Project Hail Mary: A Novel

A wonderful book. Weir manages to weave together plenty of hard science with excellent story development. -- As a definite non-scientist, i could often not understanfld what Grace, the protagonist was doing, but i was thrilled with the results. The character uses science constantly to solve problems, and Weir makes it exciting. Despite the technical slant, Weir makes the story tense and heart-warming in turns, building a believable, fascinating world.Further, the author carefully balances the present (in space) with sections addressing Grace's past on Earth and how he ended up on a space ship. A very well-constructed book.

If you loved the Martian in either book or movie form, Project Hail Mary will likely delight you.The main character (who I'll leave nameless to avoid spoilers) is nearly identical to The Martian's lead, Mark Watney. They have similar personalities, the same fundamental mission of surviving in a hostile environment, and both use real-world biology, chemistry, and physics to solve their problems from start to finish. The book provides an early test for whether or not you'll enjoy it: on page five, when our protagonist is being quizzed by an annoyingly paternalistic computer that is demanding to know the square root of eight, our hero replies with the smart aleck answer: "two times e to the two-i-pi". If you find this interaction amusing, all good; if it's off-putting, turn back now.In fairness, Project Hail Mary shares The Martian's flaws as well. The protagonist's character is a bit better developed - but only slightly. The conflict is entirely man-vs-environment. And though the protagonist is often in situations that might cause one to ponder the essential truths of the human condition, he never does. His personality and behavior as a sarcastic problem-solving scientist / engineer are pitch-perfect but the book rarely goes any deeper. He has an established motivation and a flaw to be overcome - but these are really just superficial grace-notes (see what I did there?). This is not Crime and Punishment. Instead, it's a page-turning action-hero book - where instead of firing shots, the action hero saves the day by doing science really well. Books that celebrate real science are rare, so if that's what you came for, you're going to love what Project Hail Mary delivers.Although largely similar, there are four main ways in which Project Hail Mary differs on the Martian so I'll touch on those now:1. The stakes are higher - much higher! In The Martian, Mark Watney is already a bit of a super hero - he's an astronaut after all - and all he really needs to do is stay alive. In Project Hail Mary, our hero is much more of an every-man and his job is nothing less than to save the human race.2. The Martian is told in chronological order. In Project Hail Mary, our hero awakens with a serious case of amnesia and can't even remember his own name. He starts his adventures at essentially the most dull part of his recent life. As time passes he both tackles dramatic new challenges and remembers the wild adventures that brought him here. Andy Weir does a fantastic job of interweaving the past and the present and the result is a very effective narrative framework that lands on a "Wow!" moment at the end of nearly every chapter.3. Project Hail Mary is a buddy story. In The Martian, Mark Watney is alone in his battle against the elements of Mars for nearly the entire book. By contrast, Project Hail Mary, once it really gets going, is absolutely a tale of buddy-bonding. This surprised and, ultimately, delighted me. It helps give the protagonist a bit more of a human side. And the team problem-solving scenes are, again, pitch-perfect.4. Project Hail Mary puts the 'fiction' back in Science Fiction. In The Martian, leaving aside the opening wind storm and the closing chapter of wish-fulfillment heroics, we are essentially in a very tightly written NASA simulation. I found this incredibly enjoyable - but one could reasonably ask, where are the big ideas? Where are the bold 'what ifs'? The answer is, they're in Project Hail Mary! The science is still real and omni-present, but the fiction is big, bold, and awesome. If you're main draw for the Martian was the NASA lore and you wished Weir would write an even tighter sequel detailing the Apollo 13 events, you may be a bit disappointed - but everyone else is going to love this change of pace!So that's it in a nutshell: Project Hail Mary is a fantastic next book to read after The Martian. It's a clear spiritual successor but brings new ideas and structure to the game. Enjoy!

