4.5 stars!

Andy Weir has done it again! He’s made this reader who avoids most books related to math and science love another book that’s brimming with it. He has a talent for taking complex ideas and making them simple and even interesting for someone who generally zones out when anything scientific sounding is introduced. At this point, I think it’s safe to say Andy Weir is an auto-read author for me. While most readers who loved The Martian weren’t fond of his follow-up novel Artemis, I actually really enjoyed it. And for me, Project Hail Mary was the best of both of those novels.

This will be a novel that’s hard to discuss without spoilers since so many surprising things happen right from the opening. But I’ll do my best!

I challenge you to read the first five pages and NOT want to keep reading. What an opening! Ryland Grace wakes up alone with no clue where he is or how he got there. HIs body isn’t responding the way it should and he struggles with the fog that is keeping rational thoughts at bay. He slowly comes to the realization that he’s hurtling through space and his crew mates are dead. While that opening alone is enough to keep me turning pages, Weir infuses Ryland with his unique wit and humor that elevates the story beyond the run of the mill science fiction thriller.

As Ryland’s memory returns, he flashes back to the past and slowly reveals how he ended up as the sole-survivor of this last-chance mission to save Earth. And as things seem hopeless, he finds glimmers of hope in unexpected places. He also just might be the perfect person for the job.

This well-written novel is a mix of things: science fiction, mystery, fantasy, thriller. There’s a diverse cast as the entire planet comes together to save humanity. And I can only hope Hollywood takes notice once again.

This book is absolutely amazing. I can honestly say it's my new all time favorite. Just like The Martian there is a lot of science that i tended to glaze over but the story is incredible. I could not put it down.

Rating: 5/5

ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY! ROCKY!

Can that be my entire review? No? Well, let me just say this. I am in love with this book!

This is my first book by Andy Weir and wow! I. Am. Just. Lost. For. Words.

The plot of Project Hail Mary is basically this. All of Earth is going to die and it's up to one man who can't remember anything, much less his name, to save it. This book also has some alien life in it but it was done in a super new and interesting way, that I personally have never seen done before!

I was a bit hesitant to read this because of a couple of reasons. 1) Andy Weir is a big name author and I was scared I wouldn't like his work, 2)this book uses the amnesia trope which isn't something I usually enjoy, but wow did I love it in the context it plays in this book, 3)claustrophobic spaces/stories that are set in only one small location are my jam, but 4)this book also has a duel timeline which is another trope I usually tend to dislike, but once again, I loved it in the context of this story! So yeah, you could say I was wrestling with some mixed feelings before jumping into this story, but luckily it paid off really well! And I don't want to jinx anything, but I think this might be a new favorite of the year!

I really don't know what else to say besides that I loved this book! I found it fascinating and fast-paced, I connected so deeply with the characters to the point that I laughed and almost cried my way through it entirely, and that ending! Perfection!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

In a last-ditch effort to save Earth from an extinction-level event, a group of astronauts is sent on a desperate mission in a cobbled-together spacecraft. But when Ryland Grace wakes up, he has no memory of his mission or why the rest of the crew is dead. The sole survivor, he must take on an impossible task with no margin for failure.

Andy Weir returns to many of the elements that made The Martian a best seller: a desperate space mission where a sarcastic protagonist MacGyver's his way through with science. Unfortunately, Project Hail Mary doesn't have the mass appeal of The Martian. Ryland Grace is an annoying version of Mark Watney, the mission was less realistic, and the science was overwhelming at times. I didn't connect with the story until over halfway through, and would only recommend this book to strong science fiction readers.

I’ll be the first to admit that science fiction isn’t my go-to genre. But I read Andy Weir’s first book (The Martian) and loved it. So when I saw this one coming out, I figured it was time to try another sci-fi book.

It wasn’t my jam. I loved the premise. The sun is losing energy. Microorganisms are eating it up. If that doesn’t change, everything on the Earth will die in 30 years. Ryland is sent to another solar system to save humanity.

