The Martian

Having already seen the film and knowing that I'm a sucker for survival stories, I knew even before reading this book that I would love it.

And, of course, I wasn't disappointed by my expectations. This is evident in the fact that, even though I already knew the story from the film, I couldn't help but remain glued to the book.

But what I didn't expect was the incredible balance between scientific/technical descriptions, adventure and (for the reader, not the protagonist) pure fun.

This book takes the hard science fiction philosophy really seriously, as everything is tried to be explained with a scientific eye. Most of the time, you don't feel like what's happening is unreasonable or unrealistic. And when you do, it's not due to the science explanation, but rather the feeling of "how many times can this man survive ?".

The only real flaws I can find are:

- a luck of the exploration of the emotions and background of the protagonist, most if the times when something emotional comes up, there's a joke to cover it.

- the quite visible patter of Problem -> Solution -> Complication -> Resolution that is incredible in making this book so addictive, but at the same time it can be a little repetitive.

One takeaway from this book is that I'm glad I abandoned my childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.