Science fiction, even though probably misnamed, has been an identified genre for a century now. This has benefited speculative fiction works by the establishment and evolution of a rich set of tropes known to readers within the genre, where there is no need for wordy re-explanations and re-justifications. One writer can build on or contrast the speculative concepts of an earlier writer, and know that the readers will understand when a comparison is being made. On the other hand, this has been a limitation, as readers not experienced in the genre are confused, or even worse, are put off by the less than total emphasis on character development. Film and television have been the only exposure many non-genre readers have with science fiction, where the emphasis is on visually stunning fantastic adventure. So, sometimes, we see mainstream writing in which SFnal concepts are used - but as they are read outside the genre audience, are received as if they invented something that has been explored extensively in SF for decades. Example: Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro. Meanwhile, SF writers can make a go of it, writing to the numerically limited but fanatically loyal SF audience. I tend to be one of those – writing reviews steeped in the context of the genre. It has been called the ghetto-ization of science fiction.

And sometimes, a work that is by all classical definitions science fiction, comes to be widely read by a mainstream audience. Andy Weir’s debut novel The Martian was such a book. His second novel Artemis was not. However, his latest, Project Hail Mary, has the potential to do it again. It is told by a protagonist with personality similar to The Martian’s Mark Watney, and is a story of survival in a space environment made hostile by unforeseen circumstance. The naiveté of the non SF reader is accommodated by the gimmick of amnesia – at the beginning, the protagonist cannot remember even his name or that he is in a spacecraft. He performs experiments to determine the nature of his environment and theorizes about where he is. At the same time, his memories are slowly recovered, and he learns that he is a junior high science teacher, which explains his basic experimentation technique. That’s just about perfect, because sadly, that is approximately the level at which non-technical readers understand things. And fortunately for the narrative, his memories are restored in chronological order, creating a second storyline. Part of the pleasure of this read is reasoning along with the protagonist, consequently there is very little else a reviewer should divulge. But I can’t resist letting you know that this is a First Contact story. (If you don’t know the trope, go look it up.)

I enjoyed this novel, it reminded me of the SF of decades gone by. Probably it would not stand up to a re-read, as I now know the solutions to the puzzles. But I feel that finally Weir has a successor to The Martian. We’ll see if it plays outside the genre, as the character development is somewhat streamlined.

I read an Advance Reader Copy of Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir in ebook, which I received from Random House Publishing through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 4 May 2021.

A Red Line has been discovered extending from our Sun to Venus. The Sun's brightness is noticeably decreasing. The science community becomes very concerned prompting a global interstellar mission called, "Project Hail Mary".

A three member crew of specially trained astronauts is sent to Tau Ceti to hopefully find the solution to avert the coming apocalypse, a 6th extinction event of Earth caused by the cooling of our sun.

Ryland Grace awakens from his medically induced coma to find his two comrades dead as a door nail. In fact, the amount of their decay shows they have been dead for a very long time. The coma’s side effects make things worse. He can not remember much of anything. Nothing about the mission, why he was there, even his name.

Eventually, Ryland is able to mostly piece together what the mission is (even his name), but many pieces are still missing, though much more comes to light as his journey continues. How does one person complete a mission that required three astronauts to be sent in the first place? One thing after another happens and he finally sees the answer. With the answer in hand more discoveries occur with unseen disasters cropping up.

This Sci Fy adventure is full of suspense and mystery that is well balanced with plot, characterization and dialogue. I must FYI for the parents: there are about 4 incidences of a swear word or phrase, and for the concerned parent these can be easily covered without interfering with the story.

Note: Math and Science are woven into the storyline, so some readers may find this a bit boring. If this is the case, they could skim through these areas and still experience a satisfying read. Predicaments and decisions having to be made in the story parallel our real life analysis in choices we make.

What is human nature, a hero or a friend can be seen within the pages of “Project Hail Mary”.

Austin Public Library (TX)
Library Associate
Bruce DeVore

“I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe.”

“You poked it with a stick?”

“No!” I said. “Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick.”

It feels impossible to talk about Project Hail Mary without bringing up The Martian. When I first attempted to read the latter, I was put off by the amount of both science and swearing.* The movie adaptation helped me better visualize what was going on, and I’ve since read The Martian twice and struggled to put it down both times. Weir’s writing is like “The Magic School Bus” for adults: it’s funny and entertaining while teaching you about science. Plus, there’s an exciting survival narrative that pits the human brain against the unfeeling forces of the universe.

