Stranded. Lost. Alone. The Martian by Andy Weir is a book about an astronaut, Mark Watney, who was left behind on Mars to fend for himself after his team had to make an emergency takeoff when a sand storm hit. If you love science fiction, a plot that never ceases to give you an action packed story line, and some comedy—this is the book for you. 

Mark has to devise a plan to get to the landing zone of Ares 4, his only hope of survival (or so he thinks). While making plans, Mark needs to sort food and water so he doesn’t starve. He decides to grow potatoes and use the water reclaimer on the Hab (Mark’s home on Mars) to do so. What Mark doesn’t know while doing all this is that the team at NASA HQ knows he is alive from pictures of the Ares 3 mission zone. Both sides are hard at work trying to make contact and are doing so restlessly. You’ll have to read the rest yourself to find out what happens. 

Mark Watney encounters multiple struggles in trying to survive, which will keep you on the edge of your seat. The events are laid out in a very action packed order. There’s never a dull moment. My favorite part in the book is in the beginning when Mark was struck by the satellite pole and impaled. Right away you could see how tense this novel could get. It was anxiety inducing when Mark was struggling to breath trying to crawl back to the Hab. 

Mark’s comedy also made the book an enjoyable read because the dialogue was never dry. Whenever things seemed tense, there was always a funny comment or phrase added that changes the mood from bad to good. Mark’s comedy can be described by the phrase “too early?” because he seems to have humor at the wrong time, which kind of makes it funnier. 

One thing I didn’t like was when the novel switched to NASA’s point of view where we could see how they were going to communicate with Mark. I preferred to keep the book in Mark’s point of view because it was more interesting and funny, but the book wouldn’t really mesh together as well if Weir didn’t include the parts about NASA. If Weir added a point of view from one of the astronauts on Mark’s team or a multi point of view of all the astronauts on Mark’s team it could’ve been as interesting as Mark’s.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction and anyone who just likes an action packed adventure.