This was so unexpected and enjoyable to read. Not in my normal genre but have wanted to read something by this author and so glad I did. I cant help but wonder where his ideas come from because this was simply beyond anything I could imagine. A gripping and emotional read. Thank you netgalleg for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wavered between a 3 and a 4 on this, but realized I was only downgrading it because of my own inability to understand everything written. This is definitely technical, but Weir does his best to talk about it all in layman's terms. There was a reason I was a liberal arts major and not a science one. The story itself if great and plugs along well. It's all the science detail that slows it down. I adored Rocky, and while at first I wasn't sure about the ending, I'm okay with it. I don't want to say why otherwise I might give it away. Really, this book was written to be a screenplay for a movie. I'm a visual person, so much of this would have made far more sense if I could see it. Really enjoyable book, though, and a fun ride.

4.5 stars rounded up to a 5.

This book is absolutely amazing. This is what great science fiction looks like. I thought The Martian was very good but Andy Weir really ratchets it up. The story is similar to The Martian in terms of story device and where the story is trying to lead, ie self preservation, but he adds a lot more of the human element and gives Ryland Grace a much bigger task in the overall scheme of things....saving the planet Earth from extinction. The plot goes in unexpected directions. The intense science descriptions are all there once again and even more so but as I have a science background I had little trouble with it and really enjoyed it. Your brain is really working when you read this book and it is fun to predict what will happen before it happens. The best part of the book though is not really about the science and I can’t really talk about it without spoiling it.

This book is highly creative, intelligent, entertaining, funny, suspenseful and informative. I honestly don’t know how Weir does it but I’m glad he does. If science is not your thing this book may not be for you as it might give you a headache but I flew through it in a few days ( it’s nearly 500 pages). I couldn’t put it down for long.. just long enough for my brain to rest a bit. My only complaint is that I personally wanted to see a little more closure at the end. There were a few unanswered questions but not enough to make it incomplete or frustrating. It was pretty close to perfect and a truly fun adventure. Keep the books coming Andy even if it takes another few years. I’ll be waiting!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. what a journey. And such a unique one at that. This book was quite a rollercoaster for me. When it started, i was very intrigued. I went into the story with little background but lots of high hopes following the success of the Martian. Everything changed following the arrival of Rocky. I was afraid at that point it was going to be....lets say weird. That being said, it did get weird, very weird in fact. But it also was very entertaining. Yes, it was super cheesy at times, and a little too "oh this worked so perfectly". But i think that was necessary. You have two highly intelligent beings, working to solve the same problem. Maybe it would work perfectly like that in real life.

I think though, out of everything, i really appreciated the heartwarming factor of the book. It gave you this hope in humanity, that despite everything bad out there, there is goodness. We can all work together and solve our problems. It is a book that is needed, especially in our current climate.

Thanks to NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Andy Weir for providing me with an advanced reading copy.

A completely engrossing novel that takes elements of all the things we love about science fiction and makes them come together in a really enjoyable way: We get some moves toward hard sci fi (although some things are laugh-out-loud unrealistic); first contacts that are disappointing, treacherous, and endearing; risk-taking and adventure in space; nerdy science guys who somehow manage to engineer a way out of even the most colossal of screw ups; and even some (albeit very little) alien worldbuilding. For the first ~40% of the novel, I was completely in love and could not put it down. It was like the first time I read Tom Clancy and the first time I read Heinlein put together. Pure amazingness.

A man wakes up in a small hospital room with a tubes coming out of everywhere and a machine incessantly asking him stupid questions. What's 2+2? What's your name? Thing is, as much as he knows the answers, he just can't get them out. He slowly starts to gain control of himself and move around a little. He starts eating, gets a little stronger, is moving around better, but still can't remember where he is or why he is there--or even who he is. But he seems to have the mind of a scientist because he is determined to figure it out through sheer deductive reasoning alone.

Turns out he is Ryland Grace is a washed-up academic now teaching junior high science. He set a torch to his career when he published a paper refuting the conventional wisdom that alien life can only exist where there is water, royally pissing off each and every one of his colleagues. Hey, we all have that hill we will die on. But now an alien life-form has been discovered that may just prove him right and he has been conscripted into an international effort to stop this mysterious alien life from slowly extinguishing all life on earth. But just how did that happen? And was this mission doomed from the start?

