Headlines:
Rookie astronaut
Dystopia background
A rainbow of emotions

Just wow. I feel like Project Hail Mary has spoilt me for other books in 2021 and it's only April. So much could be said about the plot but everything would potentially be spoilery, so this review will be more about the reading experience than context. All I can say about context is that Earth was in peril, the protagonist Ryland Grace was an unusual 'saviour' and that the story was complex but so wonderfully deep and follow-able. I highlighted a lot but again, no quotes shared here so as not to spoil.

I am science-geeky, I like my sci-fi reads to be well grounded in science and good research. This book had all that and more. For me, this book might just top The Martian or at least tie, in terms of that kind of goodness. What we got in this book was a deep sophistication of writing alongside the most amazing plot.

I didn't expect the story direction but I delighted in it. I adored Rocky and that Rookie-Rocky connection so damn much. I loved the linguistics, the materials, the experiments, the in-space context as well as the earth context. The past and present narrative was excellently executed and not overused. It had a real purpose in this story and when answers from the past came, they really were worth the wait.

There were so many banter-y moments of dialogue/monologue, sarcasm, laugh out loud moments that made this signature Weir. However, there were bucket-loads of tension and surprisingly, I found myself in tears twice, once in sadness and another time in pure joy.

I cannot imagine this not being at the top ten of 2021 reads, it's definitely a contender and totally unforgettable. Please, please can we have a film too? I imagine this is going to be epic on audio and so I'll be planning in a re-read that way.

Thank you DelReyUK for the early review copy, you made my year!

If you loved “The Martian” you will also love “Project Hail Mary”. Here is even more science talk than in Weir’s first book. But it still makes for an entertaining and gripping read.

Ryland Grace is a science high school teacher. He could be a clone of Mark Watney, the protagonist of “The Martian”. They are really very alike. When Grace awakes from an induced coma he has no memory who he is or where he is. But he still knows everything about science. So he soon figures out that he is in a space ship and his two co-astronauts did not survive the trip. While he figures out why he is in a space ship he begins to remember. First his name and with time everything else. The first alien lifeform humans came across is a kind of microbe that steals energy from the sun. Even a slightly reduced sun means huge problems for the climate on earth. So a project is launched to get to a “nearby” star which seems not to be affected by the microbe and they shall find out why.

I enjoyed this book. Of course it has some things some reader may not enjoy. The story is mostly Grace telling us what is happening and explaining the science. This gets sometimes a bit much and I must admit that skipped a bit of the science talk. There is also constantly the possibility of a catastrophe which is of course followed by a solution Grace is coming up with. At first it is very gripping but over time it gets a bit tiring as well. But still I enjoyed the whole story. A junior high school teacher saving not one but two worlds! I liked that. And I loved Rocky. You have to find out who Rocky is yourself. I bet you will love him, too.

I don’t read much Science Fiction. But I’ve read all three books from Andy Weir. And I will continue to read them because they are entertaining. I love his writing style, his imagination and his trademark humor. I highly recommend this book, especially because of Rocky.

What a fantastic book.

The synopsis describes the plot very well and so that only leaves me to say that, if you like Science in your Fiction and like it even more when it is Science Fiction, this is most certainly a book for you. I read a lot of books each year and Project Hail Mary is one of the best books that I have read in quite some time.

