Some people like to read the book version first, before watching the movie adaptation of said book. And sometimes I do that, but it just happens that in this case, I did not. I did not even know the book existed originally until either the movie was going to be coming out, or just after I saw the movie, I can’t remember which. But I was told that I should read the book. And I did, and I am glad I did!

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both of them very much. And the movie does largely stay true to the book, and both had the same sense of humor, the same intensity, and the same goals. But first let me back up and tell those of you who haven’t read nor seen the movie, what it is about. A group of astronauts are on Mars, on a mission, when a dust storm threatened their survival, and astronaut Mark Watney (Played by Matt Damon in the movie) is injured and vanishes into the storm. His fellow astronauts, thinking that he has died, quickly board their shuttle and successfully evacuates off the planet, leaving him behind. They soon rejoin their ship in orbit and turns around and starts heading home. It is some time before Earth realizes that he is still alive, and a scramble is made to try to figure out how to rescue him. Meanwhile Watney, realizes he has been abandoned, and believes he is stuck on Mars for the rest of his life, decided to declare himself the planet’s first Martian. And this movie/book is the story of what happens next!

Both the book and the movie did a great job of explaining the challenges that Watney had on Mars, and the projects and experiments he had to do, although the book of course, expands on that much more. But here’s where I think the book was more effective- you know movies are somewhat limited in terms of time allotment, right? So, with the book, you get more of a sense of how excruciating and slow things were moving- both on Mars and back on Earth. Meanwhile, because the movie had to condense everything down, you feel like things happened faster than they really did. But like I said, I really liked both a lot. If you haven’t read, or seen the movie, my advice is-do it!