As great as it started, I really feel like the second half of this novel is a different book than the first. The main character is like a completely different person. The writing style is completely different. The plot devices are completely different. We move from well-structured revelations about an alien species that arise from scientific necessity to exhausting info-dumps that are completely dependent on interspecies dialogue. There is at least plot driving the dialogue, so I could roll with it for a while, but by about 67% I really reached saturation and was just over it. And it's just not as creative. The whole sequence of learning to communicate is just a scene from Chiang's "Story of Your Life" / Arrival. I really wanted that energy and innovation to carry into the second half and it just didn't deliver. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, it just wasn't what I hoped it would be based on the first half.

My greatest appreciation to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the eARC in exchange for the review. I was super excited for this book and I'm so glad I had a chance to read it!

I loved The Martian and was very lukewarm on Artemis, so I was interested to see where this book landed. The good thing is that I feel it was much closer to The Martian, so that's a bonus. The downside is maybe it as too close...? Very similar scenarios, but not enough that it was a straight copy-paste. But definitely a "Man Against Space" adventure full of what-if scenarios and hard science answers to the questions that would inevitably pop up. Lots and lots and lots of math and science thrown around. Showing your work is important with hard scifi, but there are entire passages that felt more like a science textbook or a lecture (which makes sense given that the narrator is a teacher).

The only part where I felt it hewed way too close to The Martian was the final scene. That really DID feel like a copy-paste version of something from the movie (and maybe the book... it's been too long since I read it to say for sure).

(Advance copy received from NetGalley in exchange for this review)

Only Andy Weir can take us to deep space, immerse us in science but explain it in a way "anyone" can understand and tell it with wicked good humor. We begin with a science teacher turned last minute astronaut who is sent out to deep space with little training to save the Earth when the sun stops giving us heat. Easy right? Dealing with problems and variables he can't control he teams up with an unlikely partner to save the world from extinction. So much fun to read and smart - this is the one space book everyone should read. Weir's "Astrophysics For Dummies" approach that doesn't make you feel like a dummy makes us all want to be armchair astronauts. Can't wait for the tv/movie of this one! This is a great choice for older kids, teens and adults. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up in a spaceship with no memory of how or why he’s there. He’s a junior high school science teacher, what the hell is he doing on a spaceship? Also, the other two astronauts are dead. Like, really dead. Grace is alone.

Slowly, veeeery slowly, Grace’s memory starts to come back to him: he’s on a mission to save the Earth. There’s this nasty space bacteria-thingy called Astrophage that’s dimming the light of Mr. Burns’s archnemesis: the Sun.

There’s a lot of science involved, but Weir explains, in great detail, just how Astrophage dims the Sun and why that’s really, really, really, really bad for the Earth. Like, apocalyptic-bad. Billions will die bad. Famine, disease, war, rocks fall, everyone dies and freezes to death bad. Only not right away. Over the course of several years. So everyone will die, but they’ll get to do it real slowly. Either way, it ends with everybody dead and the Earth being rendered uninhabitable. All of Grace’s wee little students will grow up watching their Earth slowly die. Unless Project Hail Mary finds a solution. And there seems to be a solution out there - Tau Ceti seems to be the only star not infected with Astrophage. Why? How? What? So this all powerful woman called Stratt, who has been given authority by just about everyone (how? Reasons. Don’t ask questions) yanks Grace out of his classroom - first to study Astrophage, and then, somehow, he can’t remember exactly, roped him into going on a dozen-light-year journey to Tau Ceti with the crew of the Hail Mary.

Only the rest of the crew is dead. Something went wrong while they were in a coma during their four-year space voyage. Grace is alone.

Inside the Hail Mary.

Full of a dude called Grace.

I see what you did there, Weir. Don’t think I didn’t see what you did there. I mean, you don’t even have to be Catholic to see what you did there.

Soon enough, however, Grace spots something on the Hail Mary’s radar. It’s...another spaceship? All the way out by Tau Ceti? At first, Grace thinks maybe its another ship from Earth, like a backup plan, that’d make sense, right? Only it’s not.

Who could it be?

Aliens?

Yeah, it’s aliens.