While The Martian was deeply satisfying, Weir’s next novel Artemis was decidedly not, and Project Hail Mary feels like a return to a formula that works. Both novels center around the similar premise of one man finding himself very far from Earth and having to depend on his own ingenuity and knowledge to solve problem after problem. There’s scientific explanations that will make you feel smarter just reading them (even if you don’t quite understand everything) immediately followed by immature humor. This time, however, the wisecracking protagonist Ryland Grace is not only trying to save himself, but all of humanity as well.

Compared to The Martian, Project Hail Mary is similarly heartwarming and inspirational, but also a bit bleaker (think Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar**) and a lot weirder. For the first quarter or third of the book, it feels like things are just warming up, but once Ryland arrives at his destination, things really get very strange and intriguing (no spoilers). While The Martian feels like something that could happen five minutes in the future, or even like something that did already happen, we’re firmly in science-fiction territory in Project Hail Mary, and I really enjoyed Weir’s unique spin on some familiar tropes.

What I didn’t love: I have personally never enjoyed “main character wakes up with amnesia” as the opening to anything. Ryland starts regaining his memories quickly and in convenient chronological order, so the amnesia is mostly used as a vehicle for doling out background information to the reader throughout the book. I understand why Weir wanted to do things this way from a narrative perspective, but I wasn’t sold on it. While the scenes on Earth are essential to understanding the stakes of Ryland’s mission, the other characters felt one-dimensional and inauthentic, and left me chomping at the bit to get back to the present day.

While not as smoothly written as The Martian, Project Hail Mary is still thoroughly entertaining. Once it got its hooks in me, I couldn’t put it down and stayed up late to finish it.

*the copious swearing in The Martian is something Weir nearly breaks the fourth wall to joke about in Project Hail Mary

**yet another movie about Matt Damon stranded on another planet

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for review.

This book made me feel things I haven't felt in years—not since I first read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. I was so excited reading it, and despite how long it is I couldn't put it down, and finished it the day after starting it. I would really, really recommend this to anyone who likes sci-fi, and especially anyone who enjoyed The Martian.

Some of the big eureka moments made me want to screenshot them and send them to friends—like, as if they were real and we could all get excited about this huge discovery together. It's definitely a good book for a book club or to read with friends.

Compared to The Martian, this felt like it had more suspense/higher stakes, because The Martian basically had a sad ending or a happy ending (and I always assumed it would be happy). Project Hail Mary has a lot more room for complexity in terms of what a "happy" ending looks like, so I definitely felt unsure about how certain parts would end.

I'm also glad I didn't really read the description of the book before reading it; all I knew was it was by Andy Weir (and that Hank Green liked it). It allowed me to truly learn everything along with Grace, and to be surprised by even basic functions of the plot in a really rare and enjoyable way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

*major spoilers below*
I just really like non-hostile first contact stories I think. When he waved at the alien and then it waved back, I actually teared up a little.

An enjoyable science fiction book that is very deep into science fact. The structure of the book is similar to some others, particularly Weir’s first book The Martian, where once a problem is solved another one crops up.

This book finds Earth in peril due to something draining the sun’s energy, which once isolated is called astrophage. The substance is also a highly dense energy source that can propel a spaceship to speeds faster than we currently have available. A spaceship The Hail Mary has its mission to go to a nearby star to find out why it doesn’t have the same sun dimming problem, which hopefully will help solve the problem in our own solar system.

One of the best parts of the book was the new alien life. I don’t want to give much away, but I did enjoy that aspect of the book.

The frame of the book is told in current time and many flashbacks. At times it's awkward, or left me wondering why that particular passage was added in. Overall the book isn’t perfect by any means, but I enjoyed the book, and found myself thinking of it, such as what will happen next, when I wasn't reading. If this gets made into a movie like his first book, I’m sure it will do well.

[4 Stars]

-- Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review --

The Martian is one of my all-time favorite books so when I saw Andy Weir was coming out with something new I just had read it. And while this wasn't quite as incredible as The Martian was, I still really enjoyed this. As always the science is spot on and so incredible. It definitely is a large part of why I enjoyed the story. I think the couple of twists at the end were great and they helped keep me engrossed.
The only things I didn't particularly like were: (1) the pacing got a little messed up near the end and that threw me off, and (2) I think some stuff was just a litttlllleeee toooooo convenient at times. The speed in which solutions were figured out and problems were solved was hard to believe but hey, I'm no physicist.

Anywhoo, if you like space and/or science in action I'd definitely recommend you pick this up!

