The Martian is a nerd’s fantasy of actual, real, hard science imbedded in humor inside a good science fiction novel. Being a nerd, I felt the book was that good. I didn’t want to turn off my iphone – I just wanted to keep listening and find out what happened to Mark Watney and how he was finally going to get home.

For those of you who missed all the recent movie trailers, The Martian is the story of a mission to Mars. Six days into the mission, the group of astronauts is forced to evacuate their shelter. Through a tragic accident, one astronaut is left behind. Alone. On Mars. By himself. With extremely limited resources. That is a bad day. Think Robinson Crusoe, but without the food, air, nature, and our man Friday.

Fortunately, our author, Andy Weir, imbued our intrepid and resourceful astronaut, Mark Watney, with a rather pithy sense of humor. He keeps his (and our) spirits up as he narrates his daily logs. As he copes with numerous problems – everything from growing food, to making water, to developing methods of communications with Earth, to navigating around a giant dust storm – he explains the science in an enjoyable and slightly sarcastic way. Readers should be warned – this is deep science fiction, with a heavy emphasis on the technical and real science. But the humor and the human struggle make it fun. He even gets around to explaining international maritime law along the way – something that made the sailor in me smile.

On the other hand, the book definitely has a human touch to it as well. My favorite chapter was when Watney dictated letters to the astronauts that left him behind. These letters – with Watney obviously not knowing if he would live or die – show the close bonds that a small group of friends can develop when deployed together for an extensive period of time. Moments like this helped make the book flow. Its combination of technical accuracy and human struggle were spot on.

I did read the book in preparation for watching the recent Matt Damon movie. The movie was fun, but it definitely did not capture the full depth of the scientific rigor that Weir put into his writing. I much preferred the book. Score: 9.0.