I was aprehensive at first, the writing style was awkward but it improves as Rylands mental state improves. Sci-Fi is not suppose to make me cry, and I definitely didnt expect Andy Weir to be able to make me cry. Rocky is obviously the best character. Stratt can go die in fiery pit.
Thoughts while reading:
he doesnt rememeber anything at all, yet he has strong opinions on colloquisism right from the start?
Weirs writing seems to be regressing with every book he writes, what started as a non-chalant, more natural style has progressed into cringy and juvenile, once you take away the science jargon from the work, whats left reads like it was writed by a 13yr old for a creative writing assignment, which is such a shame because the ideas of this book are brilliant
Around the 70 pages mark the writing improves a lot and stops sounding like it was written by a child, maybe Weir wrote the beginning like that on purpose to reflect Rylands confused state of mind, but it honestly made me seriously consider dnfing the book (glad I didn't)
Just because hes a teacher doesnt mean he wouldnt swear
He calls the astrophages an invasive species, when theres no indication at that point that they are, he and everyone else has no idea where they came from, if they evolved on the sun or venus or any other planet in the solar system they wouldnt be invasive, the solar system would be their native habitat
Weir has clearly done a lot of research for this book but it seems he skipped over some very basic biology
Astrophages are single-celled so they cant be warm bloodied, you could describe them as Homeothermic, but no single-celled organism is able to do thermoregulation, obviously this is an alien so maybe it could but it still wouldn't be described as warm-blooded
“People always assumed our first contact with alien life would be little green men in UFOs. We never considered the idea of a simple, unintelligent species” - only hollywood thinks aliens are little green men. No scientist worth any merit does, numerous agenies including NASA have been searching for single celled life on mars for years
How the hell is he the only person in the entire world who thinking water isnt essential for life?? Astrobiologist have been saying our concept of life in regards to searching for alien life, is too narrow for years. From the BBC ScienceFocus: “some scientists suspect alien life may have evolved to exploit alternative chemicals like hydrocarbons capable of performing the same roles [as water].”
96.415*C “For anything living on earth it would be deadly” he has a doctorate in biology, yet is unaware of the existence of extremophiles? A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 41 and 122 °C - Thermophiles are found in various geothermally heated regions of the Earth, such as hot springs like those in Yellowstone National Park and deep sea hydrothermal vents. A 30 second google search shows hes wrong.
“Theres just no way it can infect humans. Besides its been a couple of days and im not dead.” Again hes a biologist yet has no understanding of incubation periods? Just because it hasnt been around humans before doesnt mean it cant infect/harm us, pathogens evolve constantly. Most of the pandemics and epidemics that happen are the result of diseases that previously were only seen in animals evolving to be able to infect humans - bird flu, swine flu anyone? The Stratt ends up having a better understanding of incubation periods than a man with a doctorate in microbiology
Very convenient that his amnesic brain is able to pick precise memories to recall just as theyre needed. Hes able to force himself to remember things, how?
It gets a LOT better around the 30% mark, Weir is taking a much deeper drive into speculative science fiction than he did in his previous two books
How can come rocky needs the clock pushed up to the wall to be able to hear the ticking but he can hear Roland move his finger in the air?
How is rocky able to determine that ryland breathes oxygen, yes he tested the atmosphere but that would have only been 21% oxygen so why would he assume that was the vital element, why doesnt he think humans breath nitrogen?
Who is stratt and why was she appointed the head of the project when she has no knowledge of even basic science and is extremely undiplomatic
“I dont like little dictators in their little kingdoms” does stratt understand irony?
On page 236 ryland complains about there being no way to clean his clothes and he has to soak them in water, but earlier it shown the robot/computer doing the laundry...
Why is the microbiologist teaching the physicist how space radiation works?
Just because the vast majority of scientists are men doesnt mean you should exclude all women and homosexual men as possible candidates its extremely sexist and homophobic. Stratt says its to stop sexual tension but theres no issue of that in current space missions so why does it matter now. But at least ryland calls her out on it but why include it in the book at all?

I thought this was fab! Andy Weir has very much gone back to the style of The Martian and that's not a bad thing because he's very good at it.

The main character might feel an awful lot like a Mark Watney clone and he might be alone in space with only science to save him but give it a chance because Project Hail Mary really does have a personality of it's own.

Now a whole book about someone doing science could easily become very dry, even with some big action, life threatening moments, but there is a sense of humour that really lifts the story and keeps it interesting and fun. There are also some very human moments that keep it relatable and these things together make it into a proper page turner, I just couldn't put it down!

This is a fun and exciting book and it's definitely worth picking it up!

Andy Weir's latest smart sci-fi thriller, set in space, illustrates his trademark charm, humour and wit despite humanity on Earth facing extinction as an unknown organism, Astrophage, is discovered to be stealing energy from the sun en masse, thereby threatening life on earth in the not too distant future. In a story heavy on science and technology, which might not appeal to some readers, but which I found interesting, Dr Ryland Grace is a scientist who gravitated towards high school teaching after becoming a pariah in the scientific community with his 'wild' theory that you don't need water for life to exist. Grace awakens from an induced coma on the spaceship Hail Mary unable to recall who he is or where he is. However, there are two corpses on board, he is the sole survivor, if only he could remember what he meant to be doing.

