Andy Weir has been hailed as a new shining star in the science-fiction universe.

The Martian was a character-driven, page-turner that burned quickly by and left you wanting more. Artemis was largely forgettable (so much so that I struggled to recall if I’d read it only a year or so after it was published).

Now, Weir is back with Project Hail Mary — and the result is somewhere in between. While not quite as compellingly page-turning as The Martian, Project Hail Mary has at least lingered with me after the final pages were turned, unlike a certain sophomore novel by Weir.

Ryland Grace is a middle-school science teacher, who wakes up in a stark white room with no memory of how he got there. Grace’s memory slowly starts to return (in convenient chunks at just the right time for the story’s dramatic purposes) and he recalls that Earth is facing an extinction-level event and that he was one of the three people chosen to be sent into deep space to save himself and our planet. Grace’s two colleagues have perished, leaving him to piece together not only where he’s been, how he got there, but also what he needs to do so hopefully save the planet. And he’s also got to make the first contact with a new alien race.

Grace may not seem like the most likely or likable choice to go on a mission to save humanity. And Weir does his best to make Grace a character we can sympathize with and root for. The problem is that I never quite developed the same investment in Grace that I did in Mark in The Martian. Mark was gifted in certain areas, but never came off as smarmy or overly smug, Grace does. I kept wanting to like Grace but I never found myself rooting for him in the same way as Mark.

Which is all well and good. I don’t expect an author to write the same book over and over again. But what I do hope is the author will find a way to engage me across each of his or her novels. Weir did that with The Martian but failed to do so in his last two books. The dilemma that Grace faces is intriguing enough. It’s just there are long stretches of the book when I feel like Weir is trying too hard to prove the science behind his science-fiction and not necessarily engaging the reader.

Project Hail Mary isn’t quite the triumphant return I’d hoped Weir would have. It’s good, it’s (for the most part) readable. But it never quite got its hooks into me in the way I’d hope it would. This one may drop Weir from my list of automatic reads.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! Wonderful, exciting story and terrific characters! The main character, Ryland Grace, reminded me of Mark Watney from The Martian. Similar smart, witty, clever, caring personality and sense of humor. Same scenario as far as space travel with dire circumstances. Also, there is a lot of science and technology (pages of it!), but it doesn’t detract from the clever, moving tale. It doesn’t matter if you can’t follow all of the science (and just skim parts of it), you will still enjoy the tension, thrills, excitement, and emotional ending of this great adventure.

To me the most attractive quality a person — in real life or a book — can exhibit is competence. That may sound unimpressive at first thought, but in fact it is wonderfully satisfying to know you are witnessing some one at their best, especially in a field of knowledge you know little about. This could be a plumber, a doctor or a musician. It is downright fun to watch someone at the top of their game.
In Project Hail Mary we meet Dr. Ryland Grace, a university professor whose research has been ridiculed, now teaching. Science to Middle School students. The realization that the sun is growing dimmer at an alarming rate causes the world’s great science minds to join together to solve a problem that will otherwise inevitably lead to the end of human life.. Dr. Grace is drafted to the top tier of researchers based on his previous work. What follows is a remarkable story narrated by Grace himself as he helps to plan the solution and then becomes part of the interstellar team sent to fix the problem.
Grace is a scientist who understands the laws and principles to address the crisis, but he is also a teacher who can explain the science to his readers. You will find yourself following every aspect of his explanations and the step-by-step manner in which he lays out his plans. Speaking as someone who only took psychology in college to satisfy a science requirement, I found myself not only understanding his descriptions but enjoying them and even anticipating the next step.
Grace himself is a likable guy with a self-deprecating sense of humor. He is thoroughly decent and his problem solving always includes making a moral choice. There are plenty of times in the story when the reader sees disaster ahead but Grace, like MacGyver on steroids, pulls out a solution using his wits and a random assortment of tools.
This is a wonderful story right up to the very end. The end itself may surprise you but, trust me, with author Andy Weir, you are the hands of a very competent guy.

Andy Weir manages to create another exciting adventure tale of Man surviving unsurvivable situations. Part apocalyptic, part first contact, Project Hail Mary opens with Ryland Grace waking up disoriented and hooked up to all kinds of tubes. He can't recall his name or what has happened to him. Shocked to find himself on a spaceship far from Earth, Grace eventually remembers enough to know his mission is to save Earth and all humanity from a disaster involving our sun. thing I really liked about this novel is the improved character work.

I disliked Weir's previous novel, Artemis, because the protagonist was simply far too jarring for me; their 'dudebro' tone just felt entirely out of place. Here, that's not the case, as Ryland is revealed to be a high school science teacher (who had a promising career in certain scientific fields), and while that selfsame dudebro tone remains, it feels less out of place. Afterall, Ryland teaches kids - wouldn't it make sense for him to narrate things as if he were narrating it to his own students? The side characters in the novel were also quite memorable, with one in particular having amazing scenes and interactions with Ryland, and it's genuinely fun to read.

