The Martian, by Andy Weir, was never meant to be published. It started off as a story Weir posted on his website. When people loved it and said he should put it on amazon, that’s exactly what he did. What Weir didn’t know was how successful the book would be. The book starts out on Mars with Mark Watney, the main character, and introduces his crew and the people at NASA later on. The setting is Mars for the most part, but other times it is NASA or the spaceship Hermes. Since the main setting is Mars, it makes sense that the conflict is man vs. nature because Watney is always addressing problems the planet throws at him. These problems make being an astronaut on Mars very difficult and that brings on the theme of surviving, because being an astronaut stuck on Mars isn’t ever easy. All these components make Andy Weir is an outstanding writer, and his science-fiction elements and suspense built into the story are amazing. At a young age, Weir was influenced by science. Andy Weir’s mother was an engineer and his father was a physicist (Learn about Andy Weir). Because of his parents influence at the age of fifteen, Andy Weir was hired as a programmer at a national laboratory (Menu). Andy Weir had a little writing experience before he posted The Martian on his personal website. Prior to writing The Martian, he had posted a short story called “The Egg”, which is about a man who died of a car accident and met his maker. (Learn about Andy Weir). All in all Andy Weir’s story is