A solid standalone book that fans of The Martian will love. The main character is like Mark Watney if he didn’t curse. The plot was strong and enjoyable though it was a bit hard to understand the science at times. 4/5

I loved The Martian and Weir's writing, so when I saw Project Hail Mary available, it was an immediate request for me. I was thrilled to be approved and quickly dove in.

A chance observation leads to the discovery of a lifetime: a mysterious algae-like organism is cooling the earth at an astronomical rate. Chance of species survival over thirty years is zero, and agencies across the globe unite in order to solve the problem. Ryland Grace is tasked with identifying the organism and, through a series of flashbacks, learns that he is on a mission to save the planet whether he likes it or not.

I don't want to give too much away with spoilers, but I absolutely LOVED this book. It's a lengthy read, but I could not put it down. I devoured it in two sittings and would gladly have read more. Weir's writing is immersive yet quirky. Grace's voice is equal parts sarcastic and logical, making for one hell of a narrator. His meticulous, problem-solving nature propelled this book, and while there is a lot of science involved, never did it feel overwhelming or out of reach. This isn't a book trying to be inaccessible through it's computations and calculations. Rather, Weir's use of space-centric dialogue beautifully creates atmosphere, claustrophobia, and tension that are pivotal to the successful world-building of this book.

The flashbacks were structured well, blending into whatever obstacle Grace is trying to tackle without being info-dumping opportunities. There is a lot of information, but like Grace, we use the surrounding details to formulate or opinions of the situations, and that in itself was a wonderful reading experience.

My favorite part of this book was definitely the survival aspect, but the unlikely ally Grace makes stole the show. No spoilers, of course, but their interactions and approaches resonated on another level, introducing interesting insight into the topics of morality, ethics, compassion, and evolution. The intersection of the two coming together was a beautiful, complicated mess that could've gone sideways, and was by no means a straight trajectory, but ultimately satisfying.

Overall, Project Hail Mary is a riveting, engrossing, thrilling sci-fi suspense you won't be able to put down. For fans of Arrival, space survival narratives, the Netflix series Home, and anyone looking for a realistic apocalyptic read, this will be the book for you.

Huge thanks to Ballantine and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Project Hail Mary is the new book from Andy Weir, who wrote the bestseller - The Martian.

"Ryland Grace is the lone survivor on a last-ditch mission to save the earth and all of humanity. But he doesn't remember that right now - just that he's a long way from Earth and it a room with two corpses. He realizes that he faces an impossible task but with some unexpected help, he may just be able to save the world."

If you're a long time reader of science fiction, this story will feel familiar. It reminded me of the recent books - Saturn Run and Seveneves. What Weir does that's different is to put a Middle-school science teacher as humanity's last hope. Weir does an excellent job building the world of the surprise visitor.

If you were a fan of the sheer amount of science in The Martian, you will love this book. There's even more here - biology, alien biology, DNA, orbital mechanics and relativity. For me the constant science detracts from the story and feels a little like filler.

I like the ending. Weir takes you one way - throws a curveball and gives us another ending. It's an interesting one to envision.

I enjoyed the characters in this novel, but the real star was the imagination that the author displayed. This "what if" scenario harkens back to old-school science fiction but was more a pleasure to read than some of those novels.

The main character wakes up in a spaceship with a set of robotic arms as a caretaker and two corpses for company. He can't remember how he got there or even what his name is. Gradually he remembers how to move and speak and what is going on.

He is on a mission to another star, one of scientific discovery which could save Earth. A microorganism is consuming the sun's energy and threatening to drop Earth into an ice age which would kill nearly every living thing on it. The star he has traveled 13 years to reach is the only one within 50 light years which has not dimmed in the last two decades, and the hope of Earth is that he can find the reason why and replicate it in our solar system.

This book jumps back and forth in time as the hero remembers flashes of his past, and we get to experience the events that brought him here. There is quite a bit of adventure, danger, and thought-provoking deduction in this book. If you liked The Martian, you will enjoy this very much.

