I read about Mars...I liked it

"The Martian 2014"
Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.

I ventured out of my comfort zone with my most recent read, The Martian, by Andy Weir. It's science fiction, which I haven't read since Junior High school and even then I wasn't a fan. You can guess by the title (and other clues) that it's about space travel. --Again, not something I ever saw myself being interested in.  But, I chose to give this book a try.

The biggest surprise about this book? I LOVED IT!

I knew when I started the book that it was being made into a movie, with Matt Damon. Before I read the book I thought, "that's a Matt Damon movie I don't plan to see." You know, Mars? I couldn't see the appeal.

I read the first chapter before choosing the book and was hooked. The book starts out with:

I'm pretty much @*!#ed. That's my considered opinion. @*!#ed.
Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it's turned into a nightmare.

Those are the first words of astronaut Mark Watney. Resist reading I could not. See what I did there? Yoda speak.

The story pulled me in. Weir deserves a lot of credit for writing a sciency, techie story that doesn't read like gibberish. I read it within the span of a single weekend.  As I immersed myself in Watney's world I was immersed on Mars. Let me just say, Watney is crazy smart. That's part of what was so engaging. With each of Watney's innovated solutions for survival, I felt myself getting an "AHA" moment. Thoughts of *hand slap to forehead* "of course that's what you should do!"

Let me also say that the book has hold your breath suspense. I totally believed every premise in the book.

PLOT TWIST: I'm totally going to see the movie.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.