By Andy Weir

Ok, this is a book that I didn’t go looking for, but I stumbled across it. 8 years ago, I went to America for a cousin’s wedding. Because I was only going to be there for less than a week, I took 1 book of short stories. Between reading on the second flight and some nasty jetlag the next morning, that book was finished in a day. So I hunted down a bookstore, which is where I found this one, and the lesson in this story?  Bring at least two books on holiday.

“A mission to Mars. A freak accident. One man’s struggle to survive.

When a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, astronaut Mark Watney finds himself stranded on Mars’ surface, completely alone.

Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills- and a gallows sense of humour that proves to be his greatest source of strength- Mark embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?”

This book was enjoyable and realistic for how space travel currently works. Although you should know they go into fine detail.

For this book, I have four thoughts.

Firstly, ok, now I need to tell you about hard science fiction and soft science fiction. Soft science fiction is where the explanation of how things work is brushed off with a “because science” excuse, without any explanation. An example of this is Star Wars. Hard science fiction is when the work goes into great detail to explain how everything gets done. A good example of this is The Martian, where Mark Watney goes into detail on how he will grow potatoes so he can survive. Including how he will make more water. While I enjoyed how this book did it, I can see how this may be hard. There is a lot of math.

Secondly, I would like to talk about how realistic this book is. What I mean is this book is very close to how space travel currently is in two different ways. Firstly, the naming of everything after Greek Gods, the missions to Mars are called Aries, and the ship that does the travelling to and from Earth is called Hermes. Secondly, the fact that it takes so long to get anywhere. In so much fiction, fantasy or science fiction, there are a lot of ways to have instantiations travel. But no planets are incredibly far apart. Which would be how it is with space travel in real life.

Thirdly, in the book, Mark goes through his crewmates’ stuff to see what they have that he can use. We hear that they have a few megabits of space for personal entertainment. Two of the things that we see the Aries III brought with them are 70s sitcoms and disco music. This raises the question: if you were going to Mars, what would you take with you? At this point, I’d probably fit as many of my favourite Discworld books as I could.

Fourthly, I would like to talk about Mark Watney’s sense of humour. Or more specifically, the fact that he has one. After all, if the character wasn’t able to make light of the number of times he almost dies, this book would be a much harder read.

Thank you for talking with me, and until next week, when we look at the movie adaptation.

Happy reading to all, and to all a good night.