What can I say about The Martian that hasn't been said? This is classic Campbellian science fiction updated for the 21st century, with a pop-culture referencing engineer stranded on Mars and having to "science the shit" out of his situation to survive. Weir has a fine eye for the technology that might be used to explore Mars, and the ways that it can be hacked for survival. Mark Watney, our hero is, is incredibly optimistic and knows his way around the equipment. His NASA bosses careful and clueless in turn. That said, the characters are a little flat, and so competent that while I was excited, there wasn't much tension. I think Weir didn't really get across how hard much of this would be: the backbreaking labor in a spacesuit under starvation rations, or the psychological pressures of being totally alone and totally observed. Real NASA astronauts acted out in all sorts of ways on the much less fraught moon voyages.

Finally, since this book is all about hard science and causal connections, a few things annoyed me. Weir devotes a lot of time to Watney's potato farm: where is Watney getting the grow lights, because I'm fairly sure that indoor farms need way more light than we need to see, and second, he's a botanist; wouldn't NASA include more seeds for him to do Martian farming tests on the mission? And third, Watney trawls through his fellow astronaut's entertainment systems; did he leave his music and TV on Earth? Little things, but they were missed opportunities.

I'm glad this book was the most recent scifi to go mainstream in a big way. It didn't do much new, but it presenting the genre in a charming and positive way.