In a narrative that shifts from the past to the present, Grace's memory comes back slowly, how he came to be at the heart of global efforts to come together to address the catastrophe in the form of the Petrova task force under the global leadership of its director, Eva Stratt, a driven woman who sweeps aside any obstacles and people who stand in her path with unnerving ease, paying no heed to laws, patents, ethics or morality, accessing the brightest minds, technology and any resource needed in her fight to save the Earth as we know it and its people. We learn of the challenges that arise, and when it becomes clear that there may be possible answers and hope on Tau Ceti, the only place where Astrophage is being destroyed, this leads to the development of the Hail Mary project and the recruitment of the best 3 person crew of astronauts and scientists to go to Tau Ceti, a crew willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

Grace's life brightens up considerably when he encounters the wonderfully quirky and charming Rocky, the two of them develop a beautifully co-operative, poignant and emotionally close relationship despite all their initial communication issues, but can the two of them save their respective worlds? This is a wonderfully engaging read that kept my interest throughout, and whilst I liked Grace, for me, the real star of the show was the unforgettable Rocky. I was completely invested in the challenges and threats Grace and Rocky face, there are twists and turns galore, and a surprising conclusion. I think most fans of Andy Weir will love this, and I recommend this highly to all readers, even those who may not consider sci-fi to be their reading genre. Many thanks to Random House Cornerstone for an ARC.

A strange new microbe is discovered leaching fuel from our Sun. The journey of a three person mission to Tau Ceti to find out why that star is unaffected leaves one member alive, Ryland Grace. Through ingenuity, intelligence,a dollop of luck and a realisation he isn't alone, Ryland fully intends on finding the key to Earth's survival.

5⭐- The Martian is one of my favourite movies and I loved the book too, so was really happy to be able to read and review this, thanks Netgalley and Random House! Now look, I have to say I didn't fully understand all the science, but this didn't take one bit from my love of this book😀 Weir has an innate talent for not only hard core science,but also generous humour, and it is this combination that creates a book which left me very satisfied at the end 😊 So if you liked The Martian, you will like this too and if you've never read it still give this a go!

Really difficult to write a review for this without spoilers but let me just say that if you enjoyed The Martian, then you need to read this!!
There's a fair bit of science in this, but most of it made sense to me. What's really important is the adventure, the slow reveals and the amazing way that it's so easy to suspend disbelief and just get totally immersed.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 5*
Writing skill : 5*
Characters : 5*
Plot: 5*
Suspense: 5*

I need to write this review now. Before my bf kills me for continuing to talk to him about it. I said to him last night there's no point reading anything else because it wont get better than this. And of course I will continue to read through this mighty book hangover but its safe to say this it's gone straight onto my favourites shelf and it has #1 spot!!

Now I need to be honest here, I'm a dumb ass when it comes to science. After GCSE (high school) I haven't studied science so my knowledge is very limited, and that may have been why this was so enjoyable for me. I didn't know either way if what was happening could or couldn't be possible. But it was very believable to me and my little brain and so it was brilliant.

The MC, Grace, had serious Watney from The Martian vibes but that was okay for me. I like their unflappable characteristics teamed with at times stupidity along side ever amazing scientific knowledge.

The chapters did that annoying 'lets end on a cliffhanger' every single time. So although I wanted to plough straight through with this, I made myself read this over 2 weeks and let the suspense hang over me every day and it definitely increased my likeability. The writing flowed so well that I had no trouble picking up where I left off and knowing where in the universe/time we were. Weir very cleverly switched from current time to going back to Earth before the mission. We find things out only because Grace is regaining his memory. It was super clever.

I also enjoyed this because I had no idea how the story was going to progress, and without giving any spoilers, the ending was perfect. Yes, I cried, it was messy. And the selflessness of the characters (even Stratt) was endearing and its restored my faith in humanity, even if it was fiction.

I know not everyone will 100% love this, especially people who may pick holes in the science, but I really hope everyone reads this as it is truly special.

