The Martian

Pretty good book. Entertaining for sure. Much better writing than Ready Player One, not that it's amazing writing but it met the acceptability bar for sure.

I got bored twice during the book. The first time was near the beginning, when I thought the whole book was going to be his journal. Thank god for the narration switch to Earth and NASA HQ. The second time was similar, when Mark was finishing making his rover modifications before the journey to the Ares 4 MAV. I got sick of the detailed science stuff at that point.

I was expecting to get annoyed by the narrator after a while, but I never did. Great job making him wryly funny but not crossing the line.

I found myself daydreaming about space travel while reading. How amazing it would be to actually set foot on another planet. Not sheer terror to be abandoned there, but just excitement at exploration. I guess that's one sign the book succeeded.

Four stars because its all plot and science. Very little depth to the characters. Mark doesn't ever talk much about his loneliness even. It's just not that kind of novel. Still, there was so much imagination required to create this story, everything is meticulously realistic but futuristic at the same time, and that's how it really shines.