Like clockwork, it starts on page 37, "How about Malavida Chacone?" Chacone is one of the top two or so computer hacker geniuses in the nation who might help them crack their case.
He is Hispanic. [check]
He is so "handsome," he is "beautiful." [check]
I have no desire to see minorities and women written about in a bad light, but these things are so predictable, you can almost guess the first page they will appear.
In the crime 'thriller' I read before this one, the detective's best friend in college had been a handsome brilliant star athlete and college quarterback, who was all around simply spectacular, and--can you guess?--gay! [check]
Our Open-Borders Overlords keep trying to teach us not to hate, when that is really not our problem. Our problem is being discriminated against by being falsely portrayed as haters. In novels and in films of course they usually make an exception by not including this fatal flaw in the the usually White [Who else buys this stuff?] protagonist and his or her love interest--but not for us, we hateful knuckle-headed readers and viewers they are so nobly trying to uplift.
Update pp. 164-165:
More on Chacone:
"He looked almost god-like, his square jaw jutting, his glossy black hair and penetrating eyes flashing in the sunlight. ... He smiled at her ... the smile was dazzling and lit his handsome features."
Of course nothing wrong with this in itself. It is the suffocating, if comical, predictability. The Racial-Gender PC Gods and the ever present Tolerance Police absolutely demand this, especially if a novel has any hopes of making it in Hollywood.
- - -
The Martian
What to say? Except see the movie.
But can't resist a few words. With all these Hollywood brilliant Blacks along with the taboo on the drastic average IQ differences of different populations, no wonder so many minorities think their limited group accomplishments in the real world are the result of a giant conspiracy of 'White Privilege.'
Female commander. [check] Although if they could have brought in a female Muslim refugee commander wearing a burqa, they would have.
Most notable crew astronaut after Damon, Hispanic. [check]
Favorite touch: The Black genius kid who saves the day, towards the end of his presentation to NASA-JPL, using the White junior JPL administrator's forehead to click off his ballpoint pen. Although the administrator was a woman, must have gotten clicked for her 'White Privilege.'
Could go on forever, but how about the last scene, showing the astronaut training class, with one astronaut cadet sitting in the audience, very dark and seemingly brooding under his dark baseball cap, as if he had just been recruited for another Mars mission, merrily plucked straight out of the latest Black Lives Matter riot.
As a final aside, is it my imagination, or are the younger Hollywood leading men becoming rather colorless compared to earlier ones? Matt Damon did a fine job, but if you imagine Willis or Ford in that role, instead of being pleasantly interesting, the character would have been riveting. The same wisecracks, instead of being amusing, would have had a delightful winning sparkle. Maybe Damon is supposed to be the 'strong silent type,' but so was Eastwood, whose performances were always riveting.
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