The Martian
Andy Weir, 2011
★ 4.42 from 1.4m ratings on Goodreads
An astronaut stranded on Mars must science his way out, one log entry and improvised fix at a time; a survival thriller with gallows humor. A brisk, logbook-driven survival story: dry jokes, stubborn problem-solving, and the cold, quiet scale of Mars keep the pages moving.
Feels like wonder, awe and melancholy. About nature, time and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy hard science puzzles, space survival, and a narrator who cracks jokes while fixing equipment. Be warned: the story leans heavily on technical explanations and repeated humor, and some readers find the emotional side thin.
Why read it
It offers a tense, practical escape: you watch someone think his way through one disaster after another, with humor that makes the isolation bearable.
A page from the book
The moment a suit breach becomes a race against your own escaping air.
Our main communications dish, which relayed signals from the Hab to Hermes, acted like a parachute, getting torn from its foundation and carried with the torrent. Along the way, it crashed through the reception antenna array. Then one of those long thin antennae slammed into me end-first. It tore through my suit like a bullet through butter, and I felt the worst pain of my life as it ripped open my side. I vaguely remember having the wind knocked out of me (pulled out of me, really) and my ears popping painfully as the pressure of my suit escaped. What readers say
Readers are split: many found it funny, exciting, and admired its science and problem-solving; others were frustrated by relentless technical detail, repetitive jokes, and thin emotional depth.
Andy Weir.Andy Weir, a software engineer, serialized The Martian free on his website before self-publishing it in 2011; readers' corrections helped him fix the science.
Books that feel like this
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Project Hail Mary
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A science teacher wakes on a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there and a solar system to save.
Artemis
Andy Weir, 2017
A broke porter in the moon’s only city takes a criminal job that might buy her a future—if the vacuum doesn’t collect first.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Martian for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy hard science puzzles, space survival, and a narrator who cracks jokes while fixing equipment. Be warned: the story leans heavily on technical explanations and repeated humor, and some readers find the emotional side thin.
- What is The Martian like?
- A brisk, logbook-driven survival story: dry jokes, stubborn problem-solving, and the cold, quiet scale of Mars keep the pages moving. Feels like wonder, awe and melancholy. About nature, time and memory.
- What should I read after The Martian?
- If you liked The Martian, try The Plains of Passage (Jean M. Auel), Dune (Frank Herbert) and Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood).
A taste of the feed
What to say to yourself when fear arrives and will not leave.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Dune · Frank Herbert
What every newcomer to the islands had to bring, or perish.
Therefore, men of Polynesia and Boston and China and Mount Fuji and the barrios of the Philippines, do not come to these islands empty-handed, or craven in spirit, or afraid to starve. There is no food here. In these islands there is no certainty. Bring your own food, your own gods, your own flowers and fruits and concepts. For if you come without resources to these islands you will perish... On these harsh terms the islands waited.
Hawaii · James Michener
What if understanding someone is the first step toward destroying them?
“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them... I destroy them. -” “You beat them.” For a moment she was not afraid of his understanding. “No, you don’t understand. I destroy them. I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don’t exist.”
Ender's Game · Orson Scott Card
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