[pierrebai]

I would not classify it as great, but somewhat below par. I made a list of things I did not like about the book, but it would spoil many things. Not spoiling bits:

    - All characters are two-dimensional. The further from the main protagonist, the more 2D.
    - Dialogues go from wooden to cringe-worthy, with few exceptions.
    - Protagonist swings from super over- cautious to careless and back.
    - Alien with deus-ex-machina syndrome, always having the perfect tech, material or skill to fill in the lacks of the protagonist.
    - Tired trope of amnesia to make the protagonist remember stuff progrssively for the reader.
    - Extreme over-usage of flash-back, linked to previous point, but oh boy! Half the book is flashback. Waaay over-used story-telling tech.

The science, outside of the magic fuel and magic alien material is mostly correct. That's the main strong point of the book.

[handrous]

Assessments of what gets a sci-fi or a fantasy book classed as "great" vary widely, it seems. I find recommendations by people I don't know well, for those genres especially, to be entirely useless. May as well throw a dart.

[542354234235]

But they didn’t just make a recommendation. They listed specific things about the book, and the writing style, as a reason for their recommendation. If you know yourself, can you not look at those points and weigh them against what you personally tend to like or dislike? Is there really nothing to be learned or nothing possibly useful?

[bestest]

My thoughts exactly. I'd even call it quite shallow. The only thing saving this book is science. I wouldn't say it's a disappointment. But it definitely is very "Martian".

[CabSauce]

All fair points. Still an absolute page-turner. Sort of a trashy romance sci-fi novel.