Yay, a book by Andy Weir! Boo! What an off-putting title. Oh well. So I am at a loss how to process this religious imagery of the title. I grew up in a sect that considered praying to Mary as blasphemy and that grace (the name of the protagonist) without works is hypocrisy, but I can agree that Hail Mary (the spaceship) is full of Grace (the astronaut). Groan. I’m sure I’m not the first to notice this, but I’m probably one of the few to note it. Sorreeeey!

But seriously, this story does have as not-funny-at-all a setting as I could hope to imagine. Grace awakens with profound amnesia, alone, unable to speak, strapped to bed, and being monitored by mechanical devices attached to the ceiling. That alone is horrifying. Eventually he realizes he is in the Alpha Centauri system, which means he’s likely to die here alone, never to return home in his lifetime, and ….. he’s here to find out how to save the earth? And time is of the essence! Yikes, it just keeps getting better and better.

The time story takes place close to today, 2021, complete with today’s global warming threat, which there, like here, is taken seriously by too few. On top of that, Earth’s sun has started to dim. It’s being drained of its energy by a swarm of a teeny tiny alien life force. Things just keep getting better! These beings are tiny, round, and inscrutable, and Dr Grace has been recruited, ahem, drafted, to scrutinize them. This is because he has a unique theory about non-water-based creatures. I expect that if these tiny monsters could communicate, they would be calling us “ugly bags of mostly water.” And yes, there will be some attempts at speech recognition going on in this first-contact-with-aliens story.

Amazingly, this grim first-contact setting hardly perturbs Grace, for has the hope, optimism, and ingenuity characteristic of Andy Weir’s heroes. He’s American, has pluck, and he’s as gosh-darn likable as Mr Rogers, and he never swears. He’s smart and loved by his eighth-grade students. And he just wants to get by with a little help from his friends. Sorry, another ham-handed obvious line. Sigh. But the Beetles do save the day! ;)

This review comes in with a pun and a groan and goes out with a sigh for the same reason. I should have finished this review back when April came in like a lamb and went out like a lion. I had listened to it back then on audiobook when libraries briefly had access to that format. I had heard a quote that struck me as profound that I wanted to center my review on, but I couldn’t find it again—audio or ePub version. So my review ended up taking on a different shape, getting gosh-darn silly and marveling at Andy Weir’s (and Dr Grace’s) ability to make lemonade out of hydrogen, oxygen, glucose, and some powdered ascorbic acid.

Having sat through both formats, I’d say either is enjoyable. I was nervous about an unknown-to-me voice actor, but I give him full kudos for injecting the correct warmth of character.

As a huge fan of The Martian, I looked forward to Andy Weir’s new book, which I read thanks to Netgalley. While Project Hail Mary certainly is filled with Weir’s trademark scientific and technological gimmickry, it takes us into some strange and sometimes unbelievable territory. The book opens with a narrator who knows nothing about who he is, where, or why, and the resolution of that is surprising but also a bit frustrating. The alien friendship that develops is fun and engaging. But I found the protagonist’s voice to be wearying after a while, and the constant problems and solutions a bit tedious. Still, a fun read and I look forward to the movie.

This book was so amazing! I loved the entire plot, and I couldn't wait to read the next page. I love Rocky, and all the reveals that happened throughout the book. It also had all of my favorite sci-fi tropes. First contact with aliens? Check! End of the world? Check! Space exploration and travel? Check! Dire circumstances? Quadruple check! This book had it all. Andy Weir does amazing things with so few characters, and I loved all of them.

Andy Weir’s The Martian was one of my favorite books of the past decade. The focus on smart scientists solving hard science problems was both a welcome throwback to the Golden Age of science fiction and a clever new take on the space-disaster genre. I thought Artemis was a bit of a misfire, largely because Weir seemed to struggle writing a female protagonist. Project Hail Mary retains Weir’s trademark glorification of science and scientists, but also differs from his previous two books. It’s a more emotional story and takes some very unexpected turns.