• A hard-science-fiction book, not for the impatient nor weak of curiosity. While the author goes to extraordinary lengths to explain the physics & science behind just about EVERY action taken by the protagonist (Dr. Ryland Grace), the explanations can get tedious, overbearing, and at times, pedantic. Indeed, the book does not really get going/interesting until about 33% through it. That’s an interminably long time for readers who want a quick space romp with some occasional science thrown in. This is not so much a character-driven story as it is a science-driven one. If you didn’t read his book-made-into-a-movie, “The Martian,” and you’re expecting a fast-paced plot like that in the movie, you’re going to be disappointed. Buckle in and ready yourself for myriad avenues of political and scientific machinations behind overcoming (hopefully) a human-extinction-level event.• As an engineer and physics lover, I liked parts of the beginning of the book where it may have bored many other readers. However, after a while, I, too, grew tired of the endless explanations. I kept searching for the plotline, hoping Andy Weir would pick it up again and run with it after some initial world-building is complete. Alas, that did not happen. But if you can stick it out for the first third of the book, I promise you, it will suddenly improve around the 34%-35% mark.• At 482 pages, it’s a thicker-than-normal book, and that’s primarily because of the intense (and extended) world-building that goes on throughout the book. Science nerds might love it, or they might hate it because they already know all the science behind the story. Those less scientifically educated might be enthralled to learn about the real principles behind rocketry and space travel, or they might be completely bored by all the explanations and slow plot (at least for the first third of the book). I think if this book ever gets turned into a movie (can’t see that happening), a great deal of the book would HAVE to be cut out to fit it into a two-hour window and not bore the heck out of the audience.• In the latter 20% of the story, the plot once again slows down. In particular, the explanations of the various experiments Dr. Grace is performing onboard with different microorganisms once again strain the brain and slow the plot. Some of it was downright confusing (with too similar wording used for the different “breeder farms” he has set up) so I had to go back and re-read what Weir had written to fully understand it. However, the ending was a nice surprise, satisfying and sweet. As a fellow sci-fi writer & lover, I was wondering about the possible direction(s) the author would take w.r.t. Dr. Grace’s return to Earth. I was pleasantly surprised by his choices.• SPOILERS AHEAD!I very much enjoyed the real-life implications of relativistic interstellar travel, the red-shift phenomenon, and what it would ACTUALLY take to travel thirteen light years to a distant star, this one being Tau Ceti. I learned a lot about that star, and Weir sparked my curiosity about that star system, enough to force a new browser tab in my Wikipedia collection! Most of all, I loved the character of “Rocky”, the alien that Grace meets. The humor and interpersonal skills involved in establishing First Contact were done exceptionally well (particularly, Grace’s Excel spreadsheet solution for a language translator—very clever!). I openly laughed many times at their frustrations and miscues from colliding cultures (e.g., the “fist bump”), social idioms, and language barriers. Weir’s handling of their very diverse living conditions was especially intriguing in trying to see how (if at all!) they could co-exist in the same space. The author leans a little too heavily on “xenonite”, a fictitious material that seems to solve (nearly) all problems. But hey, this is a sci-fi novel, so that’s allowed! I also enjoyed his portrayal of mission control commandant Stratt. I cheered on her no-holds-barred approach to telling the rest of the namby-pamby infighting humans to STFU and get on board. Her persona is probably EXACTLY what we would need if humans were faced with an extinction-causing event of this magnitude.• In summary, while you don’t have to understand all the physics/science behind what Dr. Grace and Stratt & Company do, I think you’ll lose one-third to one-half of the “nerd thrill” buried within the plot. Weir does a good job explaining it in layman’s terms but at the expense of the plot’s pace. Be patient; he finally gets there, and it’s a fun ride.

I never read sci-fi, so I didn’t know if I would be able to get into this book, but this was a fabulous story!. Endless twist and turns and heartwarming-so great!, I would recommend to anyone. It was incredibly well written and that pulls you in and makes you absolutely love the characters. Definitely worth the read and one of my favs after reading thousands of books.