The Martian

A book that I really did not enjoy. For how exemplary it is in its portrayal of science, which is very well researched, grounded and believable, it is terrible in almost all other places. Watney’s character was insufferable, with the humour of a (immature) redditor that finds himself too funny. The problem solving was the most enjoyable aspect of it, except that the story never really integrated it well. The trope that would keep happening and happening and happening was something would go wrong, Watney would curse and exclaim how everything was doomed and that there was no solution and yet, finally, there would be an extremely risky and unorthodox solution that just worked! One could literally just summarise half the book as this, and for one that spans 400 pages, this is not a great assesment.

Perhaps the worst book I read in ages. Sorry Richard.