Proyecto Hail Mary

Andy Weir is back with a new sci-fi/near future story.

Ryland Grace wakes up with no recollection of where he is and why he's there. It turns out he's on a space ship with a mission to save earth.

I don't want to spoil the story, so it's hard to say much more about it, however, rest assured it has many of the same elements that The Martian has. If you enjoyed that one, you will definitely enjoy Project Hail Mary.

So why does this book get one star less? It's mostly because of the first third of the book. Although it's an interesting part, it does drag on a bit too long for me. It shows that Weir really enjoyed thinking through how that situation could be resolved if it really happened (Encountering an alien species and trying to communicate with it). For me, it took a bit too long.

However, after that setup, the story really gets going and I rushed through the pages, wondering how Grace would get out of the trouble he got into and if he could save the earth.

"I’ve decided “Taulight” is a word, by the way. Light from Tau Ceti. It’s not “sunlight.” Tau Ceti isn’t the sun. So…Taulight."

For a book made, presumably, for smart people, this book treats its readers as pretty thick. Every. Thing. Must. Be. Explained. You can't have a simple joke, good or not (mostly not) without an explanation tacked on. You can't just have some nitrogen canisters on the ship for unspecified science reasons, no, you game to have three pages of painful dialogue to provide some contrived justification for having them around. This is a book with fan lore baked in.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind the science explanations. That's what we're here for in a Weir book. That's why The Martian was such a great book. But what I'm not here for is the frankly poor, unbelievable descriptions of human interactions, that I honestly don't feel added much to the book beyond sheer heft.

It feels like, so far, Weir is a one trick pony. It's not that the book is bad, it's just that it's not very good, either, and just feels like more of the same. Two and a half 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 that we just go with it. I don’t want to criticize a book for what it isn’t, and what it isn’t is a rigorous exploration of the difficulties of first contact with a completely alien species would be like.

So what is the book? It’s a fairly hard sci-fi exploration of a frankly ridiculous premise where a lone dude has to solve a a series of technical problems with science! It has much the same sense of humor as The Martian and I think it did a great job of walking the reader through the science and technology (other than the numerous parts where Rocky just fixes a thing, which get very little exploration) and the story briefly touches on some big philosophical ideas without ever giving them the same study that it gives the technical ideas.

I was given a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

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.

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.

Definitely a worth while read. I'm glad he did not get back to Earth. It's better left to the reader what happened after saving Rocky.

Andy Weir seems to tell one type of story very well, and any criticism of The Martian involving the super-human skillset of the protagonist probably applies here as well, but it's definitely a return to fine form after Artemis, so I'm here for it.

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.

Extremely well written, well paced and exciting. Felt very similar to the Martian. If you liked that and disliked Artemis, you'll love this.

I did like Artemis though, and this like the Martian still felt like a basically big empty universe with very few people in it, whereas Artemis felt cool and alive.

I wasn’t a big fan of Artemis, but this one I loved. Just an all around intriguing idea and direction, and the time hop story telling was very well done in a way that you experienced it. Highly recommend