lnklnx reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Not as excellent as Martian, but still excellent
4 stars
Enjoyable little space romp, well worth your time.
Paperback, 476 pages
English language
Published March 11, 2021 by Ballentine Books.
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, part …
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, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian–while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
Enjoyable little space romp, well worth your time.
I've never learned so much science in my entire life. Thank the stars that Grace was a 5th grade teacher.
I'm not crying, you're crying.
"A fórmula de El Marciano repítese de xeito demasiado evidente. Resulta entretido, e con coñecementos de ensino secundario podes desfrutar lembrando aquelas asignaturas de física e química. Parecese que entendes algo."
"O libro é fácil de ler, podes ler aos poucos sen problema de perder o fío da historia xa que non ten dobleces no argumento, nin significados ou reflexións que requiran un nivel de concentración elevado."
A really fun, fast read!
This was OK - not bad, but I expected it to be better. Part of the premise is that a scientist discovers a threat that will cause a climate disaster and destroy civilization as we know it. After that discovery, world governments come together, spare no expense, and allow some pretty severe actions to solve the problem. In light of recent world history, that seems unlikely to me.
Gave up. The amnesia/ suddenly remembering stuff as required really bugged me.
In taking a much larger scope than the Martian, repeating the same formula failed to entertain or engross me, instead the tricks and slick solutions to improbably back-tracked premises seemed to go a long way to nowhere.
A great read, especially for those interested in science and space travel.
This one is better than The Martian. The language is simple, but not offensive.
It's a very fun read.
As with The Martian, this book is over the top with the heroic solutions to unsolvable problems, but it was still fantastic.
Another enjoyable journey into Andy Weir's speculative science fiction. Perhaps even more implausible overall but still fun to consider details.
Couldn't put it down =)
Disappointing after all the hype. Kind of cartoonish, like a prepubescent male space fantasy (very very minor spoilers): “and then this GREAT BIG PROBLEM came from space, and these mysterious Secret World Government people came and kidnapped me to work on it, and I became SUPER IMPORTANT, and I got to go to SPACE to SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD and I'm the ONLY ONE who can do it, and I get to have ADVENTURES and SOLVE PROBLEMS with my knowledge of junior-high physics and then MORE REALLY COOL STUFF, and then uh-oh the whole mission is in DANGER, and did I mention that only I can save the WORLD?” All it’s missing is SPACE LASERS, PEW PEW PEW. There’s even sex, or at least acknowledgment of the existence thereof in a way that seems cringeworthy to anyone over the age of twelve.
The science itself was surprisingly sloppy. I won’t …
Disappointing after all the hype. Kind of cartoonish, like a prepubescent male space fantasy (very very minor spoilers): “and then this GREAT BIG PROBLEM came from space, and these mysterious Secret World Government people came and kidnapped me to work on it, and I became SUPER IMPORTANT, and I got to go to SPACE to SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD and I'm the ONLY ONE who can do it, and I get to have ADVENTURES and SOLVE PROBLEMS with my knowledge of junior-high physics and then MORE REALLY COOL STUFF, and then uh-oh the whole mission is in DANGER, and did I mention that only I can save the WORLD?” All it’s missing is SPACE LASERS, PEW PEW PEW. There’s even sex, or at least acknowledgment of the existence thereof in a way that seems cringeworthy to anyone over the age of twelve.
The science itself was surprisingly sloppy. I won’t go into details because therein be spoilers, but sheesh. I was expecting much better from the author of [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564.SY75.jpg|21825181]. Each of the many mistakes were elementary, and should have been caught in the earliest drafts.
That said, it was fun in a bubblegum sort of way: thrilling space adventures, and problem-solving, and Valuable Lessons on the Importance of Paying Attention In School Because You Never Know When You Might Have to Save the Planet. Worth reading, but be prepared for some serious suspension of disbelief—no, not the space stuff, I mean the part where all the countries and peoples on Earth unite to fight a grave threat. No deniers, no republicans claiming fake news. That was a little hard to swallow... but damn, what a sweet fantasy.
El libro ha estado muy bien es una historia muy interesante que creo que me ha aportado bastanate
I don't understand the hype. My main gripes with this book:
- The characters are one-dimensional
- The constant snark is off-putting, especially in the Audible version of this book.
- It was obvious that Grace should be the one to go. His refusal to go willingly was unbelievable. Sure, he did not want to die, but the prospect of a failed mission should have been just as dreadful.
- The mission was about studying Astrophage – why wasn't there an option to at least try to refuel? Astophage has a doubling time of 8 days, so there would be twice as much fuel available if they'd went a week later. It makes no sense to not make it into a round trip. It seems as if the writer created a forced plot point to make it a suicide mission to add some drama, to make it believable for Grace …
I don't understand the hype. My main gripes with this book:
- The characters are one-dimensional
- The constant snark is off-putting, especially in the Audible version of this book.
- It was obvious that Grace should be the one to go. His refusal to go willingly was unbelievable. Sure, he did not want to die, but the prospect of a failed mission should have been just as dreadful.
- The mission was about studying Astrophage – why wasn't there an option to at least try to refuel? Astophage has a doubling time of 8 days, so there would be twice as much fuel available if they'd went a week later. It makes no sense to not make it into a round trip. It seems as if the writer created a forced plot point to make it a suicide mission to add some drama, to make it believable for Grace to not want to go. Still failed to make that believable, which pretty much ruins the character. He only remembers his initial unwillingness late in the mission, whereas he previously considered himself to be such a good human being for doing the mission. Wow, conflict! A potential for internal struggle! But it's not being put to use. It doesn't seem to weigh into his decision not to return home (he apparently does not feel shame, because he thinks he will be regarded as a hero).
- I found the speed with which Grace and Rocky learned to communicate by simply pointing at things and recording 1:1 translations of words and taking it from there within a day to be insultingly unbelievable, right from the start up to the point where Rocky effortlessly incorporates sarcasm and irony.
- There were also many missed opportunities. Look, when you're on a mission trying to defend your solar system from an invasive alien species that is on the verge of wiping out humanity, and you encounter another alien life form that is intelligent, breathes ammonia, looks like a giant spider with amazing engineering prowess, superior mental abilities and capable of interstellar flight, and the spider wants you to point out the exact location of your home planet on a model of your part of the galaxy, maybe you should have second thoughts about this? That would be not only believable, but trust issues would create much-needed tension and drama. Grace and Rocky hit it off from the start, are always kind and understanding and just work out a bunch of engineering challenges until they accomplish their goals. That was just boring.
- Everything about language, history and the nature of intelligence was unscientific and ill-informed. It utilizes an anthropocentric, essentialist conceptualization of 'intelligence' that betrays a misunderstanding of intelligence and natural selection. The whole tangent about intelligence being a function of the amount of gravity was utterly nonsensical.
That's why I'm only awarding two stars. The story lacked drama, the characters were one-dimensional and lacked development, the writing was bad; but the one quality that could have been redeemable – the science – was bad itself, which also made the rest worse. It's just a bad book.