As the blurb for the book states, Project Hail Mary starts off with astronaut Ryland Grace waking up on a spaceship, only to discover that he has amnesia. The amnesic protagonist is a common trope in video games to allow the player to identify with the character without the baggage of too much backstory. It can also be a cheap way to give a character an arc of self-discovery. Fortunately, Project Hail Mary moves beyond the amnesia as Grace starts to recover his memories quickly. The amnesia does allow Weir to include flashback scenes showing what happened back on Earth as Grace remembers those events. There’s a twist near the end of the book that leverages the amnesia for some moving character development.

It turns out that Ryland Grace was part of a mission tasked with saving Earth’s sun from the Astrophage, essentially interstellar algae (it doesn’t sound as silly once Weir explains the science). If the Astrophage absorb too much of the sun’s heat, the Earth could face apocalyptic global cooling. This gives Weir the opportunity to geek out over microbiology and delve into some convincing – if highly speculative – astrobiology. As an educated non-expert, I almost never had trouble suspending my disbelief – at least about the science.

On the other hand, the depiction of politics back on Earth comes across as a bit naive. In Project Hail Mary, the governments of the world appoint a global dictator to solve the Astrophage crisis. Given how little we’ve accomplished reducing greenhouse gases in the face of global warming, I found the prospect of governments cooperating frictionlessly to be less realistic than any of the speculative science. I understand that Weir’s fans read his books to see smart scientists solve science problems, but in his next book I hope he takes the same care with the politics that he does with the science.

Unlike Weir’s previous protagonists, Grace isn’t a just an idealized, self-insert scientist hero. To be sure, he is extraordinarily – probably unrealistically – smart, and generally a “good guy.” However, he has flaws, which become more apparent later in the book. He’s a bit more vulnerable than the typical Weir protagonist, which makes him more interesting.

Overall, if you enjoyed The Martian or Artemis, you’ll almost certainly enjoy Project Hail Mary. It’s got the smart scientist hero solving big problems, but with a bit more character. I didn’t find myself laughing aloud as much as I did while reading The Martian, but found myself identifying with Ryland Grace more than I did Mark Watney.

I have read the three books that Andy Weir has written to date, and I can say that Project Hail Mary is the best of all. As always, Mr. Weir brings science to all people, but this book has a certain touch of "sarcastic, scientific humor" that is not found in the other two.
It is true that, like The Martian or Artemis, it has life and death situations that make certain chapters very dramatic, but something that Project Hail Mary has that makes it better than its two predecessors is Rocky, a small alien who competes. with ET for the position of the best alien friend and, for me, without a doubt Rocky wins that competition!

Left me a little cold. I looked forward to the book but was disappointed in the end. Give it a try and see what you think.

Ryland Grace wakes up on a spacecraft with no idea how or why he is there-or even who he is. He has to figure out why he’s there, and what he is supposed to be doing. While there is a lot of science talk it is an exciting read as Grace goes from crisis to crisis as he desperately tries to save not one but two planets. I loved the Ryland Grace character and his new friend Rocky.

I was so excited to receive this ARC. I know it's not the same but I loved the movie the Martian - never got around to reading and then I LOVED Artemis, so I basically screamed when I was approved. Once again, I am floored. I am not a space person, barely a sci-fi person but Weir has the ability to suck me in and make me feel like this is what I'm meant to read. I was engaged the entire time, turning the page and ready to devour more. So excited that this is already getting hype and can't wait to see what Weir comes up with next!

3.9 - entertaining and fun (as long as you don't get too bogged down in the science); I loved Rocky and his friendship with Grace

I tried this one back in the spring but didn't make it past Chapter 2. My vacation brain couldn't handle the math/science then.

This summer I started again from the beginning, and admittedly, it was still slow to start. But after getting past the initial few chapters, I couldn't put it down and ended up loving it! Yes, it's full of science, and you do need to comprehend at least the general concepts for things to make sense, but it's not overly academic, at least not enough to really matter. (The author often provides analogies that help explain things.)