Another that fans of Weir will love even if it is another veeery science-y book. I won't pretend I wasn't a little overwhelmed by so much of that content, but it still felt well worth the effort. In my opinion, the level of scientific information absolutely added to the sense of reality and high stakes you get with Weir's books.

Yeah, it's a banger. Are we surprised? Weir kind of disappointed me with Artemis, but the goodwill he built from The Martian was hard to smother, and thankfully it wasn't wasted. Gonna make a great adaptation.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for allowing me to receive this Audiobook-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

This was such a tremendous fast-paced space adventure! It lived up to the love I have of the martian and takes so many of the great topics and tropes I loved from that book and brings it into the fantastic sci-fi book. I love the science and conversations about the earth, resources, and space travel. even tho the book is fictional, it feels so real!

The main character did drive me crazy and make me mad, but it seemed like an intentional choice and worked! lol

This is my first book by Andy Weir and I requested it based on the popularity of The Martian and my enjoyment of the movie based on that book. I did enjoy Project Hail Mary. I liked the way it is told in a back and forth fashion, with present day interspersed with chronological flashbacks leading up to the present day situation. I don't like reviews that spell out the entire plot, and this one is pretty complex, but suffice to say it is another book about deep space and a lone human trying to survive as he is faced with one problem after another.

The story is a good one with plenty of surprises and interesting twists. It is also heavy on math, science, and astronomy. I personally found myself skimming a lot of it due to the fact that it got a little pedantic at times in explaining what was happening. The explanations of complex astronomical phenomenon are needed given the plot, but sometimes it drilled down more than strictly necessary to move the story forward.

It also felt a bit derivative of the movie The Martian, perhaps also of the book, but I am not sure on that. Overall, it's an enjoyable story with a heart but too heavy on long-winded explanations of complex science, math, and physics.

<i>“Okay, guys,” I say. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If Astrophage is your enemy, I’m your friend.”</i>

There are so many things I love about this story. Humor, humanity and the love of a good friendship. And to clarify, I don't like math. I especially don't like science math. And even though this story has some in it, it's completely palatable math - stuff you can follow along with or kind of gloss over, up to you.

But the meat of the story is wonderful. This author has a way with writing humor just perfectly. And presenting situations that I have no idea, if I were in the same MC shoes, if I would make the same decisions. It's a treat to get to know Grace and Rocky and to be along through their adventures. Such a great story, I loved it.

<i>A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.</i>

This is likely to be my favorite book of the year. I have enjoyed both of Weir's previous offerings but this book combines all that I have loved about both of them.

The best word I can think of to describe this book is precious. I found this story to be sweet and endearing. I really loved the "bromance" between Rocky and Ryland. It is one of those tropes I am always happy to see in any sff novel.

I plan to sing this books praises to anyone who will listen.

“Project Hail Mary” is about humanity in its many forms, and humanity can be pretty impressive when one thinks about it. Minds working together can overcome obstacles of multitudinous complications. History is filled with exciting moments, and this is the story of one of those. It is a gripping science fiction thriller that will keep any reader turning pages as the clock counts down.
The story unfolds in Dr. Ryland Grace’s first person narrative, a man, alone, with amnesia, and yet a consciousness of language and connections. He talks to himself because there is no one else. The narrative goes back and forth in time as he remembers his past and adjusts to his present. Dr. Grace is a middle school science teacher, and he knows a lot of random facts. That random knowledge is certainly needed to survive the perils of school, but little did he know that it would help him in other ways as well.
Readers learn everything we need to know in the order in which we need to know it. What readers really need to know is can earth survive. The sun is infected, and Astrophage is stealing energy; Earth is cooling down. Another ice age type catastrophe is about to begin. The “Project Hail Mary” ship is Earth’s only hope. But is it enough? Will there be time? Dr. Grace alone must “save the universe” and the entire population of Earth. Is he is up to it? Of course, he has wrangled middle school kids, after all. He also knows about Astrophage; it is a living being of a sort. Grace wonders if he will find more of them, intelligent species. What he actually finds is something more astounding that he ever expected.
I am not a regular reader of science fiction novels, so I am not well versed on “space stuff” but “Project Hail Mary” has everything any reader looks for in a great thriller. The characters are compelling, complex and believable even within the context of a very “unusual” situation. The alternating chapters add to the suspense as the two timelines gradually merge. There are unforeseen events along the way, and the ending is a shocking twist but an appropriate one. I received a review copy of “Project Hail Mary” from Andy Weir, Ballantine Books, and Random House Publishing Group.