I loved The Martian, so I really wanted to love this too. But it just seemed like a cheap knockoff of that book. The first chapter was good, but the book got tiring pretty quickly after that. The main character was annoying. He woke up in a hospital bed with no memory of who he was or where he was. But his major priority seemed to be getting excited about his knowledge of science in a way that seemed like the reader is supposed to be excited as well. The way that the science is explained in The Martian makes it easy to understand without it feeling like the main character is talking down to you and it feels like there's a purpose to it. In this book it's like an overly enthusiastic science teacher trying to make you excited about science but is just giving you a lot of information at once without actually explaining anything in a way that makes since. I feel like I would have liked this better as a short story that just got to the point, because the plot was pretty interesting once we got there.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Ballantine.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. I read and loved The Martian before it was made into a movie (that I also loved). I haven't yet read Artemis except for a preview chapter. So I was looking forward to seeing where this would take me. It has an interesting premise with similar themes to The Martian. Set in the near future, a disaster is threatening the Solar system. Something is causing the sun's output to decrease significantly which in a few decades will be so great to essentially make life on earth extinct. The protagonist, Dr. Ryland Grace, starts the story waking up on a strange ship with no memory of how he got there. As he regains his memory we are treated to his flashbacks of recall and how the crisis unfolded and how he got to where he is now.
The flashbacks are added into his story of discovering where he is and what he evidently is supposed to be doing (which is searching for a solution to the problem causing the dimming of the sun). Unfortunately, he is the only member of the crew to survive the journey and with his memory loss, has no idea where he is or even what he is supposed to be doing. The similar themes aspect is a scientist using their wits to solve a problem (or rather a series of problems) similar to The Martian except the stakes are higher. He not only has to save himself (maybe?) but also send answers back to Earth to try to save the planet.
Mixed in with dangerous environments and research are some interesting propositions and theories about life in the universe and on earth.
It was an entertaining read and I read it in one sitting while home sick from work. I would recommend it to fans of the Martian and anyone who enjoys this type of problem solving adventure! I'm giving it 5 stars, but it was more likely 4.5 just because I found some bits to be predictable.

I finished Andy Weir’s new book over a week ago, and I’m still screaming about it. After being blown away by The Martian in 2016, I’ve been eager for another space adventure of the same caliber (Artemis was fun but just not at the same level), and Weir delivers and then some with his upcoming May release, Project Hail Mary.

If you, like me, like science fiction but find yourself craving explanations for the phenomena happening in these stories, then Andy Weir is your guy. The man’s author bio says he is “a devoted hobbyist of subjects such as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight” (!!!) and his novels prove it with in-depth, layperson-friendly explanations of relativity, space travel, alien life, atoms, and all things science.

Project Hail Mary‘s protagonist is likable middle school science teacher Ryland Grace, who gets roped into helping a bunch of “legit” scientists save the world when his PhD thesis ends up being relevant in the research of a newly discovered, planet-threatening species.

The organism ends up being lightyears ahead of some of Earth technology, and scientists determine they can use it to power a ship to help them find a solution to save the world.

Spoilers ahead!

Project Hail Mary is something akin to what The Martian would have looked like if Mark Watney had run into some real-life Martians while he was stranded up there. And also if Watney had woken up on Mars with no memory of his past or his training or what the heck he was supposed to be doing.

Ryland Grace slowly figures out his mission in flashes as his memory returns, and he soon runs into an alien ship. From that point on, Project Hail Mary departs from and far surpasses The Martian in complexity, intrigue, detail, and jaw-dropping wow factor. Knowing as little as I know about space and given the problems in PHM have been invented by Weir (though they feel so, so realistic), I found myself gasping anew on every other page when a problem arose, a crazy space thing happened, or Ryland learned a new word from his alien friend, Rocky (because of course aliens don’t speak English and of course Andy Weir found a way to tie yet another cool science thing into this book).

Grace soon learns that his new friend Rocky is at the same spot in space because he (as Grace refers to him) is also looking for a solution to the same apocalyptic problem happening on Earth, and the two begin to work together to save their respective planets.

I could spew about this book and its incredible plot and Weir’s insane ability to make me care about a nonexistent space spider all day, but I’ll just blanket statement say that if you liked The Martian or you find science interesting in the slightest, this book is for you. I’ll be recommending this one to pretty much everyone I know (mostly so I can finally find someone willing to talk about microbiology, ammonium, and alien linguistics).

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, let's get this out of the way early: The main character of this novel, Ryland Grace, is the same character as the main character of his previous novel Artemis, Jazz Bashara, who is the same character as the main character from his first novel The Martian, Mark Watney. Weir knows how to write one character, and it's a good character, and I suspect it's basically Weir. So if you know that going in, you might like this more. As for me, it lost a full star because...well, learn to write a different character.
But beyond that, this is a terrific science fiction novel.
Watney Grace wakes up on a ship circling another star. He can't quite remember who he is or what he's doing there, but he slowly regains his memory and realizes he's been sent on a desperate mission to stop a threat that will destroy all life on Earth. His only hope on this mission is an unexpected ally.
I won't go into more because I don't want to ruin things. The structure is somewhat reminiscent of The Martian, in that things seem okay-->things go horribly wrong-->he has to solve the horrible problem using science/engineering-->yay! Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I will say that it still feels different enough from The Martian to warrant reading, despite that same framework. The aforementioned ally takes this to a whole different level and place. It's great.
And the ending is just lovely.