Once I heard that Andy Weir was coming up with a new book, I immediately added it to my most anticipated list. Which is funny because I did NOT enjoy Artemis a whole lot, but apparently I had blissfully forgotten that and was so happy when I received an eARC for Project Hail Mary. But in the end I had the same issues with Project Hail Mary as I had with all this other books: women characters are written so awkwardly, actually ALL characters are awkwardly and cliché-like, the author does an amazing job at research - you can tell because he never, never shuts up about all the techy tech and speculative science-y stuff. I normally LOVE books that go into detail about their tech or science, but.... gosh, it was insufferable to read. [MILD SPOILERS FOR PROJECT HAIL MARY] There was a scene where the main character brings an alien object into the ship and the FIRST thing he does is remove his helmet and be like "oh wow I could have died from that ha-ha but oh! smells like ammonia! A clue!" and the SECOND thing he does is remove his EVA and TOUCH the alien stuff with his bare hands, which nearly causes a burn (and then he was like "oh but since my reaction was a fraction of second, the temperature must have been 100 degrees Celsius! Anther science-y clue! Haha I'm so quirky and funny and dumb lmaooo but also smart!). [END OF SPOILER] I just could not do another few hundred pages of this. The narrator voice was basically The Martian's, also the concept is very similar, it was like reading The Martian but not nearly as good and more full of clichés. I think with 2 books out of 3 being flops for me, I'm afraid this might be the last I read of Andy Weir, for the time being. I adored The Martian, but it might have been the exception rather than the rule. Sorry if this sounds mean, but I think Andy Weir might be a bit of a one-trick pony.

When Ryland Grace wakes up in a hospital bed with tubes inserted all over his body, he can’t remember his name, let alone where he is. Gradually he works out that he’s on a spaceship, the only member of a crew of three to survive being put in a coma for the trip to another solar system. And he is now expected to save Earth and the human race on his own.

This is everything we've come to expect of Andy Weir and loved so much in "The Martian". Grace is an enthusiastic, optimistic can-do character faced with an impossible task, a long way from home with only his own wits for company. As with Weir's previous novels, for maximum enjoyment of this book you’ll need to suspend belief that a high school science teacher would be chosen to be involved on a project to save the earth and then sent on a spaceship to a distant sun. Actually, there are a lot of places where you’ll need to suspend belief - so just accept it all and enjoy this rollercoaster of a ride. Also, there are a lot of enthusiastic explanations of the science behind Project Hail Mary, especially early in the book. If you're not into science, just skim read as there's no need to understand it all, and move on - it'll be worth it.

A compelling and entertaining read that might even just be better than "The Martian". Quite dark in places, but with Weir's trademark humour, a very special friendship and an unexpected ending.

Hail Mary: a plan or project with little chance of success.

Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship. He doesn’t know it’s a spaceship, nor does he know that he’s Ryland Grace. It’s not a great position to be in for someone who’s on a mission to save Earth from an extinction-level event!

Andy Weir has this incredible knack of making hard science and technological discussions not only palatable for the non-scientific community, but also, dang enjoyable. This latest offering from Weir returns us to the excellently written. hard science, humour, and desperation to survive that’s reminiscent of The Martian. Only this time, instead of working to save himself, Grace is trying to save a whole planet. If only he could remember what from...

Project Hail Mary is a drama fuelled, action-packed, spacey sci-fi that I think will entertain new and existing Weir fans alike!

It might be hard for readers not to compare Project Hail Mary with The Martian. I am huge fan of the latter (I mean, I’ve read it 5 times & seen the movie countless more). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Artemis, but the story was very different and it didn’t pack the same emotional punch.

Readers: prepare for Project Hail Mary. It’s got some serious walloping emotional bruising going on, and it is completely worthy of comparison. I am super pleased to announce that, folks, Project Hail Mary Measures. Up!

Fist bump to Weir for making me care once again about a fictional character in space. Both of them. He’ll know what I mean.

Will never be thankful enough to Andy Weir, Random House UK, Cornerstone, and NetGalley for making this fan-girl’s dream of being able to read an arc before publication come true. My glowing opinions are my own.

This book while not as good as The Martian it was much better than Artemis. I was worried about reading it after my bad experience with Artemis so I honestly didn’t have high expectations, I’m glad to say I ended up enjoying this book a lot -for the most part.<p>
In case you don’t know the premise, some alien microorganisms (astrophafe) are eating the sun’s energy simply put which will make Earth colder and lead to another ice age. The 8th-grade teacher is a scientist who finds himself involved in researching this phenomenon and later he wakes up on a suicide mission to find a way to kill those astrophage and basically save Earth.

Well, credits where it’s due, this book required tons of research and it showed that Weir did his homework and then some more. He tried to explain everything using our laws of physics which was nice and interesting to read about.