The story is told entirely from the point of view of the protagonist, with interwoven flashbacks. I never read The Martian, but I presume it's similar in style/tone and structure. Some of the humor felt forced, but overall, being in Ryland's head the entire time works well.

Be prepared for several twists and surprises, and once the story gets going, good luck putting the book down. I'm already ready for the film adaptation!

RATING: A

This book is amazing! Weir does it again! This book is so imaginative and descriptive, the book is scientifically based and yet so very relatable. I don't know how Weir is able to do this.

Ryland Grace finds himself in space and on a mission to save the world.

I loved every single minute of science, humor, depth, humility and love this story brought to the forefront.

It will be a top book of the year for me. 5 amazing stars!

This one both was and wasn't a surprise after The Martian. It wasn't a surprise in that it's a similar book in some ways: guy with amiable gosh-wow narrative voice and mildly corny sense of humor goes on space adventure where everything goes wrong, and has to problem-solve in significant detail, with lots of science explanation for the various experiments he runs and solutions he eventually reaches. It was a surprise in that where The Martian tries to stick to plausible realism, this one starts with a problem that amounts to seriously imaginative science fiction, and finds a solution that's even further out in the realm of speculation. It goes in a lot of directions I absolutely did not anticipate.

There is something that feels weirdly unsatisfying to me in general about a scenario where an author creates a problem this far afield of reality, and then solves it in an equally far-from-reality way that has so little to do with what we know about biology and physics. Maybe it's because I'm not well-versed-enough in the science to see how elegant either the problem or the solution is, and I have to fall back on "Is this entertaining?" and "Do I believe in these characters?" I can't always answer yes to the latter — the protagonist here is just such an Andy Weir character, and it's sometimes a little hard to buy both the situation he winds up in and the attitude he takes toward it. (Though there are some late-book reviews that put a lot of things into perspective, belatedly, and that I thought strongly improved the story.)

But it is mostly entertaining, and especially surprising. I don't think this particular style of narrative, which periodically breaks off from action and forward momentum to explain some bit of math or astrophysics or other science at length, is exactly my cup of tea, but Weir keeps it all light and lively, and I ended up really enjoying his other major character here.

Andy weir is at the top of my list when it comes to fascinating authors. He knows how to tell a story, and a phenomenal fantasy with realistic aspects. When I first read Hail Mary, I was first drawn to the setting and storytelling. The way he brings the story to life for reader sis incredible and unmatched.
I really loved this novel and wish more people would venture towards fantasy novels.

I really really wanted to like this book more! I have enjoyed Andy Weir's last two books. In some ways I still like this one, I enjoyed the plot, but all the science and math components really dragged the momentum down for me. If you have more of a scientific mind, it may be more up your alley, but for me, it was a struggle. I found that it would fall flat for paragraphs at a time and I would start zoning out or putting it down for days at a time. With that being said it is a very well-written, intelligent, unique sci-fi book, just not for me.

I didn't think this would top The Martian but it did. I loved all the science mumbo jumbo, made my nerd self happy. I think some of it was probably a little far fetched but I'm not a scientist so what do I know?! The book started with Ryland waking up not remembering where he is, who he is, or how he got there. The narrative is told in the current sense and flashbacks to the past. I thought both did well to the storyline and the flashbacks came at just the right time. Dr Ryland Grace was was a great character; intense, funny, sarcastic, and curious. Rocky ... oh Rocky ... my favorite character ever in a book. *That's a bold statement but I'm sticking with it*

I had gotten an audio version of this book since I started reading this after it was published. I found that listening to the audio while reading the book resulted in a fantastic reading experience. Ray Porter did a great job narrating and I LOVED the special effects and voice of Rocky.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Andy Weir hits it out of the park, again! I wonder if everything he touches turns to gold. Reading his writing is so effortless yet you are transported right smack dab into the middle of the story, fully immersed and feeling everything. I am always sad when Weir’s books end because I just want more and more and more of the story.