Andy Weir returns to the emotion and excitement of The Martian with his new title Project Hail Mary. When the world is in trouble, the powers that be turn to a middle school science teacher to help. What follows is a harrowing journey through his own memories, to find the answer and save the planet. Luckily he finds some help along the way.

I don't know how Andy Weir does it. I do not have a brain inclined to science or mathematics, but somehow he tells me a story that's chock-full of that stuff and I still love every second of it. Not to mention, you don't even really have to understand the science behind it (and to be honest, I skipped whole paragraphs at some points because I just knew I wasn't going to make sense of it) but the story still works and you get a broad enough understanding to follow along. This was delightful to read and so much fun.

This book was a much fun as Artemis and The Martian and seems to be a staple of what you’d expect from Weir. The character is fun to unravel from beginning to end in figuring out literally who they are and where they are.

4.5 stars

Andy Weir has done it again. I adored The Martian, and never read Artemis, but Project Hail Mary is proof to me of Andy Weir's sci-fi genius.
I really felt for the main character, Ryland Grace, and I loved reading from his perspective. He was hilarious and also extremely smart. At some points the science was a bit too much and I found myself glazing over while trying to understand it, but that also makes me admire the writing in this book even more. Because what I did understand seemed to make sense, at least to me (not a scientist). I felt like I experienced all the ups and downs of his space-adventure with him.
I love all of the plot-twists and trying to solve the problems along with Grace and his friend. I thoroughly enjoyed this. The only reason it was 4.5 is because I found the beginning 1/4 of the book a bit slow and difficult to get into.

In Project Hail Mary, @andyweirauthor returns to Martian form. A lone (reluctant) astronaut has to not only survive but save Earth from a dimming sun - with some unexpected help. Ingenuity, ad hoc science, and a protagonist that you root for from beginning to end. 👍👍

A fantastic outing from Andy Weir. A very original plotline, with likable characters and a great resolution to the continued tension. Dr. Grace wakes up on a spaceship, completely unaware of how he got there. He is clearly on a mission, but has to slowly piece together the clues he finds to determine what to do. Eventually, he has a series of small catastrophes to solve, and manages to save the universe in the process. A really well written and engaging space adventure.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Andy Weir is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved the science and the space and mostly, the unlikely friendship between the two main characters. I appreciate the authors talent to write science in a way that anyone can understand.

Brace yourself for a wild ride to a universe far, far away in Andy Weir’s latest science fiction/thriller novel along the lines of 2014’s hugely successful The Martian. Ryland Grace wakes up groggy and unable to comprehend where he is, who he is and what’s up with the tubes attached to his body. All that confusion aside, who are the two dead and mummified people near him? Soon enough we learn through flashbacks that Ryland Grace is a microbiologist who in a snit abandoned his research and began teaching middle school science. Oh yeah, Rylan finally figures out he’s in a spaceship traveling over a dozen light years to another star. Through humor and simplistic explanations, Weir clears up complex science topics of fuel consumption, how rogue microbes are draining our sun’s energy and Ryland’s actual mission. Checking in at over 1000 pages, this title moves remarkably fast…sort of like speed of light interplanetary travel.

Andy Weir knows how to tell a story! I love how he adds humor. He makes catastrophes challenges to get through one moment at a time. A lot of math and science, but not overwhelming or forced. The story is twisty-turny - it takes a while to figure out what's going on, but he tells it so well (not frustrating like some authors). It'll keep you up well past your bedtime!

I don’t want to say too much about Project Hail Mary and spoil the fun of reading it yourself, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The premise is one of the most terrifying things I can think of – waking up alone on a ship, who knows how far away from Earth and home, with little to no memories. But it made for a very interesting read, slowly putting the pieces of this puzzle together along with the main character.

I love science fiction that gives me hope for and in people. Bad things will happen. Sometimes we’ll be the cause of the bad things. We’ll make mistakes. But we love to problem solve and we tend to keep fighting, even in the face of impossible odds. What risks are worth taking? What or who are you willing to die for?

I did feel like the science/math bits were a bit more overwhelming for me personally, but that might not be an issue for others. The main ideas and points are accessible and I was able to follow the story overall. I can’t say I would find myself rereading Project Hail Mary but I enjoyed the ride and I highly recommend giving it a read.