paperback
English language
Published Jan. 1, 2021
A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this incredible new science-based thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Martian.
A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined.
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, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an …
A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this incredible new science-based thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Martian.
A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined.
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, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery-and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could imagine it, 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
The book starts off a bit clunky, like the dialog is forced. But if you hold out, which isn't too hard because the story's interesting, you begin to love the characters. Like in The Martian, the whole book becomes a science-based problem to solve. So fun, and emotionally fulfilling by the end.
The hype over The Martian passed me by. If it hadn't, then I wouldn't have read this. Having read this, I shan't be reading any other Andy Weir books in the immediate future. There is the kernel of a good book in here, but it's ruined - for me - by firstly, excessive attention to detail. It's the textual equivalent of one of those less interesting Star Trek TNG episodes where the crew encounter a Problem which is eventually solved by the appliance of science. Sadly, the Enterprise crew were far more engaging than the underdeveloped protagonist here who is merely seems a frame on which to hang calculations. Secondly, Weir's problem solving is at his strongest when examining physical & engineering problems, but the biological nature of the Problem I found a bit silly. Thirdly and this is a problem that extends to a lot of science fiction, Weir's …
The hype over The Martian passed me by. If it hadn't, then I wouldn't have read this. Having read this, I shan't be reading any other Andy Weir books in the immediate future. There is the kernel of a good book in here, but it's ruined - for me - by firstly, excessive attention to detail. It's the textual equivalent of one of those less interesting Star Trek TNG episodes where the crew encounter a Problem which is eventually solved by the appliance of science. Sadly, the Enterprise crew were far more engaging than the underdeveloped protagonist here who is merely seems a frame on which to hang calculations. Secondly, Weir's problem solving is at his strongest when examining physical & engineering problems, but the biological nature of the Problem I found a bit silly. Thirdly and this is a problem that extends to a lot of science fiction, Weir's aliens are not particularly alien and the shared techbro sense of humour is risible. Not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate how other readers might find this very enjoyable.
Content warning stuff happens
I liked the author's dedication to making the science as real as possible, and the central theme is creative. However, as is common in books such as this, characterization & character growth come in second place.
The protagonist is a failed academic-turned-middle-school-teacher who is thrown into the center of the most amazing discovery in mankind's history. In true form, this unassuming teacher becomes central to the development of mankind's response to the bacteria eating the sun (and boy are they hungry}, eventually becoming second in command for the entire project...
which of course becomes a source of instant international collaboration and cooperation, with every nation big and small pitching in to do their part (because of course, what other response could there be?)
We are treated to a big spoiler along the way regarding the protagonist's development, but as he has already progressed to overcome that psychological hurdle, there is no tension, no real character growth. He's already been there, done that.
I'm not even going to go into the interspecies communication aspect, where two individuals as completely different as could be meet, learn to talk to each other in a couple of days, and by day 3 are trading jokes and yukking it up -- because of course, modern American humor is interstellar, right?
I would have loved this book as a teen. Now, not so much. It was fast-paced, and the material problems facing the protagonist were interesting puzzles. But otherwise, there are just too many tropes to make this a significantly interesting book.
This might be one of my favorite all time sci-fi books.
Eng: Pretty much a sequel to The Martian - and that's not a bad thing.
Nor: Eg likte veldig godt "The Martian" då eg las ho, det er noko med problemløysing og det å tilpasse seg det ein har, som er tilfredsstillande å lese. Det er truleg det same som eg likte med MacGyver. Denne boka handlar om ein annan kar i ein annan situasjon, men opplegget er det same: ein mann med litt nerdete humor og mykje vitskapleg kompetanse må kjempe om å overleves i verdsrommet. Men her går ein steget vidare inn i science fiction, noko som fungerer bra. Samtidig så følest det av og til litt intimt å lese bøker som dette, då hovudpersonen utan tvil er ei forlenging av Weir sjølv. Ein slags dagdraum.
I wasn't a huge fan of Artemis, but loved The Martian. Project Hail Mary is closer to The Martian in tone and theme. I very much enjoyed it.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Ray Porter, who also narrates the Bobiverse series. The two are similar enough (big space travel stories) that there was a certain comfort in hearing Porter's voice, but I also periodically felt some dissonance between the two stories. For example, I kept expecting the narrator to offer a solution to one of the science problems based on the tech available in the Bobiverse-- which is silly because they're not even written by the same author! Still, it was a good performance by a good narrator, and I enjoyed this book immensely.
My usual science fiction reads don't cleave quite as strongly to 'reality' as this one - which is part of the reason I found it so interesting.
The writer has created a set of scientifically plausible scenarios and then builds the narrative around whether or not they can be resolved - while throwing in a bunch of twists along the way.
I have a very scientific/technical background, but I think that there would be wider appeal; although the general scientific concepts in here are frequent (including physics, biology, astronomy etc) they don't extend to making it feel like a text book.
I enjoyed the characters and the plot. Thumbs up for a recommendation.
A fun, fast read that's a riddle from the first page. I really don't know what to write for reviews, but it's a good read and worth your time. It's not super deep, but the writer has done the hard work of world building.
This wasn't really my thing. The detailed descriptions of scientific processes were a little exhausting after a certain point, the main character is kind of annoying and the part of the plot that takes place on earth is.. Not great. However I loved the space romp side of it, and found the ending quite sweet 😄