I found this book -other than the science- smooth and easy to follow, sure it started slow but I liked being in Ryland Grace’s head and wasn’t bored by it. The book is told following two timelines, Ryland in space and the other whole Astrophage discovery and planning to save Earth preparing for project Hail Mary.

Okay so while no 4 stars? Well, I had a few issues with this book.
✲ It was too similar to the Martian in the concept of “man alone in space doing some crazy shit” but I didn’t mind this while reading but I also can’t not mention it
✲ Grace’s voice was also too similar to Watney’s (I loved that guy) so I’m not sure how to feel about that. While it made the book easier to read, I certainly had some question marks about it. Like why not come up with a new characterization?
✲The science. Ok look, it was cool and I was very interested in it at first. Then it got technical. So much more technical. Needlessly so. I don’t know about footnotes in novels but maybe the overdone details could’ve been added as footnotes or something for those who’d like to read more about it? An external link for those interested?
✲ To borrow Hamad’s word, the characters were "comical". They someone had a trait and their characterization was focused on that trait, especially Russians. They are always portrayed as stern by American authors, how cliché. Let’s make them the life of the party with their vodka!!!
✲ I hope this will be edited in the final version but oh, we had so many exclamation marks. Even I know enough to realize that the fewer exclamation marks used the better and this book had soo many while they simply could’ve been a period.
✲ For such a book that is based on logic, some things certainly didn’t reflect that. So when Grace wakes up he has lost his memory, not technical knowledge just personal identity. So he’s trying to figure out where he’s from. He thinks of every way to figure that out and ohh he doesn’t think metric (also he’s such a cool American scientist!!! Thinks in metric too!). Can’t he speak and he’ll figure it out from his accent? Like British and American accents are pretty different for example. I’m no native English speaker and I still can distinguish lots of different accents.. his solution to where he's from is pretty simple but no we had to show how smart we are. Also, why would a Canadian know the distance between NY and LA? Why would anyone non-American know?
Another stupid thing was that he’s touching an alien object, he doesn’t wear gloves no. He ends up burning his hands but I found it pretty stupid to touch an alien object without gloves and without making sure that its surface is not poisonous or harmful to human skin…
✲ Stratt who is basically leading the whole project of saving Earth hasn’t studied ANYTHING to do with science and has people to tell her if this is the right choice or not scientifically.. she was dismissing the very helpful idea of someone if that person didn’t repeatedly demand her attention.
✲ The thing that I found it hard to believe is how someone with a doctoral degree is teaching science to 8 grade. I would’ve been fine (but not really) if Grace had been a high school teacher. But middle grade with such a vast knowledge? Oh please. He also apparently has more knowledge than no other 37 years old has. He just knows a lot about everything scientific even if he didn’t do any research in years, even if he hasn’t majored in more than one scientific field, well, biology? Physics? Computer science? You name it. our guy knows about it.

I preferred honestly the present, past perspectives rarely interest me and this book was no exception. I just wanted to see how he’ll solve things. I liked the ending part, however.

Overall this book was fun even it got carried away with the scientific details. However, that’s about it, enjoyable. It lacked depth and fleshed-out characters. I would recommend it to Weir’s fans but if you haven’t read any of his books yet, then you should definitely start with the Martian, which I loved even if sci-fi is not my thing.

I went in with zero expectations (I've never read anything by Andy Weir before) and a little trepidation as the "waking up in a strange place with no memories" trope is pretty overdone. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! The tropey first section of the book is really well written, with plenty of humour and of course a lot of mystery. And then comes the...?? I can't tell you, it will spoil too much but it's when the book really comes alive! The characters and their relationships and motivations, I just couldn't put this one down.

I generally don’t like much Science with my Fiction but this book is the glorious exception - Project Hail Mary held me gripped in Andy Weir’s skilful hands right from the very start to the amazing finish and I envy anyone who is about to commence reading it.

Yes, there’s a lot of Science (and Maths) fuelling this space journey and I have to admit I didn’t understand most of it, (perhaps just enough to keep me engaged with the plot) but it didn’t matter - I ended up caring so much for likeable, geeky, funny, Rayland Grace, the sole survivor of a last chance project to save Planet Earth, so by the end I just put my trust in him and left him to deal with all the tricky technical details!

