This book was so... "ugh". It is in no way surprising that this is someone's first novel. I have read niche fanfiction written better than this book was. I can forgive bad writing if it is made up for by plot, characters, or literally anything else. However... there were no saving graces. 

*SOFT SPOILERS* 

Every character in this book was annoying and unbelievable as hell. The main character's only redeeming trait was his sarcasm and even that was forced feeling at many points. Considering we spend most of the book with him and only him, alone with himself... he just needed something more. Like maybe to have any thoughts other than just "oh no I'm dying *insert joke about death and/or explanation about how he might fix this issue*" or "yay I survived X! *insert joke about death and/or shitty TV/music left by his crewmates" The only time we got different thoughts was towards the end where he goes off on how he misses having sex even if he didn't get laid as much as he liked even when on Earth. Or the shitty ending where he exposits on knowing what all of humanity is like. 

The jokes aren't that good. I mean. They are terrible. One example of 150+ "WATNEY: Look A pair of boobs! (.Y.)" 

That leads to my next problem where Weir is completely inept when it comes to having women in his work. I had this problem with a short story I read of his (which I didn't know he was the author of when I read it). But it is super obvious in this book in any of the brief moments women are given space. Firstly are the completely immature jokes made by the main character when it comes to women and sex. But let's say the main character is just inept... well we can't. Because literally all of the women are written like some weird stereotype of what college tech guys think women might be like. Literally, every woman could be swapped out for a different one and you would never know and they are all written going "Ewww nerds" "what is LOTR" "ugh, men are so weird". Not that every woman at NASA is going to be a Nerd... but certainly not every woman working at NASA is going to hate nerds/nerdy things and not have any clue what Lord of the Rings is. It is just weird. 

But the final issue that just really helped nail the coffin down at a 1.5 star instead of a possible 2 is the ending. The whole book makes it super clear that everyone in the world, minus one stingy guy, is fighting for the main character to survive and get back to earth. Every. Single. One. Maybe I could go with this fantasy. But, reading this during a pandemic where more than a quarter of the American population won't even get a needle stuck in their arm once or twice to help themselves and EVERYONE ELSE around them... it is just completely tiring and uninspiring for every 20 pages to hit you over the head with the whole world giving a shit about one guy living. But again, I could give this the benefit of the doubt. But then the end. This is supposed to be adult fiction. The themes shouldn't need to hit you over the head. If there is a thesis, then the audience should be trusted to get it. But then the end literally spells it out to you as Mark has his first really reflective thought to tell us that billions cared and billions were spent and why? "They did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out." "This is so fundamentally human that it's found in every culture without exception." 

Um, sure Wier. Boob jokes in emoji are what I read books for, no woman at NASA has ever seen LOTR, and every single person in every single culture would help another out with no exception. *eye roll*