Science Fiction · Books Like
Books Like The Martian
The Martian is one of the most beloved sci-fi novels of the 21st century because it's fundamentally a book about human ingenuity and stubbornness. These 15 novels share that optimistic, problem-solving DNA.
What makes The Martian work isn't the Mars setting — it's Mark Watney's voice, his refusal to accept defeat, and Andy Weir's meticulous joy in showing exactly how someone might solve an impossible problem using only the resources available. The science is real. The stakes are life and death. The tone is somehow funny.
That combination — rigorous, optimistic, character-driven survival fiction — is rarer than it should be. The books below find different versions of it: some in space, some underwater, some in the near future, some in the present day. All of them will make you root for human ingenuity the same way Watney does.
Same Author, Same Energy
01
Project Hail Mary
Instant Classic
Ryland Grace wakes alone on a spaceship with no memory. He has to figure out where he is, why he's there, and how to save Earth. Weir's best book — funnier and warmer than The Martian.
02
Artemis
Lunar Heist
Jazz Bashara lives on the moon and runs smuggling operations to pay off a debt. A caper novel set in the first human city on the moon, with the same technical detail as The Martian.
Problem-Solving Survival Fiction
03
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Cozy Crew
A tunneling ship and its found-family crew travel through space. Less survival, more community — but the same affection for human (and alien) ingenuity.
04
Children of Time
Epic Scale
Uplifted spiders develop civilization on a terraformed world while the last humans search for a new home. One of the most inventive hard sci-fi novels of the decade.
05
Seveneves
Earth-Level Stakes
The moon explodes and humanity has two years to preserve the species in orbit. Incredibly detailed, technically rigorous, and genuinely tense.
06
The Andromeda Evolution
Sequel That Stands Alone
A follow-up to Andromeda Strain about a new extraterrestrial threat. Reads like a modern techno-thriller with the same competence-porn energy as The Martian.
07
Wool
Underground Survival
Thousands of people live inside a silo underground after something made the outside world toxic. The mystery of why — and what's actually out there — drives everything.
Accessible & Witty Sci-Fi
08
Dark Matter
Quantum Thriller
A physicist is kidnapped and wakes in a life he doesn't recognize. Reads in a single sitting. Science-literate thriller with genuine emotional stakes.
09
Station Eleven
Post-Collapse Hope
A pandemic kills most of humanity; a traveling theater company performs Shakespeare for survivors. Literary, hopeful, and beautifully structured.
10
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Comic Genius
Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Arthur Dent escapes with an alien. The funniest science fiction novel ever written.
11
Red Rising
Space Opera with Brains
Darrow, a miner on Mars, goes undercover in the ruling class to destroy their society from within. Fast, smart, and impossible to put down.
Near-Future Realism
12
The Martian Chronicles
Classic
Bradbury's linked stories about the colonization of Mars are poetry compared to Weir's engineering, but both are deeply about what humans carry with them.
13
Recursion
Mind-Bending
A neuroscientist and a detective uncover a technology that can alter memories — and rewrite reality. Same page-turning energy as Dark Matter.
14
The Hunger Games
High Stakes Survival
Katniss volunteers for a televised fight-to-the-death. The survival mechanics and problem-solving are as compelling as anything in The Martian, just in a dystopian setting.
15
Ready Player One
Pop Culture Survival
In a virtual reality world, a young man hunts for an Easter egg left by its creator. Light, fast, and driven by the same 'figure it out' energy.
Common Questions
Many readers think so. Project Hail Mary has The Martian's technical problem-solving but adds a more emotional core and an extraordinary friendship at its center. Andy Weir has said it's his favorite of his own books. Start with The Martian, but know that Hail Mary may be the better novel.
Start with Dark Matter by Blake Crouch — it's closer to a thriller than traditional sci-fi and reads in one sitting. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is another bridge book: literary and character-focused with speculative elements. Both are accessible to readers who don't typically enjoy the genre.
Dune is very different in tone and scale — it's a complex political epic set in a desert planet. Both involve survival in a hostile environment, but Dune is dense and philosophical while The Martian is breezy and problem-focused. If you loved The Martian's tone, read Project Hail Mary before Dune.
Andy Weir's novels (The Martian, Project Hail Mary, Artemis) are among the most scientifically researched popular sci-fi. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson is extraordinarily rigorous. Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) is also famous for its scientific accuracy.