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.
Avertissement sur le contenu
Massive spoilers for the ending
I really slept on this book. The Martian is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books. This book lived up to its legacy in a way that Artemis didn't. It was really so funny and heartwarming. It laughed out loud so many time. I wept. I felt betrayed, right along with Grace as he remembered what happened. This book was really almost perfect.
My only gripes were these:
I didn't like Rocky. Not as a character. He was just too good at fixing stuff. It made it less real. That was the magic of the Martian. It felt like it could really happen. I am not complaining about the fact of the aliens. I just didn't love how he was able to solve all of their problems with magic alien fabrication abilities.
My other complaint was the ending. I didn't think I got the pay off at the end that I wanted. I was on board with it being a tragic end. Then when Rocky magically had a ton of extra astrophage I, reluctantly, got on board with Grace surviving. I didn't really want him to die anyway. I was excited to get back to earth and see how things played out. I was excited to see him either get to chew out Stratt, or for her to be dead and for him to have to come to terms with it. I wanted that closure if he wasn't going to have sacrificed himself for the mission. But I didn't get that. Instead we got this sort of lukewarm conclusion with him going to live with the aliens and thinking to himself that maybe one day he'll go back to earth. It just really let me down.
Overall, I still have to give it a 5 because the rest was just that good. The way it was structured with the flashbacks was just genius. When books do that I usually hate it. But this was perfect. It gave us such a good break from what was going on with Grace, in the same way that the NASA scenes did in The Martian. Yeah. Just so perfect, other than the ending.
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.
Der Roman ist wissenschaftlich interessant und erzählt eine spannende Geschichte der Menschheit, die uns leider, auf "etwas" andere Weise, auch in Wirklichkeit betrifft. Die Reaktion der Menschheit in dieser Geschichte sollten wir uns als Vorbild nehmen.
Der Roman ist wissenschaftlich interessant und erzählt eine spannende Geschichte der Menschheit, die uns leider, auf "etwas" andere Weise, auch in Wirklichkeit betrifft.
Die Reaktion der Menschheit in dieser Geschichte sollten wir uns als Vorbild nehmen.
Goodreads Review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
4 étoiles
In Project Hail Mary, the sun is going out. Huge bummer. We also don't know why, and it's happening to many stars in the local area of the galaxy. But we figure out why! And we also find one system where the star ISN'T going out even though it should. So we gotta throw together a ship and crew as quickly as possible to investigate, find a solution, and get it back to Earth in time to save the sun. Enter Ryland Grace, one of the crew members of this ship. He doesn't know any of that though, because he woke up on the space ship billions of miles from home without his memory. As his memory returns, he has to work to figure out who he is, what he's doing, and how to save his home. After a shocking discovery in this alien solar system, he has new exciting …
In Project Hail Mary, the sun is going out. Huge bummer. We also don't know why, and it's happening to many stars in the local area of the galaxy. But we figure out why! And we also find one system where the star ISN'T going out even though it should. So we gotta throw together a ship and crew as quickly as possible to investigate, find a solution, and get it back to Earth in time to save the sun. Enter Ryland Grace, one of the crew members of this ship. He doesn't know any of that though, because he woke up on the space ship billions of miles from home without his memory. As his memory returns, he has to work to figure out who he is, what he's doing, and how to save his home. After a shocking discovery in this alien solar system, he has new exciting opportunities to maybe make it back home too.
This was a lot of fun. Very much Andy Weir, down to the movie-like scenes and the quippy dialogue and the weird mix of isolation and hope you get from the story. I wasn't expecting this to be as hard sci-fi as it was, but I really enjoyed those parts of it. I'm not at all familiar with physics, chemistry, or biology, but I found its integration to be seamless and well-done. I found the story to be paced really well, jumping between the present, fixing things, solving problems, staying alive, running tests, and the past as memories return to our main character. We get to learn about the events leading up to this hail mary of a mission and Grace's involvement in it. I don't feel like this dragged at any point, and was a very quick read for being almost 500 pages.
There were aspects I think could have been improved upon. Personal taste, but I really don't enjoy heavy-handed quippy "marvel" dialogue, and that was pretty much every conversation in the entire book. I didn't find it funny or executed well. I'd rather have more authenticity, but I'd also rather have unique characters. Everyone important had the same personality, and everyone unimportant had some token personality quirk that never changed. I also found it hard to suspend my disbelief in some areas. Some things were just far too convenient or far too simple. I feel like, if you're going to commit to hard sci-fi book, then you need to limit the convenient coincidences that help your characters. But ultimately these things didn't detract much from my enjoyment. While it wasn't anything super groundbreaking, it was enjoyable.
