to leave his small town life and go somewhere bigger and flashier. But it just happens that Artemis her hometown is the first and only city on the moon, where you need to have considerable wealth if you are to have any worthwhile entertainment. Unlike the Martian that needs to find a way to grow potatoes in his living room, Bashara turns to smuggling to supplement the income she earns from being a porter. Stumbling upon what she believes is a perfect score, she soon finds herself in a tangled web of crime so complex, that she soon finds herself running from a shadowy group of persons vying for control of the lunar city.

Andy Weir FAQs

Q: Did Andy Weir work on World of Warcraft?

A: Yes, the author Andy Weir worked for Blizzard, and worked on the second installment of the World of Warcraft franchise.

Q: Did Andy Weir write the screenplay for The Martian?

A: No, Andy Weir did not write the screenplay for The Martian. The screenplay for The Martian was written Drew Goddard, who also wrote the screenplay for Cloverfield, and World War Z amongst others.

When Does The Next Andy Weir book come out?

Andy Weir doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Project Hail Mary and was released on May, 1st 2021.

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