Books - Review

Mark Watney is left stranded on Mars when the weather turns bad and his team's mission is aborted. However he is a fighter, has supplies for some time and if he can figure out how to grow more food while he is there he just might survive until the next mission arrives to rescue him. Fortunately he is a trained botanist and all-round DIY enthusiast, and he has a few potatoes that they were planning to cook for Thanksgiving.

This was pretty entertaining. I think they should make a movie, with, say, Matt Damon in the lead role. Oh.

Jolly good read, with plenty of (too much?) science. We learn how to make oxygen, sow, plant, and fertilize potatoes, send messages across space, and modify endless bits of kit to do different things. I especially liked the temporary windscreen on his final build - the spaceship that gets him up into Mars orbit. Sorry, slight spoiler there.

Ryland awakes on a spaceship hurtling towards another solar system. Two colleagues are long-dead, he has forgotten everything including his own name, and he doesn't know what his mission is. However he is resourceful and smart and his memories slowly come back. He has to save the world! Alien life-forms are disrupting the sun's light and only he can stop them, with a bit of help from a friendly alien he meets along the way.

Cracking sci-fi story!