Spoiler alerts forbid me saying anything more about the story apart from the fact that it certainly doesn’t disappoint. This is a book packed with humour, humanity and a massive heart and I am so glad I got to read it. I’ve heard that the film rights have been snapped up and I’m looking forward to checking it out even though I can’t imagine it will be easy to transfer to the screen but we will (literally) see.

Many thanks to Random House UK,, to Mr Weir and to NetGalley for letting me read and review this brilliant novel.
I would have given it 10 stars if I could.

If you're like me and enjoyed Andy Weir's The Martian, and then watched the movie starring Matt Damon, you know what to expect in Weir's latest novel, "Project Hail Mary." Perhaps like me, when you first encounter the namesake spaceship hurtling millions of kilometers from earth and wake up in the head of its sole survivor, uber geek Ryland Grace, you'll picture a groggy Matt Damon, waking up to solve the puzzle of his whereabouts and his stupendous mission, rolling up his sleeves to calculate and make and shift and actuate, disarmingly using brainpower to stay alive, resurrect his mission, and yes, save humanity. Andy Weir is an elegant, natural stylist, perfectly evoking Ryland's jokey, gritty personality. The plot careens towards ever more jaw-dropping space events, taking a twist midstream into territory scarcely believable but executed with such panache that I, the reader, flowed with it. I'm guessing if excessive sci-fi science is a turnoff, you'll reject this book, but if you love any form of mental tussling, grab it and strap in for a jolly freewheeling ride. You might even, like me, read it in two enjoyable sittings. Project Hail Mary takes too many outrageous plot risks, and is too tailor-made for another super-hero-like Matt-Damon-starring movie, to be genuinely stirring, but science-driven entertainment of this quality is indeed rare.

3.75 stars rounded off to 4
I've been a fan of Andy Weir's writing since reading The Martian which became an instant favorite when I read it. But Artemis had been a disappointment, so I didn't come into this book with high expectations. But it was a damn good read and I really enjoyed it, despite the fact of my poor knowledge of the science that was being used. It was slow at the beginning, but it really picked up near the end. With Weir's writing, I could easily imagine the scene playing out in front of me like a movie. But, one of the big problems, for me, was that, at certain parts, it felt rather expositionary and that kind of slowed down the book. And because I'm a fast reader (I finished this in a day), I feel there are certain things I missed or I didn't understand and for that, I'll need to read this book again.
But all in all, it was a good read and I'm looking forward to the release!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, publishing day 04 May 2021.

The story is about scientist Ryland Grace who wakes up aboard a spacecraft. He’d been in a coma, he has amnesia. All he knows is that he is a scientist on a suicide mission to save Earth, and by that, mankind from the next ice age brought on by strange microorganisms feeding off the suns in our galaxy. Yet, out there in space, about thirteen light years from Earth, there is a star that is not affected by these microorganisms. Why?

As the story unfolds and our hero regains some of his memories, we learn that Grace is a junior-high science teacher. And that is basically why the science in the book is easy to understand, the science teacher explains it very well. We also learn that the microorganisms feeding on our sun dim the energy output of the sun and that Earth has about three decades before the effects cause an ice age. All nations have to work together and strangely enough they do.

Earth needs Grace’s scientific expertise, but also relies on the fact that he is willing to plough on although he is on a suicide mission. A fact that Grace struggles with throughout the story. But he also knows he’s the only hope Earth has. Again, Weir writes the story of a hero alone fighting for survival, this time survival of all the life on Earth.

I enjoyed the book, apart from a bit of a lull period between 40% and 60%. Nothing much happened other than science and playing Robinson Crusoe in space, in the Arrival version. AKA, the hero meets an alien and they need to understand each other to work together.

“When I’m stressed out, I revert to imperial units. It’s hard to be an American, okay?”

Confession time: this is my first time reading Weir’s books and I did not know what to expect. I did not read The Martian (I did not watch it either and I have nothing to say in my defense) and I did not read Artemis. I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi novels but I did enjoy this one. I can’t have any comparisons to his other works for the aforementioned reasons.

So the story follows Ryland Grace who wakes up with a fuzzy memory, can’t remember his own name and he is greeted by his crewmates corpses. Gradually his memory starts returning and we understand why is he is in space and what the hell is going on. At the same time, it is a first contact kind of novel with the most wholesome ally!

