Project Hail Mary

A Novel

hardcover, 496 pages

English language

Published May 4, 2021 by Ballantine Books.

ISBN:
9780593135204
OCLC Number:
1149223512

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (54 reviews)

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, …

15 editions

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is my first review of a book and is a kind of reaction to the one star commentaries that I saw. For sure I have read The Martian a while back and I can see that this book is similar, but I think a lot of people enjoy it (like I did) because of those similarities. Sure, there are a lot of cliché characters but in the kind of hopefully vision of the future that is lacking right now. The stereotipe of scientists from Russia, China, America and other places that set aside differences to save the world is a much needed hope that if the world is at stake we will all come together. Sure, the book is not all fairies and rainbows, the hero is actually a coward sent against is will to save humanity and in the mean time there is almost a surety that there …

Entertaining and gripping

4 stars

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.

Problem - Solution

3 stars

Andy Weir writes pretty good one note hero stories that are heavy on the science and engineering and feel screen ready. This was enjoyable, but not particularly deep. Like The Martian, the protagonist suffers from a series of obstacles and overcomes them one at at time, with the application of dark humour and science and significantly less potatoes.

repite a fórmula do éxito

3 stars

"A fórmula de El Marciano repítese de xeito demasiado evidente. Resulta entretido, e con coñecementos de ensino secundario podes desfrutar lembrando aquelas asignaturas de física e química. Parecese que entendes algo."

"O libro é fácil de ler, podes ler aos poucos sen problema de perder o fío da historia xa que non ten dobleces no argumento, nin significados ou reflexións que requiran un nivel de concentración elevado."

blog.xmgz.eu/project-hail-mary/

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I got about roughly 30% of the way through the book when something significant happened in the story and I put it down because I wasn’t sure I wanted to read an Andy Weir version of first contact. I really enjoyed The Martian, and how it made technical challenges interesting narratively. This does much the same although with a lot more hand-waving certain parts of how the science actually works and extrapolating how to deal with it anyway.

But then there’s the stuff with the alien. Rocky is a cool dude. But also this book isn’t really ever interested in exploring how an alien culture might interact with humanity. We get some cool scenes of Grace and Rocky’s initial attempts and communication through deduction but once that hurdle is cleared there is hardly any exploration of what Rocky’s culture is like. It just happens to be close enough to human …

The Martian 2.0

5 stars

While there are some new developments in this one, it very much feels like another 'The Martian' with a slightly different story. The protagonist is almost the same exact character and a bunch of the other elements feel very similar. I'm still happy with this book, because the elements that are new, are wonderful.

The 'The Martian formula' made some plot points a bit predictable, but I think he did a very good job on this one. This may seem like I'm bashing the book, it's still a fantastic read. I hope he is not sticking too much to his formula in the future, because it was noticeable, though this was still an absolutely worthwhile story to jump into. Please don't stop writing.

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Easily the least-believable part of this book is that people would work together to solve a global crisis, no matter how grave. As we've seen with both climate change and pandemic, countries will fight among themselves to even acknowledge that the problem exists. Or maybe that's just the view in the United States....

Once you get past that, though, what a delightful read! So interesting to see such a "what if" scenario and how it could play out with the science. A little campy in parts, sure, but a great story line, plenty of twists, fascinating science, and heart-stopping adventure.

avatar for daNanner

rated it

4 stars
avatar for DerekCaelin@bookwyrm.social

rated it

5 stars
avatar for woubuc

rated it

5 stars
avatar for tiagodll

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Ebifa
Stu

rated it

5 stars
avatar for citoyen

rated it

5 stars
avatar for doug73

rated it

5 stars
avatar for rowin

rated it

5 stars
avatar for thadd

rated it

5 stars
avatar for hw

rated it

3 stars
avatar for tijs

rated it

5 stars
avatar for michaelrowe01

rated it

4 stars
avatar for mstine

rated it

5 stars
avatar for mibzman

rated it

5 stars
avatar for StephanWindmueller

rated it

5 stars
avatar for StephanWindmueller

rated it

5 stars
avatar for stinkingpig

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Kain

rated it

4 stars
avatar for todrobbins@bookwyrm.social

rated it

4 stars
avatar for drw
drw

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Zoranbee

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Johan_Barelds

rated it

4 stars
avatar for number5

rated it

5 stars
avatar for tyler

rated it

5 stars
avatar for cdamian

rated it

5 stars
avatar for MrDRR

rated it

5 stars
avatar for areneran

rated it

5 stars
avatar for PlatinumWarlock

rated it

5 stars
avatar for rgibert

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Patuleia

rated it

5 stars
avatar for IReadDots

rated it

5 stars
avatar for johnke

rated it

2 stars
avatar for Merkaba

rated it

4 stars
avatar for doclomieu@lectura.social

rated it

5 stars
avatar for cincodenada@bookwyrm.cincodenada.com
Ell

rated it

3 stars

Lists