Just think of it, you’re an astronaut on a mission to Mars. You are a part of a team that will be the first to walk on the red planet; your footprints will be there for thousands of years after you leave. A few days after you land there is a violent dust storm that knocks you senseless and far away from your team. Then you wake up and you realize that you are still on Mars. Alone. Thought to be dead!
Mark Watney is a botanist with the ability to fix almost anything and now finds himself stranded on Mars with no way to contact Earth. Is he going to be the first human to die on Mars? The ways he could die are too numerous to count-machine failure, starvation, CO2 poisoning, ruthless weather, explosion, etc.-but Watney is a fighter. He uses his knowledge of engineering and botany to extend his lifespan and contact Earth. However, even if he could contact Earth, it would take four years to get a rescue mission to Mars. How is he going to survive four years alone on mars?
What Watney doesn’t realize is that thanks to the keen eye of an employee watching the satellite images, NASA knows that Watney is alive on Mars and are working on a plan to save him. But humans make mistakes. Will Watney or NASA make a mistake that will cost the life of an extremely resourceful and intelligent astronaut? Are they willing to risk the lives of others to save Watney? Is there a limit to the resources and money being spent to save one man’s life?
The Martian is breath-taking, action-packed, and downright terrifying at times. I am not one hundred percent on all the science, which at times was over my head, but seems real and amazing at times. Whatever you call Mars’s Mother Nature, she has some surprises for her only human inhabitant. This story showcases human ingenuity, resilience, and how the human race can pull together when it is genuinely needed.