Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first man to die there.

It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he’s stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive–and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to get him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills–and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit–he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

I purchased a copy of this book for my own reading.

Part of my 2025 Reading Challenge was to read a book recommended by a friend. This was one of the options, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased to see it come out of the randomiser. It also continues my move to read more sci-fi this year. For this book, I went with the unabridged audiobook narrated by Will Wheaton.

And what an inspired choice that was. The book itself is incredible. Presented in the form of end-of-day logs from astronaut Mark Watney, the novel charts the story of a man fighting to survive alone on Mars in the hope he might just be rescued.

The Martian is even better as a book than a film. While I loved the movie, there is something about the book that made it so much more impressive. I’m under no illusions that Will Wheaton certainly lifted the production with his cynical way and sarcastic tone. It’s a fantastic read that far outpaces the film, and based on its ending, I feel it certainly could have benefited from a sequel!

My rating: