The Martian by Andy Weir

From the Back Cover

Selected for common reading at North Lake College

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

– Summary from Amazon

My Review

This is one of those books that is destined to be a classic of our time. It’s got you hooked within the first actual sentence of the book, literally.

‘I’m pretty much fucked’. -Mark Watney, the main character of the book.

For anyone that has more than even the slightest interest in space, mars, adventure, space travel, futurism, and spaceships, you will probably enjoy this book a lot. It’s set on the planet of Mars and a stranded astronaut, that, according to himself, doesn’t have too much hope upon the realisation of his situation. There ain’t no one coming to save him anytime soon and if he wants to be there when they do, he has to come up with a way of surviving.

Mark finds himself in situation after situation, that each is worse than the previous, and has to overcome the obstacles. He needs to learn how to re-use water, grow potatoes, count calories, repair equipment and then, of course, he needs to do it in small confined spaces on another planet.

One of the most intriguing parts of the book is that it is scientifically accurate. While writing the book, Andy had contact with scientists in all areas of the industry to try to make the book as accurate as possible. This includes detailed understanding of space travel, physics, engineering and that of the potato.

All of the above he does with a great deal of humor, which shines through in the sarcasm and wit of Mark in the face of the challenges. A very entertaining book to read!

Of course, we should not forget the people back on earth who follow Mark’s journey like a soap opera and the global cooperation to bring one of our own back to earth. It’s a beautiful display of cooperation among the people of the world!

This is one of the best books I’ve read. Highly recommended!

5/5 thumbs up!