My apologies to anyone who came across a different version in ebook format back in 2011, but I made the mistake of visiting a bookshop yesterday.

I went to get Pratchett and Baxter's third book in the Long Earth series, this one is called _The Long Mars_ - I'll report back once I've read it.

But I stumbled across _The Martian_ by Andy Weir (published by Del Rey in the US and the UK in 2014). RUN don't walk to your nearest book supplier to find this. It's brilliant. I've just finished it (in less than 24 hours) it was that gripping. It's not really SF as it could happen today (well, tomorrow maybe) but basically tells the story of one of the crew of a Mars mission left behind on the surface when the team is aborting their trip in some haste.

It's a terrific survival tale in the tradition of Robinson Crusoe (think Crusoe meets Gravity!) and is definitely the kind of book you want to start when your diary isn't too full.

It's not Traveller of course, but for the hard science types there's more hard science here than you could shake a stick at, for the adventure types there's a gripping story, for the Scouts and perhaps military PCs there's loads of survival hints and ideas for a Mars type world, and for referee's there's a host of stuff you can throw at players to make their lives difficult.

One of the cover blurbs says "The best book I've read in ages" - and I'd have to concur. Brilliant.

(And loving the serendipity of having had to go to a real bookshop to find out about this completely accidentally)