An early manned mission to Mars goes horribly wrong leaving astronaut Mark Watney alone and stranded on Mars, presumed dead. What follows is one of the most gripping survival-against-all-odds stories I think I’ve ever read.

I don’t think its too much spoiler to reveal Watney survives… it’s not that type of book. But it still manages to be real one-more chapter nail-biter. The story doesn’t rely on some deus ex machina plot, but on plausible engineering and science. The author has clearly done a lot of practical research. And Watney needs all the ingenuity he can muster to firstly survive, then find a way to tell NASA he’s actually alive and then survive long enough for a plausible rescue. Part of the realism is that getting to Mars is hard and that Mars is an incredibly hostile environment that constantly sabotages Watney’s efforts.

From a writing point of view it’s got quite a difficult trick to pull. Initially much of the book is just Watney and his thoughts recorded into mission logs. But the author makes Watney such a solid character that these monologues work well. The writing pressure eases once NASA becomes involved and more interplay between characters becomes possible. If anything these secondary characters could have done with more polish, but it’s a minor gripe. Overall the novel leaves you with an amazing feel-good, humanity triumphing and so on. And why the hell can’t we get our act together and get to Mars!

PS. There must be many a wannabe author wondering why they didn’t think of something as simple as Robinson Crusoe on Mars. I suspect few would have done it so well.

PPS. With a film adaptation due it’s going to be interesting how they capture the feel of the book.