Project Hail Mary

A Novel

hardcover, 496 pages

English language

Published May 4, 2021 by Ballantine Books.

ISBN:
978-0-593-13520-4
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
1149223512
ASIN:
B08FHBV4ZX
Goodreads:
54493401

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (498 reviews)

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, …

17 editions

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars


I started reading Project Hail Mary buying into its hype. I am happy to report that, unlike most hyped things, it did not fail to deliver. It gripped my attention to the very end, finishing on a satisfying note. So, yes, it's a "go read please" from my side if anyone is asking.

Character-wise, PHM (I am not writing Project Hail Mary repeatedly!) is a story revolving mainly around two characters: Dr. Ryland Grace, a researcher turned high school teacher, and Rocky—yes, you read it right, it's just "Rocky"! There are some minor characters here and there, but mostly it's a two-character story. But don't let that fool you, it's not boring in any sense.

The plot follows Dr. Grace at two points in his life in parallel. He wakes up inside PHM (a spaceship in deep space) without any memory of how he got there. As …

Engaging book that frustrated me immensely

3 stars

This book has an engaging plot that kept me hooked. It was fun watching the main character solve problems. It's always great to see some sci-fi that takes astronautics and space seriously rather than hand-waving it away with artificial gravity and FTL. Even if it is curiously done: there are no checklists in the spaceship, no packet of information on the crew in case of amnesia despite otherwise meticulous preparation.

It's a pity the author didn't put anywhere as much effort in the biology in the book as he did into the astronomy and physics. Rocky was fun but the astrobiology was kind of paper-thin. The panspermia implied doesn't line up with what we know about the development of life on Earth. Also: (view spoiler)

Also frustrating were the reactionary gender politics. Stratt, the leader of the project, will only accept heterosexual men as astronauts on the basis of reactionist …

reviewed Der Astronaut by Andy Weir

Ein Mann alleine Im All auf einer verzweifelten Mission

4 stars

Ich war anfangs etwas überrascht. Stilistisch hatte ich den Eindruck ungeschliffene Fanfiction vor mir zu haben. Es wirkte alles etwas sprachlich einfach. Ich weiß nicht wie ich es besser beschreiben soll, ich hoffe ihr versteht was ich meine. Im hinteren Teil des Buches wurde dieser Eindruck dann aber weniger.

Inhaltlich ist es eine recht lineare Geschichte die in zwei Zeitebenen erzählt wird. Die aktuellen Geschehnisse und Erinnerungen wie es dazu gekommen war. Zusammengefasst, ohne viel zu verraten: Ein Mann, ein Schiff, eine Mission und ganz viel Wissenschaft.

Irgendwie wächst einem der Protagonist ans Herz. Er schwankt zwar ständig zwischen Wissenschaft und impulsiven Handeln aber das ist ja nur menschlich. Und so fieberte ich am Ende richtig mit. Insbesondere bei der Wendung als ich schon das Gefühl hatte das Buch wäre gleich zum Schluss gekommen.

Ich weiß echt nicht was sich deutsche Verlage denken wenn sie die Titel festlegen. "Der Astronaut"? …

Goodreads Review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

4 stars

In Project Hail Mary, the sun is going out. Huge bummer. We also don't know why, and it's happening to many stars in the local area of the galaxy. But we figure out why! And we also find one system where the star ISN'T going out even though it should. So we gotta throw together a ship and crew as quickly as possible to investigate, find a solution, and get it back to Earth in time to save the sun. Enter Ryland Grace, one of the crew members of this ship. He doesn't know any of that though, because he woke up on the space ship billions of miles from home without his memory. As his memory returns, he has to work to figure out who he is, what he's doing, and how to save his home. After a shocking discovery in this alien solar system, he has new exciting …

Project Hail Mary

4 stars

After reading The Mote in God’s Eye, I realized that Garrit Franke, a fellow Fosstodon member, finished reading this book, so I decided to give it a try too.

I have to admit that at first I was a little bit hesitant about this book, because it is a written in first person, and it also starts out with ammnesia and also flashbacks. But after that I got used to the writing style pretty quickly and started to really get into the main story and the mystery behind everything happening around our protagonist.

The story follows a lone astronaut that finds himself facing impossible odds every step of the way. The way the plot is revealed and how it moves forward every chapter is great. The scientific elements are pretty accurate and that was something I found really interesting. It reminded me a lot of Jules Verne’s novels that usually …

Absolute Favorite

5 stars

This book instantly became one of my top 10 favorites.

The humor and the science is a big draw for me. Everything is so thuroughly explained to the point where you learn while you're sucked into the world and environment. The chemistry is the most interesting that I have ever read.

Right around the half-way mark I started to fall into the world more. I was sucked in and couldnt get out. Once I finished I just stared at the page hoping that once I blinked more pages would appear; I just wanted more even though the ending was quite succinct.

This is absolutely a great read, another banger by Andy Weir~!

Suspend your disbelief and like math, I guess.

2 stars

I'm not a math nerd, but if I were, this would have been more like 4 stars. I am, however, other kinds of nerd and I found the non-math parts of the book to be absolutely bonkers, but not in the joyful way. Weir has given us a protagonist with zero backstory. And I don't mean his amnesia. He ends up remembering how he got on the ship, but apparently those few months were all there was to his life. There's no family, no friends, no flings, no hobbies, no likes or dislikes--and mind you, the book is almost 500 pages in length. When he does finally make a friend, he doesn't even notice that it's the first friend he's ever had. There's no emotional interiority to this guy at all. He's just there to solve puzzles. This is truly science fantasy, not science fiction. There's nothing believable about the …

A delightful read

4 stars

This was a delightfully geeky book. The story plays in a near future or alternate present. In terms of science, it seems well thought out. The fictional part of the science is goofy and fun and makes for a great premise. As the story progresses, there is a number of plot twists and each chapter ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. The story is one of both desperation and hope. Still, the tone is light-hearted and even humourous at times.

The ending is a bit too Hollywoodsy for my taste and does not entirely match the premise. It feels a bit like the author is trying to please the audience too much,.

Bost izar

5 stars

Nobela hau irakurri aurretik pentsatzen dudana da: Berriro The Martian nobelaren bertsio bat irakurriko al dut? Ze aspergarria, ezta? Ba premisa antzekoa den arren (espazioan galdutako tipo batek aurrera egin behar du nola edo hala) The Martian bezainbeste gustatu zait, eta ez badidazu sinisten, zuk zeuk irakurri. Ez dizut nobela destripatuko, zertaz doan ez jakitea bere xarmaren parte delako. Gora Rocky.

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book was more of The Martian, if you didn't like that you won't like this. Still the same enjoyably nerdy sci-fi mixed with simplistic characters and humour.

I have to talk about the ending though. I love when I get the feeling an ending might reflect more of the authors own psyche than they may have intended. In this case, I think Andy Weir doesn't know he wrote a profoundly human tragedy.


SPOILERS BELOW


The ending has Grace living on an alien planet after apparently growing as a person by giving up his life to save someone, showing that he has learned the value of friendship and connection. Sure he is suffering physically from the high gravity and he only has a small barren dome to call home, but he is happy.

Sure, yes, on a superficial level that all seems to work.

But scratch a tiny bit deeper …

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