It was directed by Ridley Scott and grossed $630 million worldwide, making it the 15th highest-grossing movie of 2015. The book was made into a feature film in 2015 starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain. The novel follows Watney on Mars, the crew members on their way back to Each, and the men and women at NASA who struggle to rescue him while dealing with public relations. Yes, there are assholes who just don’t care, but they’re massively outnumbered by the people who do. This is so fundamentally human that it’s found in every culture without exception. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search. With the provisions already available, he works to find a way to survive four years till the next mission. He’s left on Mars alone with very few resources. Read a summary of The Martian here.īefore NASA realizes he’s still alive, Watney uses his engineering and botany prowess to start growing potatoes and making water. Watney is caught up in the storm, injured, and presumed dead by his crew. After only six days on the planet (out of a month-long mission), a storm forces the crew to evacuate. The story follows the character of Mark Watney, an astronaut, and member of a mission to Mars that goes wrong. He also studied Mars itself, the history of space travel, botany, and all things needed to tell the story he ended up penning. Weir describes spending time researching orbital mechanics to understand the limits of space flight. The Martian was extensively researched so that it could be as accurate as possible. It was described by critics as one of the best science fiction novels of recent years. The print version appeared at #12 on The New York Times bestseller list. It was later picked up by a literary agent and sold to Crown Publishing Group. But, as its popularity grew, he made it available as a Kindle book for 99 cents. It first appeared on his website as a serialized, online novel. The Martian was Andy Weir’s first true novel.

Artemis andrew weir