What would you do if you went to Mars, the mission of a lifetime, and then you end up stranded there, because your collegues left without you? Well, it’s exactly what happened to astronaut Mark Watney. What exactly does that do to a man’s mind ? This book is a trip down that rabbithole.

The story is (almost) strictly a first persoon POV from Whatney’s perspective. It isn’t even a POV from inside his head, but rather a text version of his video-diary. An interesting format, but one that works really well for this kind of story.

Whatney is a foul-mouthed botanist with an I-don’t want-to-die-attitude (useful when stuck on a deserted planet) and witty sense of self-deprecating humor. It’s mostly this humor and the tense struggle for survival that carry this novel, but that’s ok, because it’s fun as hell.

I thoroughly enjoyed Mark’s potty mouth and the hard science he uses to try to stay alive (both are equally important to him surviving this thing).

The whole novel reads like a train and is over way to fast. Fun ride from start to finish and definitely one of my favorite books of 2016.