After a dust storm and his crew is forced to leave Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead, and they leave him behind. How is he going to survive? How does he let Earth know that he is still alive? There are not enough supplies leftover to keep him alive until the next mission. He does not have enough food, water, or oxygen.
Watney doesn’t give up. He figures out how much oxygen he would need, how much food, and how much water he will need. Then he comes up with a plan. He is resourceful and does not give up. He is out working on planting potatoes and figuring out how to get the soil just right. Who else would think of how to fertilize the soil with what he has on hand. At one point he cuts some of his hair to start a chemical reaction to then start a fire.
I really enjoyed this book. Watney’s attitude was great. At one point he jokes he was the smartest botanist on Mars, so he didn’t need to listen to what NASA told him. (He is the only botanist, and human, on Mars.) Rather than waiting to hear back from NASA on how to fix something, he just goes ahead and fixes it while NASA continues debating.
It is uplifting how everybody on Earth just comes together to work on a common goal: to save another human being and bring Watney home.
This is Andy Weir’s first novel, and hopefully he writes more.
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