Our friend Grace gets to be the dude to make first contact with the sentient, spider-like creatures of the first planet in the system 40 Eridani. Turns out 40 Eridani is also infected with Astrophage, which is causing all sorts of problems for the Eridians, and their ship just happened to be around Tau Ceti at the exact same time as the Hail Mary. Crazy, right? Anyway, after the initial first contact and the long, drawn-out process of learning to communicate with one another (with no help from Amy Adams or Jeremy Renner), Grace and the lone Eridian, whom Grace christens Rocky, team up to save their respective worlds.

Science and plenty of flashbacks ensue.

I’m not a scientist - well, I have a master’s degree in library and information science, which, I guess, is a science? My point is, while the science may be lost on me and my brain which is full mostly of Simpsons quotes rather than actual knowledge, I do loves me a fun story where Science (with a capital S) saves the day. And, make no mistake, this book is fun. You might get a bit bogged down by the science, but once you get past it, this is a highly enjoyable story of one dangerously unqualified guy desperately trying to save the world with his new BFF, alien spider guy who speaks in musical notes. It’s up to them and them alone. Good luck, guys! Don’t forget that billions upon billions of lives depend on you. No pressure.

Seriously, if you loved The Martian, you’ll love Project Hail Mary. They’re similar, but Hail Mary is on a much larger scale than The Martian - there’s a lot more at stake in the hands of one guy. Plus: aliens!

Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say I would have loved more from the ending. I would’ve loved an epilogue from some of the other character’s perspectives or something. I mean, I could even go with a sequel! Maybe something where Erid and Earth are finally able to communicate? There’s a lot of potential for short stories or novellas set in the same world as Project Hail Mary - there’s got to be bonus material there and I want it. More, please? That’d be nice. I’d definitely read it. So... Hop to it, Weir!

One last complaint: Grace doesn’t swear. Like, at all. Come on, Grace, would it kill you to say “fuck” or “shit” every now and again? I mean, I sipped coffee that was too hot and let out a bunch of words that’d make a 19th century whaler blush. Geez.

Fans of The Martian will devour this book!

The Martian is one of my favorite books of the last few years and it's movie adaptation was brilliant, so I was absolutely thrilled to get a copy of Project Hail Mary. On the whole, I absolutely loved it. I flew through it despite some sections that were very heavy on the science which is not my forte, Fans of The Martian will appreciate the similarities and enjoy the differences. The idea is similar but the specifics are unique.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the sarcastic but loveable attitude of the main character. He had his flaws but you never hesitate to root for him. I thoroughly enjoyed his sense of human and wit. I also truly enjoyed the way this one was put together with flash backs explaining how the project came together and how he personally ended up where he is. I was shocked by the reveal of specifically how he came to be one of the people on Project Hail Mary. I also loved the Stratt character. Her overwhelming dedication to the project is both admirable and frightening. The whole alternation between past and present is brilliantly spun together.

There were one or two things I struggled with.

First, I found Rocky's physical description very distracting. While I understand the desire for him to look drastically different from humans, the way he was described, which is sort of similar to a bear or a dog but one that has no eyes or ears and who poops from his hidden mouth and also eats through it was a little out there for me. In the beginning Grace estimates him at 800lbs, then when he has to move him he says he's about 400 pounds, either way it made it every difficult for me to take seriously as I was picturing a blind deaf Alf and it was just an odd contrast between the serious science and doomsday plot and a completely off the wall alien being. The other thing I struggled with was the ending. I found the decision that Grace made at the end hard to believe given the way he ended up on the mission. And while I do think the very end was fitting, the section just before that become a little out there for me. Both of these things just made it hard for me to picture how this movie could possibly merge the insanity and high-sci-fi with the down to earth (no pun intended!) nature of a doomsday book.

All of that being said, over all I really truly enjoyed reading it and I think fans of The Martian will absolutely crush this one in a day and love it.

I’m speechless.

Basically my life was complete when I got an email that I was randomly selected for and ARC for Project Hail Mary. The Martian is one of my fav books ever. One of the best movie adaptations.

So the publisher requested to not say too much. Here’s what I’ll say: Holy. Guacamole.

If you liked The Martian, don’t give it a second thought. Def get this one. It comes out in May!

Now, there is a lot of science/physics in this book. But the way Weir handles the subject is not intimidating and you will not get lost.

And technically this is sci-fi but there is so much realness and wit and humanity in the characters, the sci-fi is almost secondary.

