Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on
Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm
nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him
dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no
way to signal Earth that he?s alive ? and even if he could get word out, his
supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though,
he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving
environment or plain-old human error are much more likely to kill him first. But
Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his
engineering skills ? and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest
source of strength ? he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his
botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back
on Earth. As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next,
Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive ? but
Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet. Grounded in real, present-day
science from the first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly
ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly
remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel that manages to
read like a real-life survival tale.