Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

I picked up the book, The Martian, expecting to get out of it, just about what I actually got. Without giving away any secret about the plot or story line, The Martian concerns a mission to Mars. On Mars, events happen that require that the mission to be aborted. The capsule must do an emergency lift off and return to Earth. However, during the confusion, one astronaut is presumed dead and is left behind.

Not dead, the astronaut finds himself alone as no human has ever been alone before -- stranded on Mars. It takes all of his knowledge, skills and a lot of inventiveness to survive. But he manages. He reaches mission control, back on Earth, and lets them know that he is alive and needs a rescue mission.

The book is an interesting and an exciting read. As I followed the main character’s efforts to contact Earth and then to help with a rescue, I found I was drawn into his plight. Every victory he had felt good and every setback that struck, hurt.

There was humor and adventure, all combined in a good story. If there was any weakness in the book, it was an over use of hyper-scientific details. As one example, I didn’t need to know how he did the rewiring and the conversion of the limited material he had on Mars, in order to make a video broadcast capable of sending images to Earth. I only wanted to know that he did it.

I recommend the book.

William K.