"The Martian" Andy Weir

I have duct tape. Ordinary duct tape, like you buy at a hardware store. Turns out even NASA can’t improve on duct tape. ... Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.

― Andy Weir, The Martian

I didn't know what to expect from this book, which is the way I like it, to step into the unknown instead of having been filled with hype and expectations.  Most of what I have read lately has either been heavy or depressing or disturbing, and I was hesitant to read a book about a guy stranded on Mars.  I feared the philosophical or the morbid.

As it turned out, this humorous story of "Macgyver of Mars" was perfect for cheering me up.  The story of the NASA astronaut, Mark Watney, stranded on Mars is story through log entries and observations by his colleagues on earth of his situation via satellite images.  Watney has quite the sense of humor, and that along with his combo-specialties of engineer and botanist help him survive for the long haul.  Of course, everyone wants to hear how duct tape saves the day for people in near vacuum, but it was the throwback to the space cowboy novels of the Golden Age of science fiction that made this such a fun journey for me.  I was reminded of "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" and other books of that genre and period.

Weir uses the epistolary narrative to great effect.  Watney tells us he is going off to do something, and then his next log entry will be something like, "Everything went great right up to the explosion."  On his website, Weir says that Watney''s smart ass comments were easy to write - he just wrote what he would say himself.

One draw to this action-packed book is that it is only science fiction because it tells of something we haven't done yet - landing people on Mars - but other than that is is real science.  I think this would make a great book for a science class based on a novel, and if He-who-caters-to-MEW were still teaching, it is exactly the sort of book he would use in a May Term course on chemistry and physics.  I'll have to buy him a hard copy sometime.

It is interesting that "The Martian" is self published.  Weir first made it available free on his website.  Then started selling it for not much at all as an e-book on Amazon.  Now, it is a bestseller and will become a movie in the fall.  Not bad for a science-geek-turned-computer-programmer.