Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first man to die there.

It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he’s stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive–and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to get him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills–and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit–he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Originally self published in 2012, Andy Weir’s The Martian took the Amazon world by storm when it sold 35,000 copies in three months.  Not surprisingly it caught the interest of the big publishers, with Random House releasing the novel earlier this year.  A film option soon followed. And, going by the lavish praise afforded to the book on the interwebs, it’s likely to hit a number of best of lists at the end of the year.

I can absolutely see why.  Not only does it have real science, but it’s also a story about survival, about human ingenuity, about refusing to give up against all odds.  It’s uplifting, it’s positive, it’s thrilling and it’s an antidote to all that ‘message fic’ published by left wing New York publishers. And then there’s good old Mark Watney, our affable hero whose machismo and engineering skills and distrust of authority makes him the perfect example of Heinlein’s competent man.  It’s Mark Watney who gives us such classic observation as:

The lunatics at NASA have me doing all kinds of rape to the MAV…

or

If Commander Lewis were here, I’d do whatever she said, no problem. But a committee of faceless bureaucrats back on Earth? Sorry, I’m just having a tough time with it

or

NASA: By the way, the name of the probe we’re sending is “Iris”. Named after the Greek goddess who traveled the heavens with the speed of wind. She’s also the goddess of rainbows.                                                                                     WATNEY: Gay probe coming to save me. Got it.

What a top bloke!  And we get to spend a good chunk of the novel with him.

Interestingly Weir is unable to sustain the entire book through Watney’s diary entries.  About a quarter of the way through we’re introduced to the NASA officials and technicians trying to save Watney.  It has the effect of killing the tension because rather than experience Watney’s uncertainty – do NASA know I’m still alive?  Are they coming to help me? – the reader is spoon fed what’s going on.  It was a much more interesting novel – though not necessarily a good one – when we were restricted to Watney’s world view.

The Martian is not a terrible novel.  As a piece of storytelling, it’s definitely engaging.  You might think Mark Watney is a dicksplash and you might get bored with all the American exceptionalism or the fact that NASA seems populated by clichéd aspergery geeks who make constant references to Lord of The Rings and other geekery, but to Weir’s credit this is a book that you can zip through.  Ultimately though it’s forgettable fluff.  A nice idea let down by clichéd characters and inability to follow through with the central idea of the novel.