I have discovered a new genre. Funny hard science fiction.The Martian, by Andy Weir, is the story of an astronaut engineer with a warped sense of humor who is accidentally (no, really!) abandoned on Mars when the rest of his team has to do an emergency exit back to Earth. LOTS of cool science as he tries to stay alive using his chemical and engineering knowhow to kludge together the things he needs to survive. His will to survive, on the other hand, is nearly mortally wounded when he discovers the only music left behind is the mission leader’s extensive collection of ’70s pop tunes.

THRILL to the importance of bacteria! MARVEL at using old Mars probes to send x-rated ASCII art! BOGGLE at the humble potato! (It becomes clear in the book, trust me).

And you can’t beat the price, currently a mere 99 cents!

UPDATE: link now works. Thanks Anachronda!