What happened? I picked this up first, because of the super awesome cover, which I want to just sit and stare at for hours on end, and second, because it's a man vs nature story, except instead of him relying on his ability to wrestle alligators or chase storms, it's about a lone astronaut stranded on Mars. 
 For the uninformed. Mars is a tough place to live. It looks like a shitty desert and has almost no atmosphere to speak of. I mean, it does have an atmosphere, but it's so thin that... well... it's just really thin. Like, you need a spacesuit there or you'd be dead in 60 seconds, give or take a bit. 
 Funny, this book is about 300 pages of info dump with about 40 or 50 pages of actual story. I loved it. Every. Damn. Word. In fact, I wish it had been longer. Because I was quite sad when I put this roller coaster down at the end. Yes, potato farming was never so riveting. Funny to me that I'm telling you to rush out and purchase a big technical manual about surviving on Mars, but I am. Deal with it. 
 I'll add that I can't speak much about its accuracy, aside from saying that if felt very plausible. Well, aside from the fact that a martian storm hits and does about as much damage as a hurricane would here on earth. Not so sure weather would do that on Mars, you know, with that almost non-existent atmosphere I mentioned earlier. I think a hundred mph wind would feel like a faint breeze on Mars. 
 And that's a pretty pivotal plot point there too. But aside from THAT, I don't think I have any real complaints. I know that's a big deal, but I'm willing to let this slide because the novel is so damned unputdownable. I tip my hat to Andy Weir, this is a real doozy of a novel. It reads super fast, and it really is almost impossible to put down. I will buy any SF book from him in the future sight unseen. Gimmie gimmie gimmie.