audio cd
Published July 13, 2021 by Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio.
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.
Re-reading this for a book club, this was fun. I'm curious how it will be adapted to a film.
I just stayed awaked for 3 hours until 2am, only because I wanted to keep reading the ending and the wonderful resolution.
Entertaining book from start to finish. I'm glad Andy went back to writing a story with a male protagonist, he simply can't write women and this book was charming and entertaining all the way through.
Content warning Contains minor spoilers
A story about a high school science teacher who gets sucked (willingly) into humanity's attempt to save itself from "astrophage", a microbe that has the capability of living on the surface of the sun because it lives on energy. The problem is that astrophage will dim the sun by 10% and that will kill everyone.
The story begins with Ryland Grace waking up on a space ship with no memories. The device allows Weir to go into the history of astrophage through flashbacks, and also allow some things to not be told to the reader because Grace doesn't remember them... yet. Anyway, Grace realizes he's at Tau Ceti because it's the only nearby star system that isn't infected with astrophage and he's there to figure out why.
Project Hail Mary has a very 80s feel to it. Very gee whiz exploring the universe is very cool. A lot of plausible sounding science, if you accept the premise that a microbe can absorb the sun's energy, store it, and then propel itself at nearly the speed of light through releasing that energy.
Most of the characters appear in flashbacks explaining how we got here, and those characters are fun caricatures. Unfortunately only one of them, Eva Stratt gets any real repeat scenes. She's the administrator who is put in charge of Project Hail Mary. A wondrously amoral character that can command the militaries of any of the world's powers, including detonating nukes in Antarctica and force-drafting scientists to the project who really don't want to be part of it.
The primary story happens on the Hail Mary in the Tau Ceti system with Grace alone trying to figure out what to do. The plot is a series of scenes of problems appearing, Grace thinking and sciencing his way through them, followed by a short respite or flashback before the next problem appears. Grace solves all of them, but this isn't competence porn. He's incredibly sloppy in a way that really does remind me of my high school science teachers.
This is clearly written to be a major motion picture or a streaming series, so I expect there will be ample opportunity to consume this story that way soon.
Audiobook? Utterly amazing. At first, I was very annoyed about the narration!!! However, I absolutely loved the book!! Ryland Grace was an amazingly developed character and the world building within this sci fi novel was amazing. I did not expect to find so much love for science in a book and expect to feel like I know about highly scientific knowledge along with the main character. I was hooked to the story. Absolutely amazing. Also, the world needs Strat. Fictional and Non Fictional world!!
Exciting sci-fi book with lovable characters. The story is full of tension and interesting technological or scientifical details. Weir's mix of humour and wholesomeness makes it a fun and engaging read. Highly recommended!
Lovable characters, great research into details as expected and tense plot.
Project Hail Mary was a really fun read. This book is a lot more ambitious than The Martian, but mostly well executed and I didn't trip over any questionable science. I didn't like how the main character ended up on the mission, but that can be forgiven. I'm a little disappointed in the politics. The world is ending, Grace is imagining people he loves dying, and we don't get their perspective at all. I get that that's completely beside the main story line but it feels like the story takes place in an uncomfortable social vacuum. And yeah, I have to mention Rocky's gender. Of course the scientist is excited about communicating about atoms and number systems more than social science. But defaulting to he/him for the little creature and never circling back is wrong. It would work as commentary about cishet guy scientists, but instead it only tells us …
Project Hail Mary was a really fun read. This book is a lot more ambitious than The Martian, but mostly well executed and I didn't trip over any questionable science. I didn't like how the main character ended up on the mission, but that can be forgiven. I'm a little disappointed in the politics. The world is ending, Grace is imagining people he loves dying, and we don't get their perspective at all. I get that that's completely beside the main story line but it feels like the story takes place in an uncomfortable social vacuum. And yeah, I have to mention Rocky's gender. Of course the scientist is excited about communicating about atoms and number systems more than social science. But defaulting to he/him for the little creature and never circling back is wrong. It would work as commentary about cishet guy scientists, but instead it only tells us something about the writer.
La he disfrutado a lo grande. Es pura épica -un héroe solitario embarcado en una misión imposible, un personaje plano y sin matices porque lo que importa es el viaje, el objetivo final. Las dos tramas que se superponen y complementan logran mantener el interés hasta el final y el ritmo es perfecto para enganchar al lector. Sí: no hay alardes de estilo, personajes elaborados ni estructura literariamente grandiosa. Ni falta que hace. Es pura scifi bien disfrutona y adictiva, plagadita de detalles científicos y absolutamente coherente generando su propio espacio ficticio. Si te gusta la scifi, hay que leerla.
Good story, very technical, great characters, exciting and a lot of fun episodes. Easy read. Do recommend!
I enjoyed “The Martian” and this is more of the same, which is a good thing. Ryland, the protagonist, is a golden retriever of a narrator: super ENTHUSIASTIC! which surprisingly, didn’t grate (too much). Because it’s science and problem-solving, and Weir does a good job of keeping it interesting without dumbing things down. Really fascinating stuff. The stakes are much higher this time too. Very enjoyable.
Andy Weir is the reincarnation of Jules Verne for the modern times, I have learned a lot of science from his books and it was fun.
Great Science Fiction book and a great story of friendship!
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This is going up there as one of my favorite books of all time. I have a terrible fear of spiders and I want to be best friends with Rocky. The character development, storytelling, humor, and plot - my jaw is still on the floor. This author is so incredibly talented.
The author is also qualified to nerd out properly, as they are a nerd themselves, and did thorough research to get the book to be as scientifically accurate at possible.
This book makes me want to buy more science books and learn more about Quantum Physics and how light works and makes me question the universe as a whole.
Probably won't be able to stop thinking about this book or talking about it until I have finished his other two books I have lined up on my e-reader.
Funny, entertaining and plausible science fiction. Rocky 💙
