“I’m stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Hermes or Earth. Everyone thinks I’m dead. I’m in a Hab designed to last 31 days. If the Oxygenator breaks down, I’ll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I’ll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I’ll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I’ll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So yeah. I’m fucked.” – Mark Watney

The Martian is one of my favorite books that I’ve read in a while. I’ve always felt that the “man vs. environment” theme was far under explored in scifi. Space is deadly. Most of the universe is completely hostile to life. And yet when major motion pictures do Mars movies they invent killer robots to trigger the suspense.

The Martian is a straight up hard scifi book about being stranded and surviving on Mars. It’s got a great mix of problem solving, the unexpected, and a wise cracking protagonist. Every challenge he has to overcome is completely realistic. No crazy deus ex machina to inject suspense where this is none. If you like hard sci fi, you’ll love this book.

And it’s being turned into a major motion picture this October, hopefully landing before our drive in closes for the year. So if books aren’t your thing, you could wait for the movie. But, you should really read the book. It’s a lot of fun.