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Thank you to the author and publisher for the copy via netgalley

Apollo 13 meets Castaway in this grippingly detailed, brilliantly ingenious man-vs-nature survival thriller-set on the surface of Mars.
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first man to die there.

Grippingly detailed? Yep. Brilliantly ingenious? Yep. This was me while reading this book.

HA! This guy’s hilarious. Wait WHAT HAPPENED? No. Oh its ok. Phew. Giggle, this guy really IS funny. LOOK OUT! Jeez. Sigh. Really? Nooo you can’t do that where’s my chocolate? Oh no worries its ok. Isnt it? Laugh. AARGH that can’t be good. And so on…

The further I got into it the more gripping it got. Literally gripping…often highly funny, always keeping you on your toes – and in Mark Watney the author has created one of the most humerous, brave, versatile characters I have seen in years. You WILL root for him with every fibre of your being. You will laugh with him, cry with him, feel the highs and the lows as he desperately struggles to survive in a highly dangerous and alien environment and yet you really have no idea whether or not he will live. There are no guarantees here and I for one was desperate DESPERATE for him to find some way home.

When one character dominates the majority of a novel (or a film, think “Castaway”, or the amazingly brilliant and tense “Buried” with Ryan Reynolds) then they have to be good, worth the effort, make the reader or the observer NEED to take that journey with them…or it won’t work. In that sense Andy Weir really is a genius writer – there was not one second, not one single second, even during the quieter moments when Mark is pondering his next challenge, that I was not 100% with him. All the way to the heart stopping conclusion.

This is a book with true highs and lows in the emotional response department. You will either be fist pumping the air or hyperventilating through a dangerous moment and inbetween all that you get some witty, ironic and truly wonderful life observations.

Absolutely and totally fantastic. Now I’m off to dance to some 70′s disco….

Happy Reading Folks!