Brief synopsis: When a mission to Mars goes wrong, Mark Watney's entire crew believes him dead and leaves him on the planet entirely alone. Injured and alone on a planet with only enough items meant for a month's stay, Watney must fight for his life on a merciless planet while NASA attempts to bring him home safely.




Before reading The Martian, I had heard a ton of hyper for the book and was really expecting it to not live up to the expectations set by those who had read it before me. But it did not disappoint.

The humor was laugh-out-loud funny at points, and though I knew Matt Damon plays Watney in the movie, I could really just imagine Ryan Reynolds with his sarcastic, dry-as-a-desert humor. The not-so-funny parts? Heart-wrenching, and I found myself crying throughout the pages, especially at the end.

I will say the writing is told mostly through journal entries from Watney, while there are also some flashback chapters and chapters based with NASA folks. Though the novel included a ton of math and word problems, I found the novel overall easy to read and extremely engaging. I did often re-read the physics and science/math-y pieces to try to really comprehend the material, but it was overwhelming at points (I really need to write things out and see my work to understand math, and science? Yikes!). I would recommend going in ready to either read through or try to comprehend those pieces, but other than that, the writing is incredibly solid.

I watched the movie shortly after reading the book and they did a fantastic job with it. I would say they're both equally great and would recommend either one.