Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
A science teacher wakes on a spaceship with no memory of why he is there, in the same author's later novel with a bigger mission.
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Books like The Martian
The Martian leaves an astronaut stranded alone on Mars, solving each problem with science and jokes. These seven books bring more survival, space and problem-solving, in fiction and fact.
Books to read next
Artemis
Andy Weir
A young smuggler in the Moon's only city gets pulled into a heist, in the same author's second novel, with a looser caper tone.
Seveneves
Neal Stephenson
Humanity races to build a lifeline in orbit as disaster closes in on Earth, in a very long and very technical epic.
Packing for Mars
Mary Roach
A funny nonfiction tour of what living in space does to the human body, full of real NASA oddities.
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
A shipwrecked sailor survives nearly thirty years on a deserted island, in the 1719 classic of the castaway story.
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
In a bleak future, a teenager hunts for a hidden prize inside a vast virtual world, in a pop-culture-packed romp.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
A man flung off Earth just before it is demolished tours the galaxy, in a comic classic where jokes outrank science.
How to choose
Choose by what you loved about The Martian. For more of the same voice and wit, read Project Hail Mary or Artemis, both by Andy Weir; Artemis is a looser heist on the Moon. If the science was the draw, Seveneves goes much deeper and is very long, while Packing for Mars is true, funny and easy to dip into. For the original stranded-alone story, try Robinson Crusoe, an older classic in slower prose. Ready Player One is the quick, playful pick, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the one to choose when you want laughs over accuracy. Weir's novels use strong language, so check before sharing them with younger readers.
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