The Martian by Andy Weir (Movie tie-in)

More info*

Publication date: 2011, 2014
Publisher: Broadway Books
Pages: 369
My rating: 4.5 stars
Ages:18+

Six days into his Mars mission, Mark Watney ends up alone and injured following a storm that forced the rest of his crew off the planet. Struggling to survive, Watney uses his education and ingenuity in order to try to survive until the next Mars mission . . . 4 years down the road. With no contact with NASA, Mark has to hope that they discover he is still alive. It's a race against the elements and the clock.

I think I was in danger of getting an ulcer from reading this book--I was so tense! It seriously stressed me out, as one thing or another went wrong for Mark.

Most of the book was told through logs in Mark's POV, which makes it fun and understandable. Even with all the math and science jargon (dang the metric system!), I felt that I could easily understand to the extent I needed to what was going on and what he was doing. There have been very few science fiction novels that I felt this is the case. I read it quickly, and near the end I was basically skimming it as I tried to "save" Mark from certain death on Mars.

Considering this is a debut novel, the writing is probably as near perfect as it can get. It might seem long, but it's fast paced and exciting.

There is a lot of language throughout the book, which is why I have the recommended age as high as I do.

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.