Full disclosure: I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

An interstellar tour-de-force! A triumphant mating of science- fiction, traditional thrillers, and PhD level science. Project Hail Mary is an outstanding novel from the great Andy Weir, who’s creative mind is as vast and wondrous as the cosmos.

Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship millions of miles from Earth with no recollection of how he got there, what he’s supposed to do, or even what his own name is. As his memory starts coming back in flashes, he pieces together that Earth is facing a mass extinction event and realizes he’s the only one who can save the planet and the human race. Facing near insurmountable odds, he gets to work exploring the depths of space for salvation. Along the way he faces many obstacles, achieves many breakthroughs, and comes across an unanticipated ally that provides hope of not only saving Earth, but surviving this perilous mission.

Project Hail Mary is a thriller wrapped up in a Sci-Fi package, bombarded with a heavy dose of science. Emphasis on the words “heavy” and “science.” In fact, if you’re a thriller-loving, Star Trek vs. Star Wars debating, Science Mystery Theater 3000 watching science nerd, then this is the book you’ve been waiting your whole life to read. For the rest of us, it’s pretty spectacular as well. Don’t be scared away by the pages and pages of biology, chemistry, physics and astronomy. If you know Albert Einstein developed the Theory of Relativity and the equation is E=mc2, then you’re good to go and can get through the deep science-y stuff just fine while enjoying the hell out of this book.

Additionally, if you’ve read The Martian or watched the movie version with Matt Damon (which I have seen dozens of times. It’s one of the most rewatchable movies on cable today. Don’t @ me!), then you will definitely enjoy Project Hail Mary. There are many similarities between the two which I found added to my enjoyment of this book. Perhaps the biggest similarity, beyond the obvious space exploration, is the deep dive into our humanity and the power of the human spirit to achieve positive results despite seemingly impossible obstacles in our way. The idea that any one person can make a difference and have a huge impact on the rest of us. That we are inherently all capable of great things if we just put our mind to it and refuse to quit. In other words, this book went beyond pure entertainment and gave me renewed hope in people and our future on this planet.

I highly recommend Project Hail Mary, whether you’re a thriller fan, Sci-Fi fan or just someone who likes a great story. You won’t be disappointed. It’s a fantastic read.

Project Hail Mary turned out to be a masterful science fiction novel that rivals The Martian.
It's filled with so many of the typical Andy Weir elements like his self deprecating humour, or a cartload of science facts to entertain and even educate the readers. It definitely helped to make the story overall more believable, since at least he found a reasonable-sounding explanation for most of the futuristic advancements and events; not that I possess the knowledge to challenge him anyway.

It's sad to see that of all things the most unrealistic aspect is the fact that humanity would actually collaborate on solving a shared problem. For the sake of the story, it is still more than appropriate. Project Hail Mary ended up as one of my all-time favourite science fiction books. It's fun to read, very informative and kept me hooked until the very end

4.5 for sure. This book was absolutely spectacular. So well written, great characterization, and really emotive. I found myself getting excited about the science speak and even had a dream about astrophange! Highly recommend.

Andy Weir is back with more of the hard sci-fi magic (I mean, science) that made The Martian such a success! Our hero (a scientist of some sort) wakes up in some sort of spacecraft to discover that he is the sole survivor of some sort of desperate mission to save earth from some sort of extinction-level peril. Unfortunately, he has amnesia.

The story alternates back and forth between his gradually returning memories and his work toward understanding what is going on and trying to save the world. It is difficult to say much more than that without robbing the reader of the joy (and/or heartbreak?) of discovery as events unfold.

As with Weir’s previous books, detailed descriptions of scientific analysis, problem-solving, and emergency-surviving take center stage (with frequent dollops of wry humor). He doesn’t necessarily tell you all the math involved, but if science bores you this is not the book for you. Of course, this is science fiction so there’s some pretty speculative stuff here too (more so than The Martian). Personally, I loved it!

