For the most part, I have to say that the hype is justified (for the novel, anyway; as I said, I haven't seen the movie). This is a really good book that reminds me of pre-blockbuster Michael Crichton, back when he was writing The Andromeda Strain.
A six-man crew of astronauts on the third manned mission to Mars is forced to evacuate due to a dangerous storm on the surface. As they are making their way to their ascent module, one man is struck by flying debris. Unable to find him in the dust storm and convinced that he could not have survived his suit being pierced, the commander gives the order to launch to save the lives of the rest of the crew.
Due to good luck as freakish as his accident, however, Mark Watney survives and returns to consciousness to find himself alone on the planet, with no way home or even to let anyone know he is still alive. The early chapters of the book, when Mark has to rely completely on his own ingenuity, are the most enjoyable of the book. Meanwhile, back on Earth, NASA officials first brainstorm a way to wangle the tragedy into funding for another mission; later, satellite pictures show activity on the Mars surface, and they turn their ingenuity to the near-impossible task of a rescue.
A couple of quibbles: first, the depiction of women in the book. There are two in the crew of the Hermes, and both are competent and capable; the women back on earth, however, fare more poorly. There are only two named women involved at NASA, one a young functionary, the other in public relations; all the scientists and department heads are men. Worse, the former, Mindy Park, is depicted as being insecure and envious of the latter, Annie Montrose: "She was everything Mindy wanted to be. Confident, high-ranking, beautiful, and universally respected within NASA."
I once read a book about the making of Star Trek that I got at a used book fair as a kid. It described a scene in which the Enterprise was under attack and the crew facing almost certain death, then asked what was wrong with the scene. The answer? The captain hugged Yeoman Rand comfortingly as the enemy missile approached. One of the bylaws of TOS was that female crew members should be treated no differently than male (could have handed down that rule to the costume designers who put them in mini skirts and thigh-high boots, but whatever): if Kirk wouldn't comfort Spock or Chekhov by cradling them protectively in his arms, he shouldn't do it to Rand or Uhuru. Would Weir have included an aside where Dr. Venkat Kapoor expresses a pang of envy because Bruce Ng is so handsome and buff? Then don't depict women as insecure creatures who obsess over physical appearance, either. (Ahem.)
Worse, confident, high-ranking, universally-respected Annie Montrose insists that they ask Mark Watney to pose for a picture with his faceplate open to distribute to the media and has to have it explained to her that if an astronaut opens his faceplate on the surface of Mars, he'll die. Does a woman really have to be the one to be so idiotic? Couldn't she report to her NASA coworkers that a reporter asked her for such a photo and she had to explain that it was impossible?
Second quibble: This book has a lot of cussing in it. A lot a lot of cussing. The first sentence is unprintable in a newspaper. This is a terrific story to inspire young people to take up a career in science, but it's not a book you can give a twelve-year-old to read. And there's no reason for it. The few times that sexual intercourse is obliquely referenced, it's "making love" or something similarly unobjectionable, but the other word is used for literally everything else in the narrative just to demonstrate how cool and edgy Mark Watney is. I can't help but feel that this is a huge missed opportunity for Weir, who is clearly an enthusiastic evangelist for science.
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