vstars Chapter 115 of "The Martian" became an unexpected hit.
Chapter 115 of "The Martian" became an unexpected hit.
Chapter 114 of "The Martian" is more popular than expected (Happy Lunar New Year's Eve)
While the promotion of "Bad Genius" is in full swing, exciting news has also come from Zhang Jun's novel "The Martian".
Since his novel was serialized in Science Fiction World, it has caused a huge sensation in the domestic science fiction community.
This hard science fiction novel, set against the backdrop of China's aerospace industry, quickly captured the hearts of a large number of readers with its extremely realistic technical details and tense and exciting survival plot.
The editorial department of Science Fiction World has received more letters from readers in the past six months than in the previous years combined, and the magazine's sales have maintained double-digit growth for several consecutive months.
There was even a shortage of copies, with many newsstand owners having to pre-order a week in advance to receive their copies.
The novel has sparked a huge wave of discussion online.
Baidu Tieba, Zhihu, and Douban groups are full of posts about "The Martian".
There are agricultural enthusiasts discussing the feasibility of the protagonist Ma Qiang growing potatoes on Mars, aerospace enthusiasts calculating the window of opportunity needed to launch a rescue spacecraft from Earth, and psychology students analyzing the protagonist's psychological state.
Of course, with praise comes doubt and ridicule.
Previously, some public intellectuals used this novel to attack the space agency, and in doing so, they also criticized Zhang Jun.
They believe that it is impossible for Chinese people to do all this, and even though the timeline in the novel is set decades later, they still find it incredible.
"With our current space technology reserves, let alone a manned Mars landing, we're still building our space station. What's the point of writing this kind of novel other than wishful thinking?"
A public intellectual wrote on his blog.
In their view, only the great United States could accomplish all this; this mindset is deeply ingrained.
Believe it or not, if any of them were time travelers, they would indeed know that this novel was originally about American astronauts surviving on Mars.
The country that helped in the book changed from the United States to Russia in the north.
Of course, only Zhang Jun himself knew this secret.
After a period of attack, the public intellectuals quickly became interested in gossip and other hot topics, and thus abandoned novels and the space agency.
But soon, another group of people began to take over the attack on "The Martian".
Zhang Jun didn't know how to define these people, so he named them "Frankenstein Monsters".
This group attacked the scientific validity of "The Martian," and found a whole host of "flaws" in it.
For example, regarding the Martian storm at the beginning of the novel, the "science freaks" cite numerous sources to argue that, given the thin atmosphere of Mars, even if the wind speed reaches hundreds of kilometers per hour, its actual impact would be no more than a gentle breeze, and it would be impossible for it to produce the terrifying storm that overturns spaceships as depicted in the novel.
"They can't even get this basic common sense right, and they still dare to call it hard science fiction?"
A Douban user wrote a book review of 2,000 words, refuting the scientific flaws in the novel point by point. This review was featured on the website's homepage and received tens of thousands of likes.
Jia Si, an editor at Science Fiction World, was puzzled: "Didn't these people see the inscription on the pages? This is a science fiction work with scientific guidance from academicians and professors from Tsinghua University. Do you think they know more than academicians?"
Editor-in-Chief Qin Li remained calm, slowly saying while holding a cup of tea, "It's normal. When Liu Cixin's novels first came out, and when Wang Jinkang's novels were being serialized, they were attacked in the same way."
However, "The Martian" was written too realistically, with too many technical details, making it seem like a project that could be implemented within a decade or two, which is why it faced wider skepticism.
"These people, even if they have Nobel laureates as mentors, can still attack novels."
Another editor put down the proofreading manuscript and scoffed, "Believe it or not, even if you let NASA engineers write it, they could still find fault with it."
Some people don't enjoy reading; they enjoy the thrill of scrutinizing details with a magnifying glass.
This editor's prediction was absolutely prophetic.
Because in his previous life, Nolan's "Interstellar" was attacked from all angles by "science freaks" after its release, who pointed out various scientific flaws. Some even wrote a book to correct these errors.
However, while these "science freaks" are annoying, some of the scientific flaws they point out do exist.
Liu Cixin once admitted that he sometimes makes artistic compromises in order to make the novel more engaging and the pacing tighter.
The same applies to "The Martian". Although the Martian storm at the beginning is not scientifically accurate, the whole story could not have unfolded without this dramatic conflict.
These are the fundamental principles of genre fiction.
Regardless of the circumstances, The Martian was undoubtedly the most popular original science fiction IP of last year.
