Today, 6of8 and I went on a Baltimorean odyssey, picking up many many books at the Goodwill Outlet in Linthicum and the Book Thing. This was among them.

Registered in Rockville, Maryland, USA.

This is one of the many books released at the 2019 Gaithersburg Book Festival.

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Snagged off the Bookcrossing table at the Gaithersburg Book Festival.

After being told by many that I would enjoy this, and having liked the movie well enough, I finally broke down and read it. It is obviously science fiction, not my normal genre, but it is really about the human condition which is what I liked about it. Is the science accurate? No idea. Did I understand all of it? No. Did that affect my enjoyment of the story? Not really. I did get have a few moments of "oh, come on" in that SO many things went wrong and yet he managed to pull everything off in the end. Even within the already-unbelievable setting, I found some of that far-fetched. I enjoyed Mark as a character, however, and did cheer for him the whole way.

It also gave me a lot to think about. What would it be like to be totally, utterly alone on an entire planet? What do you do to keep from going barking mad? I suppose Mark had plenty to do related to his survival, but what about the days spent merely waiting? No human contact for so long would make you go a little sideways mentally, I would think. Interesting things to think about.

I see that this is noted as Martian #1, which leads me to believe there is a sequel at least conceptually. I'm not sure where the plot would go - if we follow Mark home and look at his reentry into society or if we return with him to Mars at a later date or what. I'd be interested to hear the plot, at least.

Left on the free book and magazine cart in the main waiting area by the gift shop.