2 Books Like The Martian by Andy Weir

From New York Times bestselling author Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game―adapted to film starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford―is the classic Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction novel of a young boy's recruitment into the midst of an interstellar war. In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut―young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training. Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister. Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Dennis Taylor's novel is probably the closest tonal match to The Martian on this entire list. Bob Johansson dies, gets his mind uploaded into a Von Neumann space probe, and is sent out to explore the galaxy and replicate himself. The humor is dry and constant, delivered through Bob's first-person narration as he deals with problems ranging from alien ecosystems to existential questions about what it means to be a copy of a copy. The science is real enough to satisfy hard sci-fi fans without becoming homework. Taylor uses the same trick Weir does: breaking big problems into smaller ones and letting the reader watch the protagonist work through each step. The multiple Bobs develop distinct personalities, which keeps things fresh as the scope expands. It is lighter than The Martian in terms of danger but heavier in terms of ideas, and it is exactly the kind of book you will want to recommend to everyone after finishing it.

[Alternate cover edition for ASIN: B01LWAESYQ] Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty. The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.