But, at about a third of the way thru, it just got too weird for me. I’m good with fantasy novels, but I just can’t get onboard with aliens. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Though it’s not for me. If you’re into space, science fiction and smart, interesting leading men, then give it a try. I can see how others would love it.

Ryland Grace wakes up aboard a spaceship with two dead crewmembers beside him and no recollection of how or why he got there. Then slowly he begins to put the pieces together. He was placed in a medically-induced coma and he’s on a mission to save Earth from another Ice Age and mass extinction.

I really enjoyed this one. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is an absolute celebration of science and human ingenuity, filled with humor and heart.

It also places an interesting spin of the alien first contact trope. Instead of sentient, human-eating alien predators, humanity’s threat is tiny invasive space algae that are eating our sun’s energy. You can’t shoot them or ask them to leave, so now it’s up to Ryland to get creative and figure out how to get rid of them.

Lastly, I think it’s important to note that this is very much a hard science fiction novel. It’s got a lot of scientific exposition in it. If you’re a science nerd, you’ll probably geek out over this one, but for others, it may make the book more difficult to get into. I admit that it’s been a while since I took a physics class, so some of the science went over my head, but I just nodded along, like, yeah, that sounds about right.

All and all, I’d say this book is very tonally similar to Andy’s previous novel The Martian. It chooses scientific hope and optimism in the face of despair, and that I think is beautiful.

I absolutely LOVED "The Martian" by Andy Weir. I loved it because it read as science fiction that could ultimately be feasible in our current world. It bridged a gap from astrophysics to humanity in a way that, if I couldn't fully understand it, I could fully support and cheer for it.

"Project Hail Mary" was close to that. When I started it, I thought it was going to be the best science fiction book I had read in a while. It was exciting, mysterious, and I loved the use of flashback for supplying the history of the present situation that the main character found themself in.

And then the science came. And it was so much science, It was pages and pages of science. The science overwhelmed not just my brain, but the entire book. I think the story was sacrificed for the sake of the science, and it made what could have been a real page turner into a bit of a slog.

Ryland Grace wakes up to find himself in space, alone, on a mission that will make the difference between Erath surviving and not. But he can't seem to remember who he is or why he is here. He is the only soul alive to complete this task....or is he?

I don't know that I WON'T recommend this book to people, because I think others may absolutely love it. I am a bit hesitant to recommend it to anyone who isn't a die hard science fiction fan. Because with "The Martian," there was mostly fiction with a a bit of science. And this seems to be mostly science with a bit of fiction.

My rating is more of a 3.5 but not up to 4 stars. There were just too many times when it all felt like it was going to morph into The Martian but was pulled back from the brink just in time. I loved The Martian, it actually had me breathless at times - not so with Hail Mary because I even put this one down for long stretches and felt no compulsion to dig back in. I even made a trip to the book description page on Amazon at one point to see if I might have chosen a middle grade book by mistake. Not impossible for Weir to want to do something like that but logical thinking said that the science would have been quite a few shades too tough. The Earth is in crisis and this ship is sent on a suicide mission to fix the problem or everyone on Earth dies. Maybe a little too far fetched to believe all of these problems can be solved by one human? Maybe the ending was expected? Maybe it was too predictable? Yes, yes and yes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an e-galley of this novel.

I absolutely LOVED The Martian so when I saw Andy Weir wrote another book about a dude stranded alone in space I knew I had to check it out. How can a guy write TWO books about guys stranded alone and trying to survive in space, and make them different but also awesome? Could it be done?! Reader, it CAN and he did it.

(Side note: my poor spouse watched the movie of The Martian with me after I'd read the book, and was subjected to my continual comments about how much more amazing the book is than the movie. Don't get me wrong, the movie is pretty great, but there's just SO MUCH in the book and his sort of internal monologue you just can't get in a movie with basically one character with nobody to talk to. So please read the book - and listen to the audiobook if you can, the narrator is AMAZING.)

