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 …
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.
Content warning
Spoilers about the "unexpected ally"
I love sci-fi that's well-grounded in reality, and for the most part PHM is just that. I also love stories where the aliens are friendly. All too often first-contact media is about immediately assuming the worst of any foreign entities, so a story about two species working together against a common threat is refreshing. Grace and Rocky are great characters.
ZiFiari normalean bi gauza eskatzen dizkiot, entretenigarria izatea eta bestelako mundu ikuskerak ematea. Liburu honek lehena lortu du baina bigarren alderdian soluzinistegia iruditu zait.
Historia oso entretenigarria egiten da, umore momentu askorekin, eta laguntasun tram politarekin. ZiFi "gogorra" bezala kalifikatu bada ere, parte zientifiko7ingenieritzakoak oso modu erraz eta didaktikoan azalduta daude.
Dilema etiko eta moralak planteatzen baditu ere, hauek bereziki indibidualitatean kokatzen dira, eta eremu kolektiboa gutxi lantzen da. Robinsonismo gehiegi du, hau da dena soluzionatu dezaken gizon txuriaren ikuspegia, beti ere laguntasunean biko kolaborazioan egiten bada ere. Bide bakarraren linea estuak tramari interesa ematen dio, baina soluzionismoa indartuz.
Waking up, attached to strange medical equipment, he realises that he doesn’t know where he is, why he’s there, or who he even is.
The concept is fine, interesting even, but I do not enjoy Weir’s writing style. In fact, I’d forgotten just how much I dislike it in the decade since I read “The Martian”.
I find Weir tediously didactic, he over-explains everything, and so many plot points are so blatantly telegraphed, it makes a mockery of his supposedly intelligent characters. Speaking of which, I really don’t like Weir’s characters, particularly the protagonist.
Ryland Grace is a cardboard cut-out who cracks unfunny “jokes”, and tiresomely describes his every move. Grace’s character is just flat, despite him crying constantly (that’s how we know he is sad), or him being the coolest teacher ever.
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 …
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.
I think this will be the book I recommend the most this year. It is entertaining from beginning to end. If you like sci-fi or space stories, read it. If you don't, read it anyway because you will laugh. It is very rare that I tear through a book in the span of a day, but, and I apologise for the cliché, I could not put this book down.
I think this will be the book I recommend the most this year. It is entertaining from beginning to end. If you like sci-fi or space stories, read it. If you don't, read it anyway because you will laugh. It is very rare that I tear through a book in the span of a day, but, and I apologise for the cliché, I could not put this book down.
