DariSmith reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary
5 stars
Very good. I was bored the first half TBH but really enjoyed the rest and in reflection, glad I persevered.
eBook, 510 pages
Swedish language
Published May 3, 2021 by Bookmark förlag.
Ryland Grace är ensam överlevande på det sista desperata uppdraget att försöka rädda jorden. Om han misslyckas innebär det slutet för mänskligheten.
Men det vet inte Ryland. Han vet varken vad han heter, vem han är eller var han befinner sig. Det enda Ryland vet är att han sovit länge, som i åratal, och att han just vaknat, miljontals mil hemifrån med endast två döda astronauter till sällskap.
UPPDRAG HAIL MARY ensam i rymden handlar, precis som The Martian, om en övergiven hjälte i rymden. Med samma underfundiga humor och nördiga jargong får läsaren följa hur Ryland, likt ett mysterium inuti mysteriet-pussel löser frågan om vem han är och hur han ska kunna rädda mänskligheten Och vem, eller kanske snarare vad, det är som kommit till hans undsättning.
Very good. I was bored the first half TBH but really enjoyed the rest and in reflection, glad I persevered.
Content warning Spoiler Figuren
Ich habe am Anfang wirklich keine Freude an dem Hörbuch gehabt. Ein weißer Mann, allein irgendwo im Weltraum – Das kennen wir ja alle schon und spricht mich überhaupt nicht an.
Auch beim Grundproblem der außerirdischen Bedrohung, die zwar etwas kreativer war, war ich noch nicht wirklich an Bord. Ich bin einfach ewig nicht mit dem Hauptcharakter Grace warm geworden.
Aber ich liebe Rocky! Er ist der Beste. Zugegeben, das Ende ist mir zwar fast etwas zu kitschig, aber dieses schmalzige Happy End gönne ich Rocky von Herzen.
Content warning Spoilers
This book is a good time. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was generally good, the exception being the choice to attempt accents for all characters in the book which led to some pretty problematic portrayals. This is sort of handwaved away by constantly reminding the reader that Ryland Grace is a "cool" white guy, including many quips where he accuses the no-no sense Stratt of various types of discrimination.
The most enjoyable part of this story is the science. This book is fun to read for the same reason that many childrens' fantasy stories are fun to read—all the scenes are, fundamentally, mysteries. It is genuinely satisfying to see a scientific problem being slowly described and come to the right conclusion just before Grace does in the story. That happens a lot, however, so if that small burst of satisfaction at "cracking the case" isn't for you, this book will be a long and dreary read. There are many, many scenes that, if plot were the only concerns, could be cut entirely from the book without losing anything of substance.
Regarding the plot, it's a fun concept connected by lots of assumptions. If you can buy that those assumptions make sense, the story will be entertaining to you, but I found many of these assumptions so outlandish it diminished the story. The entire world unanimously agrees to give Stratt, who has a degree in history, the ability to do whatever she wants and break any and all earth laws and control the most powerful militaries of the world? A public school science teacher with no formal astronaut training or history of government service is third in line to go on a mission that will doom or save all of humanity? Humans collectively agree to engage in widespread biosphere destruction on a scale never before witnessed by Earth and not a single state or terrorist group or other rogue actor is able to mount a competent defense?
Yeah. It takes a lot of handwavium to get through it. The single biggest detraction from the story in my opinion is the infantilization of Grace. He even jokes about it early on when he opts to say "fudge" instead of "fuck," but it gets downright annoying by the halfway point that this character is seemingly incapable of expressing true emotions about anything, including expanding his vocabulary to include words that are beyond what middle school children would use.
Aside from those issues I did enjoy the book. It is overwhelmingly optimistic with the "best case" ending, so if you're expecting any tear jerking you won't get it here. Character development is paper thin, but the plot is interesting enough to keep your attention.
After reading The Martian, I heard someone describe it as "that scene in Apollo 13 where they have to fit a square peg into a round hole or everyone dies? It's an entire book of that". At his best, Andy Weir can generate an engine that using this loop, and hanging everything else (plot, character development) around them. I felt let down by Artemis, it didn't have that same juice.
Project Hail Mary is a continuation of all the things that Weir does best. From the onset, discovering why he's in a windowless room with higher gravity than he should have, through the end, there are innumerable problems that he discovers, tests, and resolves. Similar to The Martian, a big chunk of Grace's excursion is written like a diary, which also fits this format well.
I'm still not sure Weir can write characters outside the narrow band of "slightly eccentric …
After reading The Martian, I heard someone describe it as "that scene in Apollo 13 where they have to fit a square peg into a round hole or everyone dies? It's an entire book of that". At his best, Andy Weir can generate an engine that using this loop, and hanging everything else (plot, character development) around them. I felt let down by Artemis, it didn't have that same juice.
Project Hail Mary is a continuation of all the things that Weir does best. From the onset, discovering why he's in a windowless room with higher gravity than he should have, through the end, there are innumerable problems that he discovers, tests, and resolves. Similar to The Martian, a big chunk of Grace's excursion is written like a diary, which also fits this format well.
I'm still not sure Weir can write characters outside the narrow band of "slightly eccentric male scientists with a Science Job to do", and most of the other characters in the book fall into that category. The flashbacks introduce characters back like Strat that feel one-dimensional and lab-grown (almost like astrophage). I generally liked how the book structured the flashbacks to help flesh out the narrative (and introduces another set of environments for characters to run through the problem/test/fix loop).
It's never fun to say an author should stay in their lane, but at this point I know what I want out of an Andy Weir book, and this one delivers.
Ich konnte gar nicht aufhören, weiter zu hören und habe jede freie Sekunde dafür genutzt. Alles, was man über die Geschichte sagen kann, verrät eigentlich schon zu viel. Wer SciFi mag, muss hier unbedingt reinlesen/-hören.
Der Roman ist wissenschaftlich interessant und erzählt eine spannende Geschichte der Menschheit, die uns leider, auf "etwas" andere Weise, auch in Wirklichkeit betrifft. Die Reaktion der Menschheit in dieser Geschichte sollten wir uns als Vorbild nehmen.
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.