ANYWAY, back to this book. I was so invested in this book, in the outcome and in Ryland's slowly returning memories, that I didn't want to put it down. The story is almost told in a dual timeline; there's the "now" of Ryland waking with no memory of who (or where) he is or what the heck he's doing there, and then slowly bits and pieces of memories start to come back to him, and interspersed with the "now" storyline we get the "past" story that led to Ryland waking on a spacecraft with no memory. Certain things Ryland does or needs seem to unlock key memories that help him move his mission (and this the story) forward, and it makes for a very compelling storytelling method. We learn about the mission right along with Ryland as he recovers his memories.

The only thing I didn't 110% love was the ending. It felt a little ... off, for me, but I can't quite pinpoint why. And I don't really want to say more because I don't want to spoil anything! And it wasn't off enough to make me rate this less than 5 stars, because it was an amazingly enjoyable ride the whole way through anyway. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how Andy Weir manages to strand a man in space next and still make it new and interesting, haha!

“Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir. I really, really wanted to love this book. I really, really wanted to be blown away. I really, really read the scores of five-star reviews. So, after completing the novel last night, I sit here wondering what I missed. I enjoyed “The Martian” with its mixture of science and suspense. I believe Mr. Weir was striving for the same mixture but it has fallen flat. This story feels more for the Young Adult market beginning with the selection of a protagonist who teaches science to young people, and, oh yeah, on the side he is one of the foremost scientists in the world who happens to be chosen for an interstellar trip to save his home planet from extinction.
So if you like science this book is for you: I agree with another reviewer who wrote that “if you cut out all of the science exposition, you’d be left with a 70-page book.” Spot on! I like science titration...a small dose distributed over a long period of time. Please give me “The Foundation Trilogy (I know I am old school.” Some sound science mixed into a rippin’ good yarn.

Easy 5 star read for me. I loved Michael Crichton as a younger reader and Project Hail Mary is reminiscent of his best work with added layers of character and humor. Any discussion of my favorite character would be a spoiler, so i'll say generally that the characters are the best part of this book. Other than that, you want to go in as blind as possible (as our protagonist is on the first few pages). This will be a hit with fans of The Martian. Its an incredibly fun thriller.

Received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second Andy Weir novel, as I read (and LOVED) The Martian but never checked out Artemis.

I'm not going to go deep into the plot because I don't want to spoil a novel before it's even released. That said, I liked this a whole lot. The pacing was consistent, the plot was fun and interesting in a way that strongly reminded me of The Martian, and I loved all the characters.

Andy Weir has a real talent for taking scientific information that I am just barely smart enough to follow and making it readable. I also appreciate how based in science his books seem to be (because it's not like I'd actually be able to tell if he was full of s**t.

If you're in the mood for a funny, frankly kind of heartwarming and wholesome sci-fi that has not even a hint of a romantic subplot, do yourself a favor and check this out!

Since publishing The Martian Andy Weir has been at the top of my science fiction favorite authors. He has another amazing work in Project Hail Mary. The author has an amazing talent for integrating science information in his novels and making them interesting. This book is no exception. For lovers of space flight, biological science, physics, and calculus this novel is a must-read. For the rest of us it a novel that teaches and entertains. Andy's books are realistic with great characters and plots that explore human and in this novel, inhuman nature.
The main character is a space traveler. He awakens in his spacecraft to find his fellow astronauts dead after their induced travel comas. He remembers his training but in bits and pieces, he puts together the past and how he got on the Hail Mary. Then he encounters another ship starting the adventure that exceeds his expectations and takes the reader on a journey exploring his efforts to save not just earth, but another planet.
Along with science, this book explores friendship and makes a statement about what is important in our lives. For fans of The Martian, I highly recommend this book. It has so many fascinating facets including life, science, space travel, and diversity that you will find yourself thinking about it long after you turn the last page. Andy Weir does it all right in #ProjectHailMary. Thanks to #ProjectHailMary#NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this excellent book. The publication date is May 4, 2021. Put it on your must-read list.

