Overview
Ryland Grace wakes up on a small spacecraft, alone, with two dead crewmates and no memory of who he is. Working out where he is, how he got there, and what he is supposed to do. All while performing genuine chemistry, physics and biology experiments. Is roughly the first act. It is Weir's usual thing, done with real craft.
The second act is where the book earns its five stars. I will not spoil it. The friendship that forms in the middle third of the novel is the most affecting thing Weir has written and one of the most affecting friendships in modern SF. If somebody spoils this for you before you read it, they have taken something from you.
The prose is not literary. Weir's dialogue occasionally cracks jokes he shouldn't. The framing device is a little creaky. None of it matters. The book is a machine that has been engineered with as much care as its physics, and it does exactly what it sets out to do, and it does it flawlessly.
