The Martian

Extract: I don't read much brand new SF, mostly because it's cost prohibitive and the wait lists at the library are extensive. I bought this book because it's the January read for my SF book club. And I think I've found this year's shoe-in for the Hugo award. "The Martian" is an exciting, hard SF take on the Robinson Crusoe tale. Mark Watney is left for dead on Mars after being skewered by an antenna during a powerful dust storm that forces the rest of his crew to abandon the mission. Alone on the hostile planet, he must use all his engineering ingenuity to survive until the next mission to Mars can rescue him...