I received a galley of this book from NetGalley prepublication.
The Martian felt to me like science fiction that actually happened, I started to believe that we had landed humans on Mars. Andy Weir’s second book Artemis was way different: fun and easy sci-fi that felt plausible but never real. This latest novel pushes the limits of plausibility but backs it with so much fun science and math. A grade school science teacher saves the world with good old STEM! From the discovery of alien microbes to actual alien intelligence this author does very little hand-waving in terms of explanations, relying instead on hard science. Excellent, thank you again Andy Weir.

I couldn’t get into this book. I’m sure others will like it, probably those that prefer his earlier work. I’d recommend it to students that are into philosophy or any science. The experience of the astronaut and his isolation is unnerving, so I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone younger than tenth grade.

Wow! I didn’t like Artemis as much as the Martian, but I think Project Hail Mary eclipses both. Every twist and turn managed to be nerve wracking AND touching. It did not have the ending I expected, but there is literally no better ending possible.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Actual rating: 4.5

Andy Weir returns with his newest space adventure in Project Hail Mary. This time, Earth is under threat from a space algae that has infected the sun, causing it to lose energy. Junior high school science teacher Dr. Ryland Grace is tapped by the international group charged with saving Earth, charged with doing research into this strange new threat. Grace finds himself in deeper than he ever thought, unexpectedly part of a crew of scientists set to travel to a particular star to have any hope of stopping the infection.

I loved The Martian, and was so eager to learn that I had received an early copy of Project Hail Mary. As a biologist by education, I love that Weir doesn't shy away from featuring hard science heavily in his books. Understandably, he has to take liberties with the application and interpretation of said science, but he has done enough research and provides just enough information for me to be able to buy in to the story. I can absolutely see where this may not appeal to some readers and may come across as dull or dry, but for me it was high intrigue the whole way through. I also really enjoyed how Weir chose to tackle the "first contact" portions of this story, and found them to be logical and reasonable.

The difference for me between the five stars of The Martian and the four point five stars of Project Hail Mary came through in the protagonists. Grace's personality is one that is optimistic and colored by his enjoyment of teaching children. He comes across as relatively hopeful and light-hearted most of the time, and sometimes that sort of vibe got a little grating for me. That's not to say he was poorly written at all, but just that I didn't like him quite as well.

There were some questions left unanswered at the end of the story that I would have liked to have answers to, but there were no glaring issues that stood out to me.

Ultimately, I am definitely an Andy Weir fan and am so happy to have had the opportunity to read this work early.

Wow! What a fantastic read! I was immediately drawn into the story of a man waking up with amnesia and piecing together he’s on a solo mission to save the planet. The story was heavy on the science but it was written in a way that didn’t feel overwhelming for someone like me who barely remembers college physics. The story became surprisingly funny and heartwarming and the ending was unexpected but perfect.

Quite different from his previous two novels, this one will appeal to those who like their science fiction heavy on the science.

Andy Weir is cementing his place as a shining star in the vast cosmos of science fiction writers with his latest release, Project Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary is a thrilling read, easily on the level of The Martian, which details the quest of Dr. Ryland Grace to save the world. The only problem is that he’s lost his memories. He can barely remember his own name, let alone the reason for why he’s in space.

The premise of this book is interesting and unique. Essentially, our hero (a former junior high school teacher) is in space without his memories. His goal is to save the sun from the microorganisms called “astrophages”. However, he must remember how first. He encounters aliens along the way, and they end up working together to try and save the day.

Like his other books, Project Hail Mary is filled with lots of high-level science references. Andy Weir does a great job of making things accessible and explaining them to the readers as his characters work through them. In addition to the minute level of scientific detail, Weir also does a great job in building the world of his story and allowing the reader to step into it.

Thank you to Net Galley and Ballantine Books (Random House Publishing Group) for granting my wish and allowing me to read a copy of this book early.