Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadSix 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 … 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?
more
I’m currently about three-quarters of the way through the audio version of The Martian by Andy Weir. It’s good… but you have to be a bit nerdy to appreciate it. There’s a lot of space in the book dedicated to detailed explanations of the math and the science that the protagonist has to go through to survive life on Mars. Fortunately, the …
Science fiction at its best, the near future.
By now this will come as no surprise, The Martian is one of the VERY best of hard-science fiction that there is. The science is clearly fact based but the writing and situations are just great. If you are one of the few who has not yet read it, do yourself a favor and do so now.
This book was excellent. Some of the physics stuff was beyond me, but that’s OK
The book is better than the movie. The movie is good but the book is really well written and hard to put down.
Great use of science and humor to tell a fictional story about a life and death struggle for survival
What a great story. Action packed. The character was clever and inventive. I fancy myself as a science buff but he took it to the next level, using math and science to solve everyday life-threatening situations. ASCII to Hex, burning H and O2 to make water, the sugar bomb, determining the direction of the sand storm by how long it takes to charge …
Sci-fi and realism. Great combination.
I LOVE this book!! I was hooked from the first words: “I am f@#$%d”
I was already a big fan of the movie but
(as almost always the case) the book is so much better
This is a great story, but a bit too heavy on technical details so I can’t give it more than 3 stars. Certainly, others will love the nitty gritty that I tend to gloss over!
A superb book that shows the necessity of science and math to survive in the most extreme environments. It is very interesting and worthwhile to look at the difference between the book and the movie. The differences, while semmingly small make for two very different survival stores.
VERY GOOD! I have as an audio book and listen to it on long drives, love the reading of it
Defiantly one of the best books I’ve ever read. you really feel for the main character stuck on mars. so much detail and story and way better than the film. which i really liked as well
I loved every word of The Martian; the science, the engineering and story-telling were all top notch. Great job, Andy Weir.
Great attention to detail.
Loved this book. The author creates such urgency that is believable. I found myself wondering if I would have the strength and determination to live as much as Mark Watney. Perhaps I would. But would i retain my sense of humor? It’s filled with lots of technical data that goes over my head but I didn’t get lost when reading it. Written in such a …
One of my all time favourites, I read it over and over again.
I’m not a heavy reader of science fiction, but The Martian by Andy Weir is one book that has changed my mind about this genre forever. A team of scientists are finally on Mars. It’s the end of their mission and an unexpected storm emerges. After the storm settles it becomes clear that the one scientist that was thought to have died during the …
Keeps you on edge, no idea of how it will turn out. The book is much better than the movie.
I could…Not…Put…It…Down.
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Fascinating and funny, intense and smart, an incredible read.