This was just as much fun as The Martian! I did not enjoy Artemis, but this one is back to the "work the problem" formula that was so enjoyable. And it was funny!! I alternated between print and audio, the audio was excellent! HIGHLY recommend!

Is nerd humor a genre? It should be. And this book would be at the top of the list. I’ll leave the verifying all the scientificky stuff to the professionals but as just a good old fun read this was excellent. The relationship between Rocky and Grace might be one of the best friendship stories ever the description of learning each others languages was fascinating, the pacing was great. All and all a 5 star read for us sciency nerds.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of Project Hail Mary!

I am honestly so impressed with this novel. I greatly enjoyed Weir's The Martian, but found myself struggling with Artemis, which led me to come into PHM with some doubt. That doubt, however, rapidly faded away as I was immersed into the story of Dr. Ryland Grace. There's so much I love about this novel it's hard to even choose what to highlight. As a science writer and editor myself, the care taken towards making the science clear and accessible was simply incredible, especially given how much of it there was! I particularly enjoyed the attention paid to biology, which does not tend to get featured so heavily in these kinds of stories.

I was also surprised at how invested I became in Grace's story, especially once he learns he's not necessarily as alone as he thought. Any time something went wrong, I legitimately feared for him and could not put the book down until I knew the situation would be resolved somehow. The dual storylines of Grace's past and present were also very engaging and presented equally compelling perspectives into his character. Ultimately, the novel was a moving exploration of human ingenuity and hope, one that sets it apart from Weir's other works. Project Hail Mary is easily one of my best reads of 2021, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to read it in advance.

This was a great story. While this book is about aliens, it has some similarities to The Martian which were the things that made The Martian so good- a funny, irreverent main character and lots of tense space travel.

Project Hail Mary is the most enjoyable book I've read this year. For anyone who loved Andy Weir's The Martian, this is a must-read. It is not a sequel to The Martian, but the lead character (and narrator) will remind you very much of the marooned astronaut Mark Watney: a resourceful scientist with a distinct snarky streak who is thrust into a situation in which survival depends upon flexibility and persistence and an abiding love of science. As a former science-fair nerd, I loved this guy, and every chapter was an absolute treat, so I prolonged the enjoyment by reading only small sections each night. I am tempted to reveal some key points about the plot, but I do not want to be the bearer of spoilers. If you like science fiction that has actual science in it, this is your book. If you prefer other kinds of fiction, you may like this anyway, and you will learn many interesting scientific facts that may come in handy if you should wake up in a deserted spaceship many light-years from home.

A man wakes up, alone with two corpses, in what he quickly discovers is a spaceship on a last-ditch mission to try to save the entire planet from sun-energy-devouring lifeforms. His goal: Tau Ceti, whose star somehow has fought off the infestation. Much science—and then engineering—follows. Even as he gets his memories back, there’s not much in the way of characterization, but if you like Boy Scouts in Space (in pretty much every sense you can imagine), you will probably like this.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor of an earth saving space mission. The sun is getting dimmer which will eventually cause world ending problems. It’s up to him to figure out how to stop it.. he’s just not sure how to complete the task on his own. The last thing he expects to happen in space is to find an ally to team up with it.

Andy Weir, are you some kind of science genius?! This book is smart! So smart that sometimes I had to look things up or re read. He’s either super smart or did a ton of research for this book. Probably both! Lol. I am so surprised that I haven’t seen more reviews for this one. It was so original, fun, epic, exciting, heart felt.. I seriously felt all the emotions while reading this. So if you’re in the mood to expect earth and go on a space odyssey.. this is your book!

Project Hail Mary
A Novel

By: Andy Weir

Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine

Ballantine Books

Mystery & Thrillers/ Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Publish Date May 4, 2021

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I really enjoyed this book and gave it 4 stars. I do have to warn you that this book is full of science and it is over baring. It does have a duel time line also.

This book is about the earth having some issues and they only have so much time to figure out what to do before it goes into another ice age period and will kill more than half the population. It takes them several years to figure out what they need to do to try to save the world.

Dr. Grace who ends up being the sole survivor on the aircraft has a lot of work to do but first he has to remember what he is doing in the space ship and why. He does figure it out and gets to work but the other two people who were with him ended up dying in their coma state and he didn't.

He has a few adventures before he meets up with my favorite character in the book, Rocky. Rocky is an alien and his world is having the same issues as Earth.

There is so much to tell but I really don't want to reveal anymore. You have to read the book to find out more and to see if they accomplish what they were sent out to do.

I just love the relationship between Rocky and Dr. Grace.

Published by Ballantine Books on May 4, 2021

I enjoyed the story told in Project Hail Mary. I would have enjoyed it more if not for sentences like “The force you feel in a centrifuge is inverse to the square of the radius.” Unfortunately, rules of science appear with exhausting regularity.

