When Mark Watney’s comrades leave him on their mission back to Earth after a sudden and seemingly tragic accident, Mark is left stranded on Mars. Alone. With only one wish, to survive to see the next mission to Mars, Mark embarks on a mission to build his life on the unpredictable and merciless red planet until the next Mars mission, a haunting number of years away.

I really enjoyed this book and there were many particular elements that were shown to have created the amusing and intriguing premise and tone of the novel. The writing was casual and simplistic and felt perfectly matched to the protagonist, who himself was well-rounded and felt perfect in the novel. Secondly, the use of comic relief stood out for me, probably because most novels I read tend to lack humour altogether. The humour in this novel, at least for me, felt fresh, highlighting the depth of the author’s ability to encompass a range of emotions with his writing. Lastly, the world-building was only truly dependent on dialogue and the people of the novel, and I thought this felt suitable for the book. However, I simultaneously felt that a bit more description would have been refreshing and beneficial.

I would definitely recommend it! I would genuinely recommend this novel to almost all readers but particularly those who love space exploration and lovers of the sci-fi genre.

For similar materials, I recommend checking out the movie based on this book! As well as this, I recommend Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.