I am going to break my thoughts into quarters rather than the usual format I use because I felt that I had different feelings in each of those quarters.

“Just think of the kids, Grace,” she said from the doorway. “All those kids you’ll be saving. Think of them.”

The First 25%: The first quarter kind of is shrouded by mystery and it takes a few pages to understand what is happening but at the same time, I can not say it is confusing because it wasn’t. The first part is very nerdy and there are all different kinds of physics equations (Accelerations, Pendulums, Power, Speed…etc) I was very thrilled by this because I was a straight A student in all those subjects and Maths is one of my favorite subjects. I literally wanted to get out a paper and a pen and do calculations along with the protagonist (It has been years since I left high school but I also had to study Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, Bio-statistics and even Economics in Medicine school). I also loved how the memory getting back thing was used because it was really smart and made for an intriguing read.

The Second 25%: This is the part where I felt equally smart and stupid. I felt smart because I knew many of the mentioned scientific stuff but it was getting kind of overwhelming and kind of too much. I think it is hard to enjoy this book if one does not have a background in these things or at least has great interest in them. I realized in this part that I also preferred the memories because it allowed for interactions between the protagonist and other people which allowed for some character growth.

The Third 25%: The science was more tamed and I was comfortable with the settings now. I enjoyed the ally that joined the narrative. I felt there were too many convenient things happening to forward the narrative but I did not want to overthink things. The protagonist can sound as a Gary Stue because he knows everything on a very deep level, from physics to chemistry to biology and even to computer sciences which came out as exaggerated! I liked the interactions between the characters and I was loving the humor (Which may sometimes be dirty or Juvenile).

“Fist me!” I push my knuckles against the xenonite. “It’s ‘fist-bump,’ but yeah.”

The Last 25%: I was impressed by how things came to be and how things even ended (I had to sleep on the ending and think about it a bit before deciding I liked it). I am truly impressed by how Andy Weir could research all of the stuff in the book even if he had help from specialists. (I had some questions like how a DNA of an Eukaryote could stand such high temperatures without degrading and why Grace was intubated then Sedated and not the opposite but these were really nothing in the grand scheme of things).

Summary: I really enjoyed this book and I think I will watch The Martian soon. I liked the writing though sometimes it did feel overwhelming, the characters were well written and funny (Although they sounded exaggerated and comical sometimes). The plot is very interesting and the pacing was not bad. I am really impressed by the research that was put into this and really respect the author for pulling it off!

I loved this.

Much like the Martian, the plot revolves around one poor astronaut who finds himself in an impossible to survive situation. It features Weir's trademark of sciencing his way out of any and all problems, especially those his experiments land him into.

From the opening page I was hooked and, from that point on, until the final page was turned, I didn't want it to end. Even now, a good amount of time after finishing, I still didn't want it to end. It really was that enjoyable and probably holds my vote for featuring one of the coolest characters ever created.

There's much I could say about this, but a good deal of it would reveal a pretty big spoiler or two, so I shall refrain from that. What I will say is, if you haven't read The Martian (you should really go and read The Martian. It's the thing your life is missing) and are concerned this might be a bit science-heavy for you, you would be both right and wrong. 

Right, because it is very science-heavy. Wrong because Weir writes in a way that is easy to follow along and enjoy. And, might I add, that for a story about a guy stuck in the depths of space, it's fast-paced and unputdownable. 

The character of Ryland Grace is very similar to that of Mark Watney from The Martian. Not because he's a botanist (he isn't) more because of the way he speaks/thinks/acts etc ... but I think that's just Weir's writing style. It's no bad thing and I feel Weir's use of first person narrative is some of the best I have seen of any author. I would, however, love to see a character with a different kind of personality in future works.

To break up what could have been a slow book considering he's just in a ship, struggling to remember his way out of amnesia, Weir breaks the book up into chapters from before the mission started and some in the present moment when Grace is aboard his doomed little ship. It's a good way of having him recall bits at a the speed that he needs to recall them and a wonderful way to shake up the pacing of the novel.

The dynamic between certain characters is phenomenal and kept me turning the pages long after my eyes were telling me the only thing I should have turned was the light switch. If, like me, you were hungry for an outstanding Sci-Fi novel and, also like me, truly struggling to find one that was better than 'just being fairly good', then look no further as Project Hail Mary is that book.