Shockingly boring with zero character development. I only finished it to confirm the ending we could all see coming: he gets saved.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in the science, although the premise of his being stranded is impossible. That had me raising my eyebrow, even though Weir acknowledged this as a necessary mistake to move the plot forward.

This is a fascinating subject and it is meticulously written. But I’m just not a big fan of history as a discipline and this was not written for the casual reader, so it is often bogged down with details and analysis that detracted from the larger narrative.