Andy Weir apparently decided he stumbled upon a successful formula with The Martian. In Project Hail Mary, he doubles down. Weir’s protagonist in The Martian famously decides to “science the shit out of” each problem he encounters. In Project Hail Mary, Weir’s protagonist scienced the shit out my patience. Weir rarely makes it through two pages before he finds some new principle of science that he absolutely must explain to the reader. Few of the principles do anything to advance the plot. Many of them are only marginally relevant to the story, meaning they could have been excised from the text without harming the plot, producing a much tighter story. Thanks to all the pauses to explain science, Project Hail Mary takes about 500 pages to tell a 200-page story.

Science lectures are not good science fiction. Explanations have their place, judiciously used. The reader needs to be served enough science to provide a context for what’s happening and why. But the science shouldn’t get in the way of moving the story forward. The giants who originated hard science fiction knew that. Isaac Asimov knew that. Arthur C. Clarke knew that. Robert Heinlein knew that. Most of their contemporaries knew that. Andy Weir doesn’t get it. Science lectures are not science fiction. Full stop.

Remove the incessant science lectures, including every sentence that follows “Hang on, let me do the math,” and what remains is a reasonably interesting plot. The sun is slowly dimming, a phenomenon that will lead to a new Ice Age in another few decades. The dimming is caused by an alien organism that the protagonist, Ryland Grace, dubs an astrophage. Grace discovers the organism after he’s drafted to join a science team that is focused on saving the Earth. Grace teaches junior high school science but he wrote a widely-ridiculed dissertation explaining that alien life forms might not require water to evolve or survive. He responded to the ridicule by abandoning his studies and taking a junior high teaching job, which makes him a bit of a weenie. We learn, if fact, that Grace is risk-averse to the point of cowardice. But he’s found the perfect job because lecturing a captive audience about science is what he does best.

The story begins with Grace waking up from a coma suffering from a selective memory loss. He doesn’t remember that he’s on a spaceship. He doesn’t know its mission. As time passes, he recovers his memories in linear fashion, from oldest to newest, which allows Weir to tell Grace’s backstory through Grace’s recovered memory while the story in the present moves forward. Weir offers a contrived explanation at the end for the memory loss and its slow recovery, although he doesn’t explain why the memories are so conveniently recovered in order from the earliest to the most recent.

Grace eventually figures out that he’s on his way to a star that stopped dimming. Great minds decided that the star might reveal an antidote to the astrophage. The odds that he can find the antidote are slim, which explains the novel’s title.

When Grace’s ship arrives in the right neighborhood, he encounters an alien who is on a similar mission. Grace calls the alien Rocky. This happy encounter gives Grace a fresh audience for his science lectures.

The story has a few credibility problems. Grace is a general-purpose scientist who seems to be adept at physics and math but is valued for his knowledge of cellular biology, which allows him to understand the workings of the mitochondria found within the astrophage. Since he wrote his doctoral thesis on a relevant subject, it makes sense that the project manager in charge of saving the Earth would consult him. But the decision to turn a junior high teacher into the manager’s personal science advisor — she even has him testing the glove that will be used to grasp small objects during extra-vehicular activity — seems unlikely. Her decision to draft him as an administrator when he has no particular management experience also struck me as implausible. Weir concocts a reason for turning him into an astronaut that depends on an unlikely coincidence. I’ll cut Weir some slack for all that because Grace is the protagonist and he needs to be immersed in all phases of the project for the story to work. However, science fiction is all about the willingness to suspend disbelief. Weir tested my capacity to do so.

The ease with which Grace and Rocky learn each other’s languages is impossible to believe. Words that signify numbers and computation are easy to translate, as is the periodic table if the two species both understand it. Nouns or verbs that can be demonstrated might be easy to approximate, but it isn’t easy to grasp abstract concepts like “pretty” and “friend” without a common language. Grace and Rocky manage to achieve complete fluency in weeks when linguists would need years.

And then there’s Rocky’s personality. He shares Grace’s sarcastic sense of humor. He shares Grace’s general attitude about most things. Considering that Rocky is an alien, there doesn’t seem to be much about him that’s alien. He’s like a mirror image of Grace, apart from his resemblance to a spider and his need to breathe ammonia.

Setting aside the novel’s flaws, the plot is engaging. Grace has an opportunity to grow by overcoming his cowardice and selfish nature. The ending is much better than I expected it to be. Whittle down the science lectures, keep the meaningful content, and this would be a decent novel. As it stands, Project Hail Mary too often made my eyes glaze over. Young science geeks who feel validated when novels reinforce their belief that “scientists are really smart” might view the book differently.

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