Project Hail Mary: A Novel Paperback – October 4, 2022

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a thrilling, mind-blowing ride that showcases the power of human ingenuity and perseverance. With its unique blend of humor, science, and high-stakes drama, the novel keeps you hooked from start to finish. Ryland Grace’s journey to save humanity is full of heart, clever twists, and unexpected moments that make you cheer for Rocky and him every step of the way.As Rocky would say, “Amaze, amaze, amaze.” This book absolutely lives up to that – it will leave you in awe of its creativity, emotional depth, and sheer brilliance.

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!

The overwhelming goal and thrust of the story carried it through many of the flaws. I enjoyed the scientist point of view, and Rocky reminded me of the comic-relief robot, Floyd, from the text game Planetfall. The humor and resourcefulness were great fun and worth the $10 I paid. Most of the problems could have been eliminated by offering fewer details where the biologist wasn’t the expert. However the structure collapses at the 78% mark when everything on the ship fails artificially at once. Once this implodes, the dozens of obvious flaws make the story seem as real as Santa Clause Conquers the Martians. In fact, every contrived complication from there on borders on the absurd. The final scene is touching and worthwhile, though.Ten science problems off the top of my head:+ a low-bid mass-production facility like you mention would leak at least one astrophage into the atmosphere, which would start the cycle between Earth and the Sun, doubling the sunspots and ending any chance of success. Game over.+ a creature with a life cycle measured in minutes making a twelve-year journey with no food or way of knowing which star is closest?+ with the high number of stars infected in the alien model, someone would have noticed on earth years before the phages could reach us. We use magnitude to identify a star in a computer screen of several, using the closest as a reliable yardstick. When they all fail at once for our Astro 101 students, people would figure it out. Unless phages evolved in the last 20 years, there would be an expanding ring of darkness in the sky from aeons ago. Why infect the next star before *all* the CO2 in a system is gone? When it is, all the phages would leave to new systems only, restoring the star in the center to normal. Eventually, they’ll hit the 8 light-year limit on every boundary and flare out.+ I’m pretty sure there isn’t enough CO2 on Venus to cover one percent of the sun’s disc. If so, that one-percent spot would follow Venus, not Earth. Either way, if they can charge enough to reproduce in the Sahara, they wouldn’t bother to get close to the sun.+ astronauts who are back-up for each other aren’t allowed to travel in the same vehicle, let alone set off bombs together. And this is the only time in years of experiments around the world that this happens? The female scientist getting pregnant would have been more likely with a 2 percent chance of conception each time they have sex over several years.+ mercury blood means that the expansion/contraction from even one degree of temperature variation would kill Rocky. I’m still not sure why/how even the most trusting engineer would share this data with a stranger.+ ripping a hole in his hull and radiation shielding to get a sample of aluminum? How about a stool, flashlight, table, food container, or hull patch kit?+ the alien has better English grammar than several earthlings in the story, with perfect grasp of idiom after a few days. My genius exchange student with years of instruction made more slips than Rocky.+ having enough fuel doesn’t mean he can go back home. He has no software, insufficient food, and no way to become unconscious.+ how did he deploy the 10 kilometer chain instantly at the push of a button if he had no spool mechanism? Also, that much chain would weight more and have more volume than his ship. How can he lift it by hand? We’re not even discussing the electrical charge on a dipole that long. Using a Beetle probe would have made more sense than endangering the whole vessel.Now let’s talk about writing mechanics:+ don’t have a six-page scene with a flirting female and only mention her name once as the first word of dialog. The rest was all she, with no real descriptions or reaction on the hetero hero’s part.+ repeated words have commas between them. No, no.+ complete sentences joined with a conjunction require commas between them.+ use the subjunctive case “were” when discussing theoretical walking beehives.