I started reading this book at 10 one evening and, an instant later, it was 11 and I had to be a reasonable adult and turn off the lights. As I fell asleep, I kept thinking about what I had just read and decided then that I had to write about it. This might be the fastest a novel has ever hooked me in. I came in completely blind, knowing nothing about the story. Like many, I discovered Andy Weir by watching the movie “The Martian” with Matt Damon, an excellent movie that I highly recommend. I then read the book and unsurprisingly loved it. Therefore, I was expecting another story in the same vein, if only because of the cover art, depicting an astronaut in space. I’m VERY happy I didn’t look it up beforehand and I encourage you to do so.

Which is why I’m gonna keep the synopsis very short and avoid any details past the first few pages. The story starts with man waking up in a lab from a seemingly very long coma. He doesn’t know his name or where he is. As he stands up and tries to figure out what’s going on, he has intermittent flashes of the past and pieces of his life progressively come together. For example, he figures out he was a high school science teacher. Looking around, he sees that there are other people in this lab, but both of them are dead and have evidently been for a while. Exploring further, he finds out that the lab is actually on a ship in space and he sees the Sun through the window. Then, using his surprisingly advanced scientific knowledge and the instruments on board, he makes what is certainly the most shocking discovery yet : the star he can see floating in space is not the Sun.

From there, the story reveals itself slowly through his adventures on the ship and the flashbacks from his past on Earth. It’s a tale of perseverance, friendship, ingenuity and sense of duty. You get immediately attached to the main character. He straddles the line perfectly between “regular bloke stuck in space against his will” and “heroic man you’d want at your side in a life-or-death situation”. It’s wonderfully paced, a masterful weaving of two timelines to build an enticing narrative. As you can expect in a science-fiction novel taking place, partly, in another solar system, there is quite a bit of science involved. For someone with any decent scientific background, it’s actually a net positive. But even if you’re not all that interested or familiar with the particular branches of science at play here, you won’t feel overwhelmed. It’s all pretty accessible.

It’s one of the best novels I’ve read in a while. I highly recommend it and hope you will enjoy the ride as much as I did.