Project Hail Mary was an extraordinary story. I loved it so much.

Thank you Ballantine Books and #NetGalley for an advanced copy of Project Hail Mary in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the Andy Weir that I love! Much longer than The Martian, my measuring stick for space based books, but with the same flavor to keep you drawn in. Unfortunately I did not enjoy Artemis, but was pleased Weir got back on track with Project Hail Mary. If someone explained the premise of this book before I jumped in, I might not have read it, but I’m so glad I did! Usually books with an alien as a main character are like bad sci-fi movies, but somehow it seemed perfectly normal with Weir’s expertise in humanizing Rocky. I would recommend this one, especially to get into something a little different.

Thank you Netgalley for the free ebook! I have always been a fan of Sci-fi and when I heard that Andy Weir was releasing a new book, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! Weir did not disappoint. I found the book incredibly written and I seriously could not put it down. 10/10 would recommend!

I have never read The Martian (though I have watched the movie, of course), so this book was my first encounter with Andy Weir. I must admit that I am in love. Who knew that science stuff could be so fun to read about?

This is also one of the best first contact stories I have ever read, and I am not talking about astrophages here. But saying anything else on that subject will spoil one of the best aspects of the book, which I absolutely don't want to do. So let's talk a little about other good aspects of this book instead.

The second best aspect of this book is the mystery. We wake up with our protagonist at the beginning of the book, and we are just as clueless as he is about where he is and what is happening. And we experience the sense of dread and wonder and excitement of discovery along with the narrator. We experience the dawning horror of his situation as well, when he discovers that his teammates are dead and that the fate of all humanity now rests with him.

I love our protagonist. He can come across as a goof sometimes, but I like the fact that he just doesn't give up. He was the backup guy, the expert on astrophage, sure, but not very versed in spaceship navigation or technology. He had two other astronauts to rely on for that... only they didn't survive the trip to their destination. A lot of people would just give up by then, go into a severe depression or decide to end it all here and now, especially once they remember that this mission was a suicide trip anyway.

Not our protagonist though. Even with more holes in his memories than a block of Swiss cheese, even realizing that he can't rely on anyone but himself, he still decides to continue with the mission and to do everything in his power to find a solution to Earth's astrophage problem.

I also like his unyielding optimism. The fact that he can take pleasure out of such small things and a tasty breakfast burrito after days of liquid meals, or enjoy a small discovery when a memory comes back or an experiment yields results. That sheer joy of discovery and curiosity about the world around him is something that a lot of us lack in our day and age. This is also something that helps him come to the first contact situation with an open mind and curiosity instead of fear in his heart.

I cannot speak about all the science in this book, since that has never been my strong suite. It might be accurate or it might not, but I don't particularly care. It was simple enough to understand and it force me to suspend my disbelief too much. Honestly, that's better than a lot of science fiction books out there.

I liked the fact that it was interesting, that the story moved at a steady pace but still gave us time to get to know the characters and get to truly care about what happened to them. Oh and the ending was very satisfying, at least in my opinion. So a solid 5 stars for this one.

PS: I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is basically The Martian 2.0 and I'm more than OK with that. This is terrific. Ryland Grace is Mark Watney reincarnated. They both have that same snark while they science the shit out of things. Weir's characters have a passion for science that's infectious. Every time Grace solves a problem using science the voice in my head cheers. Weir also throws some twists in there I certainly didn't see coming which doesn't happen often.

The premise of the book is that a man wakes up in a spaceship and can't remember who he is. As he recovers his memory, we find out what's happened to the Earth and why he is so far away from home on a rocket in another solar system by himself. That's all you really want to know about this book going into it. If you like reading books about people who use their brains (along with hard science) to get out of sticky situations, this is the book for you. You won't find too many books that both put a smile on your face and tears in your eyes.