When I first started reading “The Martian” by Andy Weir, I was surprised when I really felt like I was reading Mark Watney’s journals. I was expecting a typical adventure novel with a basic plot and a similar hero overcoming a challenging character arc, but I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

The main character Mark Watney and his crew are sent on a regular mission to Mars. When the crew is hit by a major dust storm everyone makes it back to the ship except for Mark who was impaled by a satellite. Now he is trapped on mars with a scarce amount of resources. He must use his ironic combination of professions, including being a mechanical engineer and a botanist, and draw from his relentless, dogged refusal to quit to help him last 4 years on mars. He must find different ways to survive the harsh environment of Mars and somehow be efficient with the resources he has. 

 The book is written as an epistolary novel that lets the readers listen to the inner thoughts of the protagonist. This sense is perfect for the given plot.  The writing style of the book helps the reader truly understand and imagine the situation the main character is in. I don’t read that many books, but being a “space nerd” as my boss so lovingly puts it, I love anything space-related. So this book was a nice pick-up. 

One of the best parts of this book is Mark's sense of humor. You really get a sense of his personality through reading his logs in his journal. He reminds me of a Chandler from “Friends” or a Jim from “The Office” The unnecessary profanities, the sarcastic outlook on everything, as well as the direness of Mark’s situation, makes for a  humorous read. 

A possible issue with this novel is the fact that it does take some background knowledge to fully comprehend the vocabulary used in this book. Being a space book, it has a lot of challenging concepts to understand; they are, however, explained well. But still, unless you have at least somewhat of an interest in space, I would recommend a different book for you. 

Also, since there is only one character throughout the book, there isn’t much to draw from the plot. It's mainly just a journal telling you the struggles of a man stranded like a castaway-type story. This might be an issue to some, so If you want to find a book that you can really draw from and relate to the main character, again, this might not be the book for you. 

However, if you want to find a simple, funny story to read for fun, this is a good choice. Overall, this was a really good book. Again, its humor made the story entertaining even through the long descriptions having to do with chemistry and math. The character arc was good. As a self proclaimed space nerd, I personally think this book lived up to my expectations.