If you loved The Martian, I think you'll like this a lot. Also I think if you like Blake Crouch, this would work for you, though it is a bit more lighthearted than something like Recursion or Dark Matter. Also if you like books that are paced like movies this will be perfect. If you like you science fiction to be deeply serious, like anything by Peter Watts or William Gibson, this isn't for you. It's also like.. the opposite of philosophical. Topical? So if you like commentary on the human condition, this doesn't have any of that. Just a lot of the human doing stuff. But I do guarantee you'll have a hard time putting it down!
I enjoyed this work quite a bit. The only criticism I have is that at some point in the novel you reach crisis fatigue. Yes, piloting a starship based on technology that's been developed in the past year or so is going to present some issues, but it sometimes feels like it's unrelenting.
I enjoyed this work quite a bit. The only criticism I have is that at some point in the novel you reach crisis fatigue. Yes, piloting a starship based on technology that's been developed in the past year or so is going to present some issues, but it sometimes feels like it's unrelenting.
This book instantly became one of my top 10 favorites.
The humor and the science is a big draw for me. Everything is so thuroughly explained to the point where you learn while you're sucked into the world and environment. The chemistry is the most interesting that I have ever read.
Right around the half-way mark I started to fall into the world more. I was sucked in and couldnt get out. Once I finished I just stared at the page hoping that once I blinked more pages would appear; I just wanted more even though the ending was quite succinct.
This is absolutely a great read, another banger by Andy Weir~!
This book instantly became one of my top 10 favorites.
The humor and the science is a big draw for me. Everything is so thuroughly explained to the point where you learn while you're sucked into the world and environment. The chemistry is the most interesting that I have ever read.
Right around the half-way mark I started to fall into the world more. I was sucked in and couldnt get out. Once I finished I just stared at the page hoping that once I blinked more pages would appear; I just wanted more even though the ending was quite succinct.
This is absolutely a great read, another banger by Andy Weir~!
I'm not a math nerd, but if I were, this would have been more like 4 stars. I am, however, other kinds of nerd and I found the non-math parts of the book to be absolutely bonkers, but not in the joyful way. Weir has given us a protagonist with zero backstory. And I don't mean his amnesia. He ends up remembering how he got on the ship, but apparently those few months were all there was to his life. There's no family, no friends, no flings, no hobbies, no likes or dislikes--and mind you, the book is almost 500 pages in length. When he does finally make a friend, he doesn't even notice that it's the first friend he's ever had. There's no emotional interiority to this guy at all. He's just there to solve puzzles. This is truly science fantasy, not science fiction. There's nothing believable about the …
I'm not a math nerd, but if I were, this would have been more like 4 stars.
I am, however, other kinds of nerd and I found the non-math parts of the book to be absolutely bonkers, but not in the joyful way. Weir has given us a protagonist with zero backstory. And I don't mean his amnesia. He ends up remembering how he got on the ship, but apparently those few months were all there was to his life. There's no family, no friends, no flings, no hobbies, no likes or dislikes--and mind you, the book is almost 500 pages in length. When he does finally make a friend, he doesn't even notice that it's the first friend he's ever had. There's no emotional interiority to this guy at all. He's just there to solve puzzles.
This is truly science fantasy, not science fiction. There's nothing believable about the majority of science in this, the character isn't believable, and yet I read to the end. Rocky truly saves this book from being impossible, but despite him, I can't recommend this one.
Project Hail Mary is a very science focused sci-fi novel, which resonates with the science geek in me. But despite having a lot of science, that never takes over from the real story. The scenario is interesting from a philosophical perspective, and the story is interesting and fun from the beginning to the end. This was the book of the year for me, and I can highly recommend it if you like sci-fi.
What a lovely read this was... I tend to read some pretty heavy sprawling-plot sci-fi, and came at this knowing virtually nothing about it other than having seen The Martian in the cinema. As such, I found the small, contained nature of the story (despite the huge consequences in the background) to be thoroughly refreshing. I was smiling throughout and constantly wanting to read on to find out what happened next. I was up 'til 1am last night because I got close to the end and just had to keep going. Excellent.
What a lovely read this was... I tend to read some pretty heavy sprawling-plot sci-fi, and came at this knowing virtually nothing about it other than having seen The Martian in the cinema. As such, I found the small, contained nature of the story (despite the huge consequences in the background) to be thoroughly refreshing. I was smiling throughout and constantly wanting to read on to find out what happened next. I was up 'til 1am last night because I got close to the end and just had to keep going. Excellent.
"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."
"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."
