Along with reading technical books and books on investing I’ve decided for myself to read couple of Science Fiction books this year, actually 4 of them.

My list so far looks like this:

1. Martian
2. Ender’s Game
3. Dune
4. Hyperion Cartons

So far I’ve only read first of those, called “The Martian”, and I’m completely fascinated by the book. It is great! Houston, did you get that?

First of all book has nothing to do with “little green man” or unrealistic magic or anything sort of you usually see in crappy movies. This book is hard science survival novel talking about a man who was left alone on Mars after his team decided he is dead and had to rush to leave the planet.

I’ve been always interested in astronomy and the outer space. I even have small telescope at parents house and just recently used it to see Jupiter while having night barbecue there. Also when I was a kid I read few soviet era books on planets, including Mars.

So when I was reading the book it felt very well in line with scientific facts and hypothetical future Mars missions. And this is the best thing about this book. Other good thing, as per me, is that the book doesn’t have any side stories. So, no love stories or too long description of anything. Plus it has its humour and is written in a nice and easy to read way.

I would for sure recommend to read this book if you are any interested in similar stuff. At least it should be interesting for software developers and other technical people. My wife would probably not like it.

Hollywood is already filming a movie. See short teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRRgwYw4zds

Almost forgot to say, the book was available for free for a long time and it is how I found it by accident and downloaded for free. Not sure if I can still share it just like that.

From here: http://www.andyweirauthor.com/books/the-martian-hc/the-martian-el

Q) How did you feel when your original, self-published version of THE MARTIAN became a phenomenon online? Were you expecting the overwhelmingly positive reception the book received?
A) I had no idea it was going to do so well. The story had been available for free on my website for months and I assumed anyone who wanted to read it had already read it. A few readers had requested I post a Kindle version because it’s easier to download that way. So I went ahead and did it, setting the price to the minimum Amazon would allow. As it sold more and more copies I just watched in awe.

See the book on Amazon or buy it using my my referral link below.