I would say that this is Weir’s best book yet. The Martian is a close second, but the plot of this book allows for a lot more character development. Something or someone called Rocky is a big part of that, but no more spoilers. Both the more fully developed characters and higher stakes really had me hooked. I usually alternate between 3 or 4 books at a time, but I read this one straight through. I highly recommend this for fans of science, science fiction, and/or survival stories!

PS One other thing that added to my enjoyment of the book was that it had a lower profanity level than previous ones. I know that isn’t a big deal for most people, but I appreciated it (and it made sense in the context of the story).

I loved The Martian and I actually liked Artemis as well (soooo many folks didn't) so I was happy to see Weir has a third book coming out in May.

Falling heavily on the science end of Science Fiction, Hail Mary is about a guy who wakes up alone on a spaceship light-years away from Earth with absolutely no idea of exactly who or where he is. The subsequent story bounces back-n-forth between his slowly emerging memories which tell us how he got there and the present in which he realizes he may not be as alone as he thought he was
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This is much more in keeping with The Martian so those who didn't care for Artemis can rest easy. It follows a similar pattern - crisis appears, guy uses much science to solve crisis. This has a little more fiction to the science as it's not science that is known. The ending was not where I thought it was going but it was still pretty sweet. A fun read and I'd recommend picking it up.

When he first awakens on the Hail Mary, a man has no idea who he is and what he's doing on a spaceship. Slowly, his memory returns in bits and pieces, and he realizes the gravity of the situation he's in. An odd new life form detected in space is slowly destroying Earth's sun, Disaster looms large on the horizon, as entire ecosystems are facing imminent collapse and billions of people are expected to die of starvation. Enter middle school science teacher - and once promising scientist - Ryland Grace. You don't have to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this funny, poignant tale of humanity, redemption, friendship, and units of measure..

I never read The Martian, but all of my friends, regardless of their preferred genre, loved it, so when I saw Andy Weir's upcoming release I knew I had to request it. I barely had to read the premise - a man wakes up from a coma with no memory of who he is as the last survivor of a last-ditch effort to save Earth.

One chapter in, and I was hooked. I was entertained by the inner dialogue of the protagonist, intrigued by the story and where the plot would go, and a little confused but delighted by the science. Luckily, I was prepared for very technical science-y content from what I'd heard about The Martian.

I know it's a completely different story than The Martian, but I did see that movie. So I pictured Matt Damon as the protagonist the entire time. I'd be completely fine if Damon starred in the movie version of this one too. In fact, let's just make him the star of any Andy Weir novel movies forever.

At one point, I said to myself, "I would die for Rocky." I don't want to say any more than that about it in a review to avoid spoiling the journey for anyone else.

Fun, intelligent, surprising.

Project Hail Mary is a new hard science fiction novel by Andy Weir the author of the Martian. I received an early copy through NetGalley. The story follows Ryland Grace the only survivor on a mission to save Earth and humanity and he is the worlds last hope. However, he doesn’t know that because he doesn’t remember his name or what he’s supposed to do on this mission. But its up to him and an unexpected ally to find the solution to an extinction level event that threatens all life on Earth.

Project Hail Mary is very had to talk about without spoiling some aspects of the plot and story. I really like book though most of the science went over my head. Ryland Grace is much more of a Mark Watney style character so if you liked the Martian I would recommend this book. At this point to say anything else I will be getting into spoilers so stop reading if you don’t want to know anything more.

The story is told through Ryland Grace’s perspective but switches between current events and the memories of his past that tells the read who he is and why he is on this mission. Because he doesn’t have his memories we are thrown into the story and learn with him what is going on. Through the flash backs we learn that something is causing the Sun of get dimmer and if not stopped then it will cause catastrophic problems on Earth. It is soon determined that this is happening because of an organism called Astrophage is feeding on the energy of the Sun. I’m not going to discuss any of the science of the book because that is one aspect that I had trouble understanding but I got the overall plot, relationships, and emotions of the characters. Grace determines that he is on this space ship because they were headed to the one location that the Astrophage do not seem to be affecting.

Shortly, after waking up and remembering what he is meant to do Grace sees another space craft that he knows can’t be from Earth. He ends up communicating with the other space craft and meets an alien life form that is very different from humans. Grace calls him Rocky. They learn how to talk to each other and together the figure out how the Astrophage work and how to stop them. As they figure out what they need to do Grace finally gets back all of his memories and why he is on the ship which he now knows is a suicide mission. I don’t want to spoil the whole ending but together Grace and Rocky save their planets and Grace gets to do what he’s best at in the end.

Oh man, three weeks to finish a book? That’s unheard of for me (well, maybe not very common). I think that I liked this book by Andy Weir, but I’m not sure. It was chock-full of science-y jargon and scenarios and I think that is where I’m sitting with the 3-star review. If you like Weir you’d probably like this book. It’s much more The Martian than Artemis (which I really enjoyed, both actually). As for Project Hail Mary? Well, let’s take a look:

First off, as I said, there’s a lot of science jargon in this book. So much so, that I had to read a book and a half to take my mind and boredom away from PHM and put it toward something else (PS- Kate Burkholder series? Amazing). That’s okay. I’m not the best SF reader in my old age (in 43, if you were curious).

Secondly, I actively searched for spoilers on PHM so I could claim I finished it but really just spoiled it for myself. That was a sound tactic, but seeing as the book is t published yet hard to do. Anyway, I found one review that said the second half picked up speed and was worth it. So, guess what? When I stopped reading PHM, I was halfway through. Incredible, huh? So, I went back. I can’t say it was that much more fast paced, but by this time I was in for it. So I pushed forward with the book.

Thirdly, while the book never really picked up the pace and the story was sort of predictable, I appreciate what Weir is doing here. And, if I have turned you off this read, I would recommend pushing forward for the last chapter alone. That was well worth the slog of reading this. And again, to echo the past reviewers, Rocky is well worth the adventure. Just be ready to push and work through this read. It has its Weir moments (“I’m unsuiciding ths suicide mission”) but there’s some really interesting science stuff and personal growth stories as well. It’s a worthwhile read, if not the best SF I’ve read and definitely not the best Weir I’ve read.

Do you ever read a book and feel an overwhelming wave of love for it - that fleeing tenderness -that makes you want to press the book tight to your chest and never let go? As you go through the story, you know - you just know - that you will come back to those pages to seek emotional comfort and hope in times of turbulence.

God, "Project Hail Mary" made me feel so much.

I wasn't prepared for tears of joy reading this book. I wasn't prepared to get so attached to the characters that I stayed up reading until 5am for two nights in a row because I didn't want to let them go. I wasn't prepared to experience the friendship so deep, so pure and sincere that I was reminded of how much my own friends mean to me and how dearly I appreciate their presence in my life.

If 2020 completely obliterated your faith in humanity, please pick up this book. "Project Hail Mary" is a story about a very strange climate disaster and a sequent deep-space mission that is meant to find a solution for it.
In this book, Andy Weir shows how humanity can deliver its best in the worst of times, and while collective cooperation is challenging, it is possible. Sometimes, it requires unethical decisions to be made. Sometimes, people need to be open-minded about unorthodox approaches if they guarantee the safety and survival of our species. And sometimes, whether we want it or not, we confront things that are much bigger than our own life and death.

As for the scientific aspect of this book, it is as brilliantly executed here as in "Martian". Because of the strange nature of the above-mentioned climate disaster, a lot of science here is fictional; however, it is well-explained and enjoyable to follow to the point of you getting super-excited when new discoveries are made. Due to the dense scientific explanations, I would recommend picking up either a physical copy or an e-book, as quite often I had to go back and re-read certain concepts to fully grasp them (which would be very hard to do with an audiobook).

Because this book has a bunch of fantastic themes and developments, I would leave a list of compatible recommendations to check out after reading this book, however, be careful - the very concept of those stories may be a spoiler for this book: To Be Taught If Fortunate (morality and humanity, microbiology, environmentalism), Arrival (linguistics and interspecies cooperation), Network Effect (deep friendship - pure, joyous, "I will die for you because I care so much for your survival"), Ad Astra (environmentalism, deep space investigation), Children of Time (spider-like aliens).

*An e-copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher Ballantine Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

If you loved The Martian, get this book right now. I have no words. Someone else mentioned a "book hangover" and I'm definitely feeling that. When this one also becomes a movie, I will be first in line to see that as well.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of #ProjectHailMary

Project Hail Mary is a fun read that returns to much of the tense atmosphere that surrounded The Martian. It's an opportunity for a middle school science teacher to save the world by sciencing the **** out of things. We have aliens, high-speed travel, time dilation, Earth on the verge of collapse, unethical managers, and dangerous stunts in outer space, what's not to like?
Highly recommended.

Let me start by saying: this book gave me a book Hangover. It's been two days and I still cant stop thinking about that ending!! Took me totally by surprise and I might actually have to reread it soon!



This book follows Dr. Ryland Grace in a Dual Timeline. In the first he wakes up in a spaceship in a solar system that is not our own, with no memory of how he got there or even who he is. The second timeline is his slowly regained memories from before he left earth and the events leading up to his adventure into the Deep Dark. As the story unfolds Dr. Grace discovers he might not be quite as alone out there as he though.

As with The Martian, one of Andy Weirs other Novels (and probably Artemis as well, but I haven't gotten to that one yet), Project Hail Mary is very heavily science based. I was surprised then to realize with my limited science understanding, I was able to comprehend everything discussed in this book. For that I would like to give a hand to Weir as that is truly a remarkable feat. To take dense, advanced science and make it understandable to a neophyte I am in awe. I believe it did help that I read this at a slower rate then I normally do and would recommend doing the same if, like me, science is not your strong suit.

However, now we need to talk about the main character himself. Dr. Grace. I don't think I actually like him at all, and I get the feeling that's kind of the point. He came off, to me at any rate, as a PG, blasé Mark Watney, from The Martian, only instead of being a Botanist Dr Grace is a biologist. A lot of the times he is funny, and other times I can't tell if he's suppose to be funny or if he just likes stating the obvious.

Overall I did love this book. I just couldn't put it down! I couldn't really sleep until I was finished with it and I'm positive I drove my co-workers utterly bananas talking about it. I could never predict what was about to happen and that ENDING. Wow! As I said, 4 stars. I can't wait to get my hands on a finished and as always, can't wait to see what Weir's going to come up with next!

Project Hail Mary
4.5 rounding up to 5
This review contains spoilers.

Project Hail Mary is a sci-fi novel following a microbiologist, Ryland Grace, embarking on a mission to save Earth from an impending ice age caused by bacteria that are blocking out the sun. Along the way, he meets an alien life form and together they work to save their planets from this space bacteria. There’s lots of experimentation, light-hearted humor, and thrilling moments throughout their journey.

I absolutely loved this book, even more than the Martian. In my opinion, The Martian’s scientific explanations were verbose and hard to follow but I felt that was improved in this novel! As a programmer myself, I loved that Grace created a software program to translate between the alien language and English. Even the physics behind the spaceship, space travel, time dilation, etc. were pretty accesible to me. I admit that I took several engineering physics in college but I felt that I could follow most of the scientific explanations which is more than I can say about The Martian.

I also really loved Rocky. He was absolutely adorable! Watching his relationship with Grace blossom was so wholesome. I admit I was hoping for a plot twist where the alien ship actually had humans aboard or some human-like life form but I was not disappointed by Rocky.

What I was disappointed by was the characterizations. Ryland Grace is essentially the PG version of Mark Watney. I guess I was just hoping that the main character would remain a lighthearted optimist without the cringey jokes and obnoxious cursing (although in this case self-censored cursing). I also found many of the other personnel involved in Project Hail Mary to be stereotypical and one dimensional. Dmitri and Ilyukhina were crazy drunks and Yáo was the serious, stoic commander. They weren’t main characters or anything but their descriptions really rubbed me the wrong way, especially with how many scenes Dmitri/Ilyukhina were drinking vodka.

I also felt that the memory loss was a little convenient at times - we would reach the end of a scene and suddenly Grace would remember something that would advance the plot. It would often come out of nowhere, followed or preceded by the word “suddenly”. Grace would also remember his fallen comrades and cry, then tell himself “no, I cant right now, I have science to do”. He did this like 3-4 times and it just got repetitive. It felt a little strange that he would be so emotionally attached to these people since they were acquaintances and not people he spent years and years training with.

I was worried that the ending would be anticlimactic but I was surprised by the ending and how well it fit with the story. I think having Rocky and Grace discover Taumoeba, then flying back home and saving their planets would have been a boring ending so I was pleasantly surprised that he ends up staying on Erid and teaching Eridians. I thought it was such a good choice and absolutely loved it.

Overall, with the exception of some minor details, I really loved this book. Thanks to NetGalley for supplying me with this ARC!

This was incredible! Weir did an excellent job with plot twists and last-minute rescues. A joy to read.

If you liked The Martian, you're probably going to like this book. It's fast paced, it's got a great premise, and is full of action and even some laughs.

The book starts out with some HEAVY Martian vibes. Dr. Ryland Grace is stuck alone on a spaceship and has to use science and math to figure out how to save himself. The story almost felt TOO similar to The Martian.

Ryland's voice is very much Mark's Martian voice (which is, I suppose Weir's voice, too) and he's the only character. Don't get me wrong, most people love this voice and it's non-snooty approach to stuff that normally seems unapproachable (including me). However at first it felt so on the nose, I worried this was simply going to be "Project Hail Martian."

Thankfully, it is not. The book is very much it's own thing, mostly do to two key narrative choices. The first is a big, fat spoiler that I will not reveal here, except to say that I enjoyed it. (Suffice it to say, this is NOT a rehash of the Martian plot.)

The second was the fact that Ryland wakes up at the start of the book without his memories, knowing who he is, how he came to be on the mission, and what exactly that mission even IS. It's a smart artistic choice that gives the story a lot of momentum and keeps you guessing (the reader eventually starts, like Ryland, filling in some of the missing pieces of his memory, which aren't always correct.)

I admittedly am not into outer space, find science fascinating (but don't necessarily always get it) and downright loathe math. So, of course, that is the biggest hurdle for me in reading Weir's books. Weir loves to get technical....suuuuuuper technical. Thankfully his characters are Regular Joes that explain things in a way ordinary, non-sciencey/mathy folks can follow. However, it is still A LOT of science and math to follow. (When Ryland started calculating a bunch of stuff in the final pages of the book, I realized I was a little exhausted.)

My biggest beef with the book is that for being a regular guy (who is very smart and resourceful), Ryland is also suuuupper lucky. He makes a whole lotta, "just spitballing, and using basic logic here" leaps of faith and nearly ALWAYS lands on his feet. It became a little hard to buy after awhile. (Like I'm just spitballing, but I think this is how you fly a spaceship.")

Of course, the character also makes some mega mistakes in the story (because otherwise the plot would be boring), but as a whole, this mission's success relies on him being not only the smartest guy in the world, but the luckiest too. The book kinda explains the former (how a middle school science teacher found himself on this crazy mission with no memories), but not the later. I think we're supposed to love him so much and root for him so hard that we just roll with all these heroics. For the most part, I did...but not always.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.