Mark Watney becomes one of the first humans to ever set foot on Mars. Will he also be the first to die there?

It’s 2035, NASA has launched a series of missions to Mars. Mark Watney is part of the third mission, or the Ares III mission. After only a few Earth days on the surface, a massive dust storm threatens the safety of the crew, forcing them to evacuate. When the crew flees to the ascent vehicle that will return them safely to orbit, Watney is struck by a broken antenna from the base and presumed killed. The rest of the crew safely evacuates to the orbiting spacecraft and begins the long return to Earth.

Mark Watney is still alive, however, and must now survive on Mars until NASA is able to retrieve him.

The Martian is an intensely realistic novel that works hard to directly explain many elements of spaceflight and space exploration. Everything from how spacecraft work to how Watney manages to survive has been thoroughly researched. For those who enjoy a realistic novel, The Martian is as good as it gets.

Andy Weir writes with a unique, dry humour. He is able to effectively describe the difficulty and complexity of space travel to the reader and portrays a near future that very possibly could be a reality. Weir also created a fun and relatable character in Mark Watney. There has been a movie adaptation of the novel, but the novel has many more details and plot elements than the movie does.

The Martian is a more complex and technical novel than most. Weir covers these concepts well and most readers can enjoy The Martian without difficulty. I recommend this book mainly to sci fi enjoyers or spaceflight enthusiasts.

I haven’t read a lot of other books like The Martian, but readers who enjoyed this novel would likely enjoy Alastair Reynold’s Revelation Space and Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves.