Project Hail Mary: A Novel

According to a 2003 article on the NASA website, "NASA-funded scientists have recently learned that cloud-to-ground lightning frequently strikes the ground in two or more places ..." and that the third and fourth strokes of a lightning flash will follow the same path as the second stroke. In other words, lightning DOES strike the same place twice. But you don't need to search the web for this information. If you want proof that lightning strikes twice, just read Andy Weir's newest book, Project Hail Mary, and you'll see that Weir has created a giant sci-fi bestseller, in the same electric path as The Martian. Ryland Grace has a puzzle on his hands. He wakes up without a clue as to where he is, but he seems to be alone except for a computer AI that was keeping him alive. Unfortunately it didn't seem to be doing the same for two others in his ... wherever he is ... as he notes the decayed corpses in their creches on the ... well, it's a ship. A space ship. And bit by bit Grace puts the pieces of the puzzle together. An alien microbe has been discovered. Ryland Grace is brought on to the science team to learn more about the life form because Grace, currently a middle school science teacher, wrote papers about the notation that there does not need to be water to create life. Only in a biozone such as Earth's would water be needed, but other building blocks could be used in other systems. The science community as a whole mocked Grace, which is why he left and went on to teach kids, but now, he may be the best suited to understand this new life form. And as he remembers more and more, he also remembers that this life form is feeding on the energy output of the sun, which is decreasing the energy that gets to Earth, which spells disaster - as in the end of all life as currently known - on Earth if something isn't done. Scientists discover that Sol isn't the only star that is losing its energy output - likely due to the alien consumption, but that there is one star, in the center of all the known stars losing their energy, that remains constant with its output. In which case, the answer to the survival for Earth is likely found there, at Tau Ceti. The world's best scientific minds come together (by force and coercion) to create a ship that can get to Tau Ceti in twelve years (using the alien microbe as fuel) with shuttle pods to bring back answers to how to save the planet, but for the crew, it's a one-way trip. Knowing why he's there is only the first puzzle for Grace. Now he has to figure out how to save Earth. There's a very small window of time for him to discover the way to save the human race and get the answers sent back. Take too long and the shuttles will return to a dead planet. This book is amazing. Author Andy Weir brings us back to the magic that made The Martian so successful - an abandoned scientist trying to survive. But Ryland Grace's story is more complicated because he's not just trying to survive, but also help humanity survive. There's lots and lots of science - which is part of Weir's writing signature - and there's also a really wonderful story. It's hard for me to tell you just what I liked about this book because anything I write will be a spoiler and a huge part of the joy in this book is making the discoveries with Ryland Grace. Grace is our main character, but through the liberal use of flashbacks, we have a full cast of characters - at least one quite important to the story. Everyone is unique and individual which makes it easy to read, but just as with The Martian, where Mark Watney's personality carries the story, Ryland Grace here is the smart-mouth, sometimes funny, obsessed scientist infusing his personal tastes into his discoveries. He's also quite smart - which is good since he will need his intellect to save all of humanity. This is a page-turner. I did not want to put this book down. Neither did my 21 year old son who picked up my copy after I was well into it and finished it before I did. And days later he's still talking about how much he liked it and quoting sections of it to me at the dinner table. I hope Ballantine Books will do a very large print run because this is going to be huge seller and you definitely don't want to miss out on the biggest thing to come out in 2021. Looking for a good book? Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is proof that lightning strikes twice as this has all the excitement and energy of Weir's debut novel, with a more complicated storyline that will hold the reader all the way to the end.

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!

Project Hail Mary: This story really has a lot going for it -- a massive project to save the Earth, persevering through much adversity, a really interesting alien race unlike any I've seen before, and, most of all, lots of descriptions of scientific experimentation and how science works. Andy Weir has really thought things out, and brings up a number of issues that are not very obvious but would be important in the sorts of situations he imagines. I suppose that scientific experimentation might come across as boring to some people, but if you're interested in science, it's great. What you would expect from the author of The Martian. There's plenty in here that requires suspension of disbelief... There are some pretty far-fetched ideas (perhaps the most far-fetched is that the nations of the world would come together to meet the challenge of a dying sun!), but if you are willing to accept them the story hangs together well. I read this book four years ago when it first came out, and at that time I was disappointed. In anticipation of the upcoming movie, I decided to read it again, and this time I was not disappointed. I think maybe my expectations were too high last time because I thought all the science in The Martian was so well done, and I was disappointed that I noticed some errors in Project Hail Mary. On this reading I did notice a couple of things that I would consider errors, but they are minor and don't detract from the story.

Fascinating book. Another, what if? Thought provoking and intriguing from the get go. Weaving science with science fiction to deliver a page turner. The interaction between "Rocky" and Ryland blends humor, determination, compassion, and hard science. Loved this book.

This is an incredible book (coming from someone who is not an avid reader)! The humor, the story, the adventure and the resolution is so fulfilling. I am so glad I read this, and recommend to anyone who enjoys interesting storylines with great character development and characters in general, and to just keep reading to find out what happens next.

I loved this book. Lots of math and science at the outset, but fully engrossing and engaging. I barked with laughter in unexpected places. Ultimately, an unusual but lovely tale of friendship.

I consider The Martian my favorite fictional novel of the last 15-20 years. The movie was incredible in that they actually followed the book closer than 99% of other films based on books. It remains my favorite movie of the last 15 years or so as well. I don't know anyone (personally) that loves either of them as much as I do. With that said, I was REALLY looking forward to Artemis. It was good...but, it was certainly not in the same caliber as The Martian was (at least not for me). I enjoyed it a lot, however and appreciated how author Andy Weir chose to go in a completely different direction and not just rehash another similar story, which I am certain would have been great as well. As a result, I was cautious regarding Project Hail Mary. It sounded a little too close to The Martian, but yet, also different in that the circumstances simply could not be more opposite and the stakes so much higher. I'm trying to figure out the best way to summarize without giving too much away from this utterly compelling novel. As I read several reviews, I noticed a recurring theme: SCIENCE. Lots and LOTS of science. Holy cow, they were right. Many years ago I read Apollo 13 and Jim Lovell and his co-writer, try as they might, simply could not dumb down Orbital Mechanics anywhere near enough for me to have even a minor clue as to what they were attempting to say...I just skipped 90% of it and hoped that the sentences written afterwards, would help to make sense of what I had just skimmed over. I'm a lot of things, but a math wizard is definitely not one of them. Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park) had an amazing talent for dumbing-down the science of what he was trying to explain in ways that genuinely made sense (most of the time). Not everyone has this talent, and I would say Andy Weir falls squarely in between. He's certainly better than Jim Lovell, but not quite as good as Crichton. But then again, outside of a science textbook, I haven't really read anything with quite as MUCH science as Project Hail Mary. So maybe he's just as good, but he just puts more science into his books than Crichton, maybe that's it...? Either way, be prepared for a lot of astonishingly interesting science within the pages of this novel...and I DO mean a LOT. I don't say this to make you wary or steer you away...on the contrary, Andy Weir has a special talent for making hard science truly entertaining. The book opens with an absolutely amazing and frightening premise: an astronaut awakes from an induced coma to find the only other two people on board have died at some point along their journey...but it gets worse. He has no idea who he is, or why he's on the ship, and oh yeah, they look to be a long way from home. A really, REALLY long way from home. In fact, the sun he sees isn't actually OUR sun at all. He's managed to leave our solar system entirely. And he has no idea why. ((Minor Spoilers)) The book goes through some clever flash-backs, which set the stage for why the mission happens, and slowly, carefully explains how they managed to get so far away from earth in such a short amount of time. Basically, earth's sun seems to be dying. At the rate of decay, we have maybe 19 years left before the gradual cooling has catastrophic consequences resulting in the death of billions (best guess). Why the sun is dimming is quite the conundrum in the first place. Turns out it really isn't dying, it's being killed by an outside source...which turns out to be easily the greatest find in history. It's alien life, and they are using the sun for food, essentially. It's alien life, but not intelligent life. But still, wow! ALIENS, right??? After this monumental discovery, and some tremendous research done by the most improbable scientist, the investigation into what is happening and why and what to do about it expands exponentially to other nations in order to pool all the resources possible to hopefully save the sun, and by extension, the human race as well. They learn. A LOT. A plan is put together, and with the help of the newly discovered microscopic alien life, which can also double as a power source (along with a few other nifty surprises), they begin to create one last, Hail Mary that could very well be the last chance we might have to save earth. It's audacious. It's dangerous, and it is absolutely critical that it succeed. As our astronaut's memory slowly unravels, so does his identity: Ryland Grace. He's a teacher on earth. Just a science teacher. Not even a college professor. He's amazingly smart, though. But he's no astronaut...and certainly not one who would volunteer to go on a one-way mission to another solar system to "try" and save humanity. Yet here he is. Alone. light years from earth, trying to solve the biggest riddle in all of human history. Ryland accepts his situation, such as it is, with relative indifference (for the most part). It doesn't matter HOW he got here. He's here now and he may as well use that time to be as productive as possible, right? Along the way, he unravels even more information regarding the microscopic alien life which is slowly dimming our sun during some additional flashbacks. The aliens, dubbed, "Astrophage" are quite the galactic plague as it turns out. Stars all over the galaxy are also losing their light, all due to the little buggers. All that is, except one particular star named, Tau Ceti. Now why would that one star be unaffected by Astrophage, when every single star around it has been affected to some degree. The plan is to go there and figure it out and send the information back, hopefully in time to save the sun before the damage to earth is beyond repair. There is an incredible amount of stuff going on. The story switches from Tau Ceti to flashbacks of how the whole mission was planned and implemented (which is VERY entertaining, especially Director Stratt, who may actually be my favorite character in the entire novel). Weir is becoming quite adept at building tension, and abruptly switching the story from Tau Ceti back to earth and building more of the backstory then switching back to Tau Ceti. Keeping it all in check and most importantly, interesting all while mixing in a healthy dose of science, which I am to understand is pretty much all genuine, is quite the juggling act. I have long known science can be astronomically entertaining (see what I did there?) when done right...but unfortunately very few people in a position to teach science actually know the best way to create that interest in others. I can say without reservation, Andy Weir definitely knows how to do it...at least in written form. There is so much I want to say more regarding this truly phenomenal story, but I simply cannot without ruining a lot of the fun and surprises revealed along the way...and it is killing me to keep it locked in. Though I labeled a spoiler warning earlier, I don't think it gave away any more than what the author himself has revealed in interviews he has done regarding the book, and what you can glean from reading the summary here and just a couple other reviews. Tying all of that science together is truly astonishing to me. The creativity to put it into a novel that is remarkably exciting to read is nothing more than incredible talent. Kudo's to Andy Weir for not just hitting a home run, Project Hail Mary is a Grand Slam all the way. I truly did not want this story to end. By the way, I enjoyed the ending quite a bit. I don't know if everyone will. But it was fine for me. I think the ending screams "sequel" at some point too. A lot was left open-ended (IMO) and I wouldn't mind reading a follow-up to this. It doesn't HAVE to happen, but there are a lot of ways where the story could go if Andy chose to do it. Just sayin'. Just run out and buy this book.

• 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.