American · b. 1972
Andy Weir is an American science fiction author and former software engineer whose hard-SF novels celebrate human ingenuity, scientific problem-solving, and survival against impossible odds.
Andy Weir self-published The Martian on his website in 2011 before it was picked up by a publisher and adapted into a blockbuster film. It made him one of the most successful debut novelists in science fiction history and established a template he has since refined: a technically detailed survival story with a wisecracking protagonist and an almost relentless focus on problem-solving over plot or character depth.
Project Hail Mary is widely considered his best work. An astronaut wakes alone on a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there, slowly recovers the mission context, and discovers he may be the only person capable of saving civilization. The puzzle-solving structure is brilliantly executed, the science (hard SF but accessible) is fascinating, and the central relationship that develops in the novel’s second half is more genuinely moving than anything Weir had previously achieved. It is a book that earns its emotional moments because it does not rush toward them.
The Martian made Weir famous, and it remains a tremendous read — funny, tense, and enormously satisfying in its procedural detail. The weakness common to both books, and to Weir’s work generally, is that characterization runs shallow: his protagonists are clever and likable but not particularly complex, and the worlds they inhabit are populated with characters who largely exist to be useful to the plot. For readers who want hard science presented with humor and momentum, Weir delivers better than almost anyone working in the genre today.
by Andy Weir
Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spacecraft millions of miles from Earth, with no memory of how he got there. As he pieces together the mission, he realises he may be humanity's last hope against a microscopic threat that is slowly extinguishing the Sun — and that he is not entirely alone.
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by Andy Weir
Astronaut Mark Watney is stranded alone on Mars after his crew evacuates, and must use science, engineering, and dark humour to survive until a rescue mission can reach him.
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by Andy Weir
Jazz Bashara is a porter and small-time smuggler in Artemis — humanity's first and only city on the Moon. When she's offered an opportunity to pull off a corporate heist that could solve her financial problems permanently, she discovers the job connects to a conspiracy that threatens the entire lunar colony.
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Authors like Andy Weir for fans of The Martian and Project Hail Mary — Blake Crouch, Ernest Cline, Neal Stephenson, Becky Chambers, and Adrian Tchaikovsky, with where to start.
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Project Hail Mary and The Martian are Andy Weir's two best science-fiction novels. Here's how they differ, what each does best, and which to read first.
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Where to start with Andy Weir — whether to begin with The Martian or Project Hail Mary. A complete reading guide to the science fiction novelist and his hard sci-fi thrillers.
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Andy Weir's Mark Watney — abandoned on Mars, keeping himself alive by growing potatoes in a habitat fertilized with astronaut waste — is the most cheerful castaway in fiction. These books share its relentless ingenuity, its celebration of science, and its faith that problems have solutions.
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The complete Andy Weir reading guide — The Martian, Project Hail Mary, and Artemis reviewed, with reading order recommendations for his three science fiction novels.
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From Dune to Project Hail Mary, Asimov to Le Guin — the greatest science fiction novels ever written. Ranked and reviewed by our editorial team, with reading paths for every type of reader.
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