Ok, my “what I read over the summer” book review.

Maybe a bit of a change for the forum, but it is a novel about survival on Mars, a sort of “Cast Away” or “Robinson Caruso” on Mars (not the old movie of the same name).

The book is “The Martian” by Andy Weir. It will be released on film in November (no affiliation with book or movie). I finished reading the book this week.

The basic idea is that an expedition to Mars is caught short and has to blast off to save the expedition, except that one member, who they thought died, was alive and was left behind to survive until he could make contact to show he was alive, and survive until he could be rescued.

First, I completely enjoyed this book; it is what I call a good summer read, it kept moving and I really read it quickly and enjoyably until the finish. I like books when the protagonist is faced with a problem, thinks logically, and solves (or at least mitigates) the problem, and does not give up. This is the thrust of this book. None of the technology the hero is left with was designed to do what he did with it, but he adapted and made it work, not without many problems.

I liked the hero’s out of the box thinking and never give up attitude, a trait that I think is fundamental to any survival situation.

The “politics” involved in the decisions regarding potential rescue missions I thought were quite realistic, at least from my own experiences in the U.S. Government.

My only criticism is that I thought that some of the problems faced by the hero were presented as “fatal” only to be solved very quickly without too much of a problem, and his “actual” physical distress and suffering mitigated.

It is very much a “technical” science fiction novel, something not seen in a while to my knowledge. As near as I can tell, all or almost all of the Tech used to survive is possible.

If you choose to read it, I hope you enjoy it.