Despite the intensity of the premise, this is a surprisingly fun book. After being left for dead on Mars by his crew, Mark Watney has to figure out how to survive using what they left behind. Fortunately, he is extremely resourceful. He's a brilliant engineer and a botanist. He's also rather upbeat and finds himself endlessly amusing, littering his daily logs with dorky dad jokes. Even though I was rolling my eyes and groaning at these, his optimism is what propels the narrative. 
 Some reviewers have said there's too much science, but I thought it was great. If you liked that scene in Apollo 13 where the scientists at NASA dumped a load of parts on the table to figure out how the crew could jury-rig a CO2 scrubber, you are going to like this book. Watney walks you through the calculations as he's presented with new problems. He must constantly balance resources and repurpose what he has available to the new demands of his situation. 
 If there's a weakness, I think it's the characterization. Even Watney didn't feel thoroughly developed to me, unless I interpret his humor as a defense mechanism. At least for me, the humor was too repetitive and a little too obvious. I was research scientist for about a decade and although my experience may not be representative, all those times he called his crewmates out for being nerds didn't ring true. They made me cringe. Is it a lack of self-awareness on the part of the character or the author? I just don't know. It doesn't take long for the "disco sucks" and Three's Company jokes to play out either. 
 But the science... oh, it's luscious. As a thought exercise, I loved this book.