Though this book was definitely no literally masterpiece, it was a fun and easy read made for the big screen.
The relaxed writing style, in conjunction with the diary type format made Mark Watney very relatable, making the story feel more like a conversation with a friend rather than a novel documenting his survival experience. However, this was achieved at the cost of character depth which this book didn’t even come close to addressing. There was no more to the story than meets the eye; what you see is all there is. That being said, certain parts were very captivating because of the risk associated with Mark Watney’s survival, but it was quickly dissolved into the outer void.
I appreciated Weir’s effort for being very detailed with how Nasa functions and the type of equipment that was available on Mars, though I can’t speak for how scientifically accurate it was (or will be).
Overall, I was a little disappointed with this book because all I took away from it is what I would get from one episode of Man vs. Wild; which is still something at the end of the day. I expect the film adaptation to be pretty good, given that Matt Damon is playing the lead, and believe that this is one of those books where the film will be good enough not to read the book.