Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A very enjoyable book. Normally I prefer reading a book to listening to it, but in this case the audio definitely had an added dimension, with the tones sounded whilst Rocky was speaking. The only quarrel I would have is that all the foreign accents sound the same, and Stratt definitely doesn't have a Dutch accent (nor a Dutch surname, come to that).
The plot is well-developed, with a number of unexpected twists (given that you know that things are definitely going to go wrong). Having a scientific background did mean that I saw some things coming a while before I think the author intended, but that wasn't really a problem, given that it gave me a nice smug feeling! The flashbacks by way of partial recovery of memories worked well and wasn't too artificial.
The characters were well-developed. Most of the time, Grace is the only human around, and …
A very enjoyable book. Normally I prefer reading a book to listening to it, but in this case the audio definitely had an added dimension, with the tones sounded whilst Rocky was speaking. The only quarrel I would have is that all the foreign accents sound the same, and Stratt definitely doesn't have a Dutch accent (nor a Dutch surname, come to that).
The plot is well-developed, with a number of unexpected twists (given that you know that things are definitely going to go wrong). Having a scientific background did mean that I saw some things coming a while before I think the author intended, but that wasn't really a problem, given that it gave me a nice smug feeling! The flashbacks by way of partial recovery of memories worked well and wasn't too artificial.
The characters were well-developed. Most of the time, Grace is the only human around, and he turns out pleasantly complex. Rocky is sometimes a little too human, but I guess that can be forgiven.
The science is mostly clearly presented and credible. I did notice one slip. It is true that methane decomposes in the atmosphere, so after a few years it is no longer a super-strong greenhouse gas, but it decomposes to CO2 (and water), so methane emissions still have a long-term effect. He presents nicely the way that science works n practice; long repetitive actions which can be very boring. I was reminded of my work cutting ten thousand Sphagnum plants to length when he described making the chains.
I am already looking forward to the film.
