A fundamentally great story! Our - American - Astronaut lags by a chain of unfortunate circumstances on Mars and directed it there as much as possible in left standing "Habitat" (90m2) an order to wait for the arrival of the next "Ares" -Raumschiffs - as in about four years. What is basically a little late, because his food is not enough for so long. So our astronaut begins, the botanist is to plant potatoes (on the whole 90m2) ... A orginelle, witty told, instructive story - "Thriller" would be wrong, because it is definitely not exciting thriller, but more an excursion over the survival, enriched with a lot of science and lecturers statements. And there's also the "sticking point" - it is very much teaches and explains how this and that works / runs / react .... In the beginning still interesting, but then so sprawling and complicated that you caught some of this is to skip entire pages. The second "flaw": Our hero is a real comic book hero: Unkaputtbar, unbeatable, indestructible - his favorite phrase seems to be "I think I can work this out" - and he does: For each check, for every problem he has a solution. He knows no depression - utterly alone on a hostile planet with no contact with the earth, without enough food could theoretically already trigger depression, delusions and / or suicidal thoughts - he knows no fear, despair, uncertainty. We learn nothing about him, except that he has parents in Chicago, but no wife / girlfriend, he actually is not tangible and mutated gradually to the American superheroes, never at a loss for a good joke, always one step ahead. Perhaps also explained by the huge success of the novel: The American Credo "Everyone can do it" is implemented here impressively. The first half of the novel is better - the second is then oversubscribed and unbelievable hollywoodesk that one occurrence, the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm have real ...
After all, there aboard the spaceship Ares 3 and a German named Vogel, of professional chemists. Of course, he drinks beer and eats in the morning even for breakfast like sausages. He speaks with an accent, has put his screen on "German" and answers like "yes" instead of "Yes" - but at least he can tinker from sugar a bomb and thus has a key role in the novel. Conclusion: Worth a read, well written, but to a lesser extent, because our hero is a superman, a McGyver, a walking "Hobbythek", to provide the scientific field trips are often a bit exhausting. Nevertheless, interesting, original and "something different". Certainly not the last thing I read about Andy Weir.
