“Bring him home.” Andy Weir’s impressive literary debut, The Martian, is a sci-fi thriller that will leave you hastily turning its pages and begging the author to give the main character a break. The Martian revolves around Mark Watney, an astronaut/botanist sent on the Ares 3 mission to become one of the first people to set foot on Mars. However, complications arise when a dust storm forces his crew to prematurely abort the mission. Watney, left severely injured, was swept away by the storm. His crew, presuming him dead, leaves him stranded on Mars. With no way to communicate back to Earth or tell his crew that he is still alive, Watney is left completely alone on the red planet with only the supplies from the mission, his training and his stubbornness to keep himself alive in one of the most exciting survival books to come out in recent years.

The book follows the daily logs of Mark Watney as he records how he intends to keep himself alive on the dangerous red planet. It is clear that Weir conducted intensive research on Mars, as he precisely explains every little detail on how things can/cannot work on Mars and goes into great depth on the science behind it all. There are no questions left unanswered in this book, no deus ex machinas, and, especially, no mercy for the main character. Unlike other books that have their main characters survive by sheer coincidence and/or plot armor, everything that can possibly go wrong in this book, goes wrong. It’s Man vs. Nature, and Nature has the upper hand in this battle (extra points for being Mars). With so much effort and research put into the making of this book, the author does not shy away from having our protagonist brutally thrashed about by the forces of nature, consequences of human error and malfunctioning technology. All of these elements are beautifully woven together to create a fresh take on the survival genre. The reader is kept on the edge of his or her seat, wondering what will happen to Watney next as he tries to prolong whatever time he has.

Our protagonist, Mark Watney, stands as the entertaining highlight of The Martian. As the book revolves around his lonely existence on Mars, we will be spending a lot of time with him, and it is time spent well, indeed. Watney emerged as one of my favorite characters in literature as he uses his humor and attitude to cope with his situation. He is sarcastic, crass, witty, and most of all, he is human. He is not a perfect protagonist: several times he makes mistakes that end up putting him close to death. Watney is like that one friend who is always cracking self-deprecating jokes. His character may not be anything new in literature, but he was made likable enough that I was cheering for him the whole way through. His goal is simple: survive and find a way back home to Earth. With no ships to get off of or communication with Earth, most people would have probably given up and taken the easy way out. Not Watney. Despite the odds, Watney stubbornly endures through everything thrown in his direction to keep himself alive. He puts his personality in the book as he writes jokes and dark humor in his logs. He demonstrates his intelligence as he finds and experiments with new ways of keeping himself alive on a planet where plants do not grow and there is no water.

The book receives a 4.7 out of 5 stars from me. I finished it over the course of five days, burning through the pages each day until the book’s third act, which I finished all in one day. Each obstacle, each conflict, and each difficulty that Watney encounters will leave you wishing him mercy in this battle between man and nature.

The film adaptation of The Martian is also due to come out on Friday, October 3rd. The film is directed by Ridley Scott (Aliens, Prometheus) and stars Matt Damon as Mark Watney. I recommend that you do not watch any of the trailers for The Martian should you want to read the book, as the trailers spoil several plot points.