There's little I can say that hasn't already been said. The plot is structure is masterful, the characters are complex and compelling, and the writing is excellent. There are very few things preventing this from being a 5 star read, I figured those are what I should expand on.

1. Andy Weir writes like the most annoying person you can imagine is his reader. The constant defensive explanations of how technically this science fiction concept is possible can be exhausting. It made me imagine someone was sitting next to me as I listened saying "um actually 🤓☝🏼" prompting Weir to go on a tangent once a chapter at least.

2. Ryland Grace is EXTREMELY repetitive when it comes to two things. First, every time he, certified PhD and genius knows a scientific fact he explains that he knows it because middle school science teachers know these things. This becomes annoying for a number of reasons. To begin with, we know he is a teacher, he doesn't have to remind us his job is science. Next, maybe this was a necessary explanation once, but he says it about 10+ times. Finally, multiple times I understand automatically why someone in academia with a PhD would know something, but actually most middle school science teachers probably don't know the random fact he is trying to justify. As a middle school teacher I was perplexed as to why sound "I'm a scientist" information was credited to "I teach 13-14 year-olds about the basics of science." The other frequently repeated explanation is about the imperial units of measurement vs metric. Almost every time we are given a length or temperature, Grace re-explains he is and American who also does science internationally and therefore he uses both. This gets annoying for the same reasons 1 & 2 as above -- only someone nitpicky would ask in the first place, and once you explain it once, you really don't have to keep explaining it and justifying it every time you feel that annoying person would ask.

3. The "writing shouldn't be political" discourse is so silly considering how often politics snuck in here. "Damn fine army"? Girl please.

Overall I loved this story.Without the above mentioned issue it would have been the perfect book.