The recap
Six days into what should have been a month-long mission, a violent dust storm forces NASA's Ares 3 crew to abort and flee Mars. In the chaos, astronaut Mark Watney is struck by a broken antenna and left for dead. He isn't. He wakes up alone on the planet with a damaged suit, a habitat built to last a few weeks, no way of contacting Earth and the next crewed mission years away. A botanist and engineer with a gallows sense of humor, Watney does the only thing he can: he solves one problem at a time, growing food, making water, rigging power and improvising communications, while recording it all in sardonic log entries. Weir's debut is packed with real chemistry, orbital mechanics and engineering, yet it reads like a survival comedy in which an entire planet plays the villain. It is a celebration of competence, ingenuity and stubborn optimism, and it is very hard to put down once the clock starts ticking.
Why read it
For anyone who loves problem-solving, space exploration or a wisecracking narrator; it works for science fans and reluctant sci-fi readers alike.
Fun facts
- 01
Weir, a software engineer, first posted the story in installments on his own website, then released it as a 99-cent Kindle e-book in 2011 after readers asked for an easier way to read it.
- 02
After the self-published edition climbed Amazon's charts, Crown acquired the book and published it in print in 2014.
- 03
Ridley Scott's 2015 film adaptation starred Matt Damon as Mark Watney and received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.
- 04
The film also won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.
