THE AUTHOR

Andrew Taylor Weir (born June 16, 1972) is an American novelist and former computer programmer. His 2011 novel The Martian was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. He received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016 and his 2021 novel "Project Hail Mary" was a finalist for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Weir grew up reading classic science fiction such as the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. At the age of 15, he began working as a computer programmer for Sandia. After high school, Weir studied computer science at the University of California, San Diego, though he did not graduate. He worked as a programmer for several software companies, including AOL, Palm, MobileIron, and Blizzard, where he worked on the video game Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

He began writing science fiction in his twenties and published work on his personal website for years. He authored a humor web comic, "Casey and Andy", featuring fictionalized mad-scientist versions of himself and his friends (such as writer Jennifer Brozek) from 2001 to 2008. He also briefly worked on another comic, "Cheshire Crossing" (which bridged "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Mary Poppins") from 2006 to 2008. The attention that his comics gained him has been attributed as later helping launch his writing career. Following his failure to publish his first attempted novel, entitled "Theft of Pride", Weir's first work to gain significant attention was "The Egg", a 2009 short story that has been adapted into a number of YouTube videos, a one-act play, and is the overarching concept of "Everybody",the third album by American rapper Logic.

Weir wrote his first published novel, The Martian, to be as scientifically accurate as possible, doing extensive research into orbital mechanics, conditions on the planet Mars, the history of human spaceflight, and botany. Originally published as a free serial on his website, some readers requested he make it available on Amazon Kindle. First sold for 99 cents, the novel made it to the Kindle bestsellers list. Weir was then approached by a literary agent and sold the rights to Crown Publishing Group. The print version (slightly edited from the original) debuted at No. 12 on The New York Times bestseller list in 2014. The Wall Street Journal called it "the best pure sci-fi novel in years".It was adapted into a film starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain, which was released in 2015.

Source: Wikipedia