I think that after reading the martian I expected more than this book could give me. 

Despite that, I did really enjoy it. Especially once we got to about a third of the way through the book where the story takes a slightly different turn 

and we learn about the aliens. I especially liked how the aliens were described and how things such as language barriers and physiology are discussed and an issue in a realistic way.

 

The main things I didn't like revolve around the pacing and the first third of the book. I'm not a fan of dual timelines and while some of it added some needed twists and explanations, there were other sections which I felt were unnecessary and took away from the interesting bits that were happening at the current time. Some parts felt like repeats of other things and I believe that honestly had the book only been set in the current era it would have been a lot more interesting. 

Overall I'm glad I read it and it gave me a lot to think about but with how good the martian is I'm not exactly sure I would recommend this as a book to read if you liked that.