The novel was not only serialized in Science Fiction World, but its rights were also sold to Japan, South Korea and Singapore, where it was serialized in mainstream science fiction magazines and also caused a huge sensation.
Japanese readers wrote to the editorial department, saying that they saw in it the tenacity of humanity in the face of adversity.
Korean readers were particularly impressed by the potato cultivation methods mentioned in the book. Ma Qiang, a character in the book, even used the Martian environment to pickle potato kimchi, which Koreans believe was learned from Korea.
Singaporean Chinese readers felt a special connection to the book, as the few Chinese slang terms uttered by the protagonist, Ma Qiang, brought a smile to their faces.
Soon, at the beginning of this year, the novel was translated into more than a dozen languages, including French, German, and Spanish, and entered the mainstream book market in Europe and America through copyright agency channels.
It was first serialized in some niche science fiction magazines, and the response was unexpectedly good. It was then noticed by a major publisher and began to be serialized in top industry publications such as Asimov Science Fiction Magazine.
Although this is a science fiction novel from China, and the author's name is unfamiliar and difficult for Western readers to pronounce, the power of the story itself is enough to transcend cultural barriers.
The story of an astronaut stranded on Mars, surviving with limited resources and extraordinary ingenuity, resonates with a universal emotional response.
Moreover, the novel's solid technical descriptions and rigorous scientific deductions leave Western readers accustomed to hard science fiction with few major flaws.
Of course, this is not without its doubts and suspicions. Some say it is Chinese "political propaganda," while others suspect that the technical details in the book were stolen from NASA's blueprints.
But as more readers joined the discussion, these voices were quickly drowned out by a sea of positive reviews.
What truly ignited The Martian's popularity in Europe and America was the moment it made it onto The New York Times bestseller list.
Although it's ranked tenth on the list, and last, it's still a miracle for a translated novel and for a Chinese author's debut work.
The New York Times published a book review article titled: "Red Mars from China: An Epic of Survival That Makes You Forget Borders."
In his review, renowned book critic Daniel Kreber wrote: "Reading The Martian is a wonderful experience. You quickly forget where the author is from and what country the story is set in."
You'll only care about that lonely figure standing on the red wasteland, how he uses wisdom and humor to fight against the cruel universe.
This is an adventure story belonging to all humankind; it reminds us of:
Under the vast starry sky, we are all Earthlings.
Publishers Weekly analyzed it from an industry perspective: "This novel represents a collective explosion of Chinese science fiction."
If this level is maintained, Chinese science fiction will occupy a significant share of the global science fiction market within the next decade.
This is not a threat, but an opportunity.
To the publisher's delight, some cultural figures and tech giants also joined the recommendation team.
When Tesla founder Elon Musk was interviewed and asked what book he was reading recently, he pulled a crumpled paperback copy of "The Martian" out of his pocket.
"I just finished reading this book for the second time. Many of the ideas about survival on Mars in the book coincide with the projects I am currently working on."
While some technical details are somewhat idealistic, the underlying principle is correct.
At this time, Musk was not yet well-known among the tech giants, but he had already expressed his longing for Mars.
Hollywood director Ridley Scott also mentioned the book in an interview with Empire magazine: "I was looking for my next science fiction project, and someone recommended this Chinese novel to me."
To be honest, I didn't have high expectations at first, but once I opened it, I couldn't put it down.
This story is so captivating, so visually stunning, I can picture every single frame.
I would be very interested if we could discuss the copyright.
Although it was just a casual remark, it was enough to make fans' imaginations run wild.
On Amazon.com in the United States, "The Martian" quickly garnered over 5,000 reader reviews and a high rating of 4.7.
A reader, certified as a NASA engineer, commented: "As an aerospace engineer with twenty years of experience, I can say with certainty that 90% of the technical details in this book are feasible."
That Chinese writer either has a top-notch team of scientific advisors, or he himself is an expert in the fields of aerospace and engineering.
What's even more remarkable is that he wrote about dry technical details in such a vivid way.
When I read the part where the protagonist uses hydrogen and oxygen to make water, I couldn't help but applaud. Perfect, absolutely perfect.
Another reader wrote, "I was reading this book on the subway and almost missed my stop. I was so engrossed that I forgot to go to work."
On Twitter, which has recently become very popular, #TheMartianRescue# and #ChineseScienceFiction# have become trending hashtags. Some people have created fan art, while others have actually tried to simulate Martian planting experiments with potatoes in their backyards.
