The Martian

Name: The Martian
Author: Andy Weir

Andy Weir · 2011

Astronaut Mark Watney is stranded on Mars after a dust storm cuts short his crew's mission and they leave him for dead. A botanist and engineer, he has a habitat built to last 31 days and four years until the next crew is due. Weir won the 2016 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

The case against

on Mark’s unflappability
“Mark’s unflappability, perhaps the book’s biggest asset, is also its greatest weakness”
Kevin Nance · USA Today, 2014
on the secondary characters
“stumbles with his secondary characters”
Nick Catucci · Entertainment Weekly, 2014
on the dialogue
“the modern dialogue at times undermines the futuristic setting”
Kirkus Reviews, 2013
on the technical jargon
“a lot of technical jargon and there was a lot of listing of procedure”
a book blog