After Reading and Loving The Martian i was excited to read Andy Weir's New book Project Hail Mary . Ryland grace is our hero and wakes up miles from home lying on a bed surrounded by cameras , connected to tubes . He cant remember anything about himself . We pick up information about hom through flashbacks . this is simply an amazing story . You will love spending time with Ryland and finding out what his mission is

In the editor's note at the beginning of this book, the editor notes that they love this newest novel by Weir because it pushes the science. It also pushes all credibility and sense. I have a very strong willing suspension of disbelief, but this went too far, making it much more a fantasy--of about a five-year-old--than anything else. If you enjoyed the technical creativity of The Martian, you'll want to give this one a pass.

Project Hail Mary

• This book is written by Andy Weir, published by Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine. ISBN 9780593135204
• Ryland Grace is the sole member of a mission team that has been sent into deep space. Grace awakens and finds himself alone with two dead team members and a total loss of memory. The only assistance in the ship is an AI that as grace puts it, “is not HAL”. You will read of his mission statement, his desire and need to recall who he is, and trying to save the planet Earth.
• I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
• The book took me on many plot twists and I very much the humor and sorrow of Grace’s loss. There is enough science explained to make you believe the story and really does add a great deal to the entire story. I found myself easily “hearing and seeing” Grace and the other characters mentioned in this book. This is one of the best Sci-Fi books that I have read in a very long time.
• I do suggest that if you enjoy Sci-Fi with a real plot and well-written storyline, then this book is for you.
• I give this book 5 stars out of 5.

Project Hail Mary is similar in tone to Weir's phenomenally successful The Martian. Both concern extremely competent and smart individuals who find themselves unexpectedly alone in an alien and environment and must use their wits/knowledge/education to find creative solutions to a myriad of problems encountered. The stakes are much bigger this time, with the fate of Earth and most of humanity and nature hanging in the balance.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Random House for letting me get an advanced copy of this book. All that I can say is wow. I legitimately read this book for ten hours straight. Start to finish. Could not put it down. I already knew I loved Weir. "The Martian" is one of my favorite books of all time. While I thought I would enjoy this one, I didn't think it would live up to his debut. I was wrong. It was absolutely fabulous. I was so invested in Rylands story and the fate of humanity. I think it was done so well. There are still many aspects of science, but again, it was done in an accessible way. Even if I had no idea what any of it meant, it was still fairly easy to understand the concept. Just wow. I wish this book was coming out sooner, because I need friends and family to read it so I can discuss it with them! 5 stars. So. Good.

Andy Weir's newest explores themes of cooperation and discovery among humans and aliens facing extinction from an unknown threat. It was a fast and interesting read that I would recommend.

Ryland Grace is the only survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission. If he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Problem is, as the story opens, Ryland doesn’t know he’s on a mission. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

What he does know is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home. Oh and he’s not by himself, there are two others but they’re dead.

Hus memory begins to return in small increments and he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been thrown together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, the future of mankind lies solely in his hands.


This book is reminiscent of The Martian where a lone character has lost his crew-mates and is forced to navigate a hostile environment on his own.

The mysteries keep the reader on a page turning mission. Why has Ryland lost his memories, how did his crew-mates die and what is the threat to humanity that he has to navigate? And, why is the project titled Hail Mary?

As you reach the end, and the book reveals its true target, you will be stunned..

Project Hail Mary is on target to be another hit for Andy Weir.

I tried to give Andy Weir a second chance after hating Artemis. I went into this book with an open mind but...nope, hate this writing style. The whole amnesia thing seemed tacked on because it was the only way to make the plot interesting. The main character is a super smart Ned Flanders in space. Just not for me.

Oh my goodness! I loved this book so much. Although it is only February, I can say with certainty that 'Project Hail Mary' will be one of my favorite books of the year. Andy Weir had a lot to live up to after 'The Martian', but he has done that--and more.

This book has everything: action, adventure, space travel, intrigue, and a hugely charismatic main character. The plot is completely believable, and there is so much detail about the science involved that (even though a lot of it went over my head) I really believed everything in it could really happen.

This book will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It is a MUST read for anyone and everyone who loves books. Love, love, love it.

Andy Weir ingenuity is astounding. Three novels now. Except for the space element, each is completely distinct. Each is completely original. Each is mind-bogglingly intricate. Each is mesmerizing. I'd never have thought it possible to fall in love with a spider, but he made me do it!