With such a popular novel, serialization was clearly not the end, and the publication of a standalone book was quickly put on the agenda.
This matter is handled entirely by the book division of Science Fiction World magazine.
After discussing it with Zhang Jun, Science Fiction World immediately arranged the publication plan.
The simplified Chinese version is scheduled for official release in March, with an initial print run of 80,000 copies. This figure is quite bold in the current publishing industry, considering the shrinking physical book market year after year, and a new author's initial print run of over 30,000 copies is considered quite good.
As a result, everyone underestimated the market's enthusiasm.
A week before its official launch, Dangdang.com had just posted the pre-sale link when the first batch of 5,000 signed copies sold out in just two hours.
The publisher urgently reprinted the book, but pre-orders continued to pour in. By the day before the official release, total pre-orders had exceeded 150,000 copies.
The situation was even more heated on the day of the listing.
As early as 7 a.m., readers were already queuing in front of the Wangfujing Bookstore. By the time the doors opened, the queue had already circled the building three times.
Security guards had to come out to maintain order and use barriers to create a serpentine passage.
The bookstore manager was alarmed and personally went to the scene to check the situation.
"Are all science fiction readers this crazy?" the manager asked the purchasing staff.
"It's not science fiction readers who are crazy."
The employee pushed up his glasses: "This book is crazy."
At 10 a.m. that day, news of stock shortages simultaneously spread to major bookstores across the country.
The first batch of 0 copies sold out in two hours at Shanghai Bookstore, and the Guangzhou Book Center was even more impressive, selling out within an hour of opening.
Urgent reprints, then more reprints.
The printing plant's machines were running 24 hours a day, and the paper inventory was running low, so they had to temporarily transfer paper from other printing plants.
The distribution department's phones were ringing off the hook, filled with calls from bookstores urging them to deliver their orders.
A week later, the initial print run of 80,000 copies had already sold out, and an emergency reprint of 120,000 copies was put on the market.
An additional 150,000 copies were printed in the second week, and another 200,000 copies were printed in the third week.
After a month, the cumulative sales for the first month exceeded 500,000 copies.
On Dangdang.com's bestseller list, "The Martian" held the top spot for a full thirty days.
Second place has changed hands time and again, but the first place remains steadfast. This is the same scenario across all e-commerce platforms: Taobao, Amazon China, and Wenxuan.com.
In physical bookstores, copies of "The Martian" are piled up like small mountains and placed in the most prominent entrance area.
Some bookstores have even created special science fiction sections, placing "The Martian" alongside "The Three-Body Problem," "Foundation," and "Dune."
Many bookstore employees have reported that customers come into the store and immediately ask, "Do you still have 'The Martian'?"
Readers who bought the book immediately leaned against the bookshelf and started flipping through it, some even sitting on the floor and reading dozens of pages in one go before leaving.
Online, the hashtag #TheMartianRescue has garnered over ten million views. Its Douban rating remains stable at 8.5, with over 70% of reviews being five-star.
If it weren't a Chinese science fiction novel, its rating would be even higher.
There are hundreds of questions and answers about this book on Zhihu, ranging from "How would you rate the book 'The Martian'" to "What are some chilling details in 'The Martian'" and "If you were put on Mars, how many days could you survive?", covering all sorts of angles.
On Zhang Jun's personal Baidu Tieba forum, his number of followers has grown to over 500,000.
Every day, countless readers check in, urge for updates, and ask questions. Some ask when he will write a sequel, some ask if the protagonist should go to Venus in the second book, and some simply come to express their love.
"Zhang Jun, you are the pride of Chinese science fiction!"
"After watching 'The Martian,' I've decided to study aerospace engineering. Maybe after I graduate, I can actually go to Mars and grow potatoes."
"This book made me realize for the first time that Chinese people can also explore the universe in such a hardcore way. Thank you, Director Zhang Jun, for showing me another possibility."
"I hope Zhang Jun himself will bring this novel to the big screen."
When friends in the publishing industry meet and chat, they always say something like, "Have you heard about 'The Martian'? It's incredible, making 500,000 a month. You wouldn't have seen that kind of money even five years ago."
In the current publishing downturn, it's truly unbelievable that such a dark horse can emerge.
Zhang Jun himself remained surprisingly calm in the face of all this.
He continued to work methodically, and after The Martian, he wrote two short science fiction stories.
One was called "Gravity," and the other was called "Interstellar." They were both given to "Science Fiction World" to publish in the magazine.