I started reading The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War, but I'm put off of it because right off the bat i'm very unimpressed. It's a book by Bernard Cornwell, the guy who wrote the Sharpe series of novels, and some others. Military fiction in the vein of Aubrey-Maturin, Horatio Hornblower, Flashman, and so on. None of which I've really read, actually. I read Master and Commander, Old Glory, and The Wild Ohio, all of which do or kind of fit in to that genre, but in general it's not stuff I read.
The premise of the book is that it's sit in the Penobscot Expedition. Britain invaded Maine and planned to turn it into a colony called New Ireland under the rule of Massachusetts loyalists. The Americans tried to excise them and it turned into the worst naval disaster of the war and the worst in American history until Pearl Harbor.
So far what I see is what I'd fear with someone like Cornwell: very plain writing by someone who just churns out formula fiction, one book after another. For the most part the characters all feel like they have the same personality, fervently patriotic (for whichever side they're on) with a lot of tally ho type of speech and eagerness. It hews very closely to historical events and it's like someone took a historical book and just fed dialogue into it. The Hornet's Nest by Jimmy Cart
I'm close to finishing The Martian, but I'll have to reread it again later when I'm not so busy and can absorb better. I wish it were a bit longer because I'd like to see more emotions from each character than just sarcasm and steely resolve. I can forgive that to some extent because Mark doesn't want to share anything embarassing in his logs, but as a professional he has no reason to be embarassed by his emotional state and whatever valuable psychological data his introspection could provide. I like Bruce Ng but everyone else on Earth is a little too quippy maybe? I don't like the Hermes crew for the same reason. The back-up plan in case they miss their resupply before heading back is just too dumb. The third-person description of Mark's arrival to the ascent vehicle was really sweet and I'd have liked a bit more of that kind of thing. I think it would be a good book for secondary school reading lists as practical applications of not just math and science but general problem-solving skills.
I also read Planetes and some Asimov last year so I'm just on a big hard-scifi kick now and taking recommendations.
ETA: I do like the pure man-vs-nature angle without much interpersonal conflict. The cooperation is such a nice change of pace from stories about humans fighting each other.
The author said he just wanted to tell shipwrecked/Robinson Crusoe type stories about engineers surviving off their wits. Author is a geek (hence the absolutely awful comedy in the book, ninjapirates lolsorandom) that just liked fantasizing about survival scenarios.
Consider reading Delta-v, novel about a private space race to be the first to mine an asteroid. It DOES have a lot of human vs human conflict, but it's the same kind of thing in terms of being a constant shitshow where people are trying to keep their rocket barely patched up enough to finish their mission before they all die of space cancer.
