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.

A great hard sci-fi story that kicks off when an astronaut wakes up with amnesia and slowly realizes that his mission is to save the Earth from dying. The sun has started dimming and he is humanity’s only hope to find a solution to stop the dimming before humanity starves from the upcoming ice age.

*** Review has spoilers ***

I sped through Hail Mary; the pacing and suspense were exactly what I've come to expect from Andy Weir. The characters and dialogue are a bit cheesy, but that's never why I pick up one of his novels. I'm here for the over-the-top nerdtastic science!!! This book delivered on that point, but I do think it was a bit weaker than the Martian.

At no point did anything ever seem as dire for Grace as things did for Watney, even though the stakes are objectively much higher in this book (fate of humankind vs fate of one dude). Grace encountered a few sticky situations, but they seemed to be resolved quickly and with few lasting consequences. I think Weir also leaned on Rocky as a deus-ex-machina device a little too heavily. In a nice twist of fate, Grace fills this role for Rocky at the end...but then the Eridians turn around and save Grace (so the scales definitely tipped back toward Rocky saving the day).

Again, it was cheesy as heck, but I kind of loved the ending. Grace gets to have his "kids" back!! I would have really liked to hear more details about Erid. Part of me also wanted some kind of epilogue to find out what happened on Earth. I guess it's fitting that we are left to wonder and hope, just like Grace.

For anyone who has read The Martian this book if very similar in style. If you are new to Andy Weir beware that he references science and math throughout the book. I personally find it sometimes slows down the story but for the most part I find them interesting sidebars. The humor he injects lightens heavy concepts that are difficult to understand for non-science/math people. As an educator this book illustrates how important it is we encourage students in these two fields. We all need a better understanding of how the world works. Personally this book"s take on friendship is the best part for me. To me it is the core of the story. There is also a important thread that runs through the book relating to making hard decisions and the need for people who are willing to take on that job.

Okay wow this was amazing! I read The Martian years ago and was obsessed, then was a little disappointed by Artemis but this is back to the amazing level of The Martian! I kept getting hooked and reading until very late at night. Rocky. I never got bored of Rocky and just wanted more. This book really was just so so good.

"You three are going to Tau Ceti. The rest of us are going to hell. More accurately, hell is coming to us."

Project Hail Mary was utterly fascinating. I devoured all 500 pages in just 2 days! This was my first Andy Weir novel, and it won't be my last. From the incredibly detailed scientific descriptions to the tense, atmospheric world-building, I was hooked from the first page.

"Knock-knock-knock. No, that’s not creepy at all. Being in a spaceship twelve light-years from home and having someone knock on the door is totally normal."

The story is narrated by Ryland Grace, a man who is the last living passenger on a suicide mission into outer space. The results of this mission could save Earth and all of humanity, if Grace does his job right.

"Earth is in trouble. The sun is infected with Astrophage. I’m in a spaceship in another solar system... all this can only mean one thing: The Hail Mary isn’t going home. This is a one-way ticket."

The trouble is, he's just awoken mid-interplanetary-flight, from a coma with a degree of amnesia - he can't remember his name, how he got here, or what he's supposed to do next. With limited food and fuel on board, and with an extinction-level event facing Planet Earth back home, time is running out in both directions.

"I am truly alone. The sole living human within several light-years, at least. What do I do now?"

I did have moments where I questioned the central character's personality and qualifications a little bit. It felt a little unbelievable that a junior-high teacher would be selected at random to participate, somewhat unwillingly, in all of this advanced research. (Although, what does it say about me that the most far-fetched thing, in a book about extraterrestrial life and alien planetary forms, was that a middle-school science teacher got to be involved?)

"I’m all that stands between humanity and extinction. Will an alien math error doom my entire species?"

Character issues aside, having never read any of Weir's work before, I wasn't expecting the jaw-dropping moments and thriller-level suspense as his characters seek elegant solutions to complex problems. Overall, I found Project Hail Mary to be an absolutely fascinating read, perfect for anyone with any degree of "inner nerd," and I've already bought a copy of The Martian to read next! 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

"Do you believe in God? I know it’s a personal question. I do... It’s like He’s inviting us to explore the universe, you know?"

——

A huge thank-you to Andy Weir, Random House, Ballantine, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

——

Follow @letteredlibrary on Instagram!

I didn’t love this one as much as I thought would. This character felt very similar to Mark Wattney from Weir’s previous novel The Martian. Also, the amnesia got really old after the first 20% of the book. It was researched very well, but the mathematics and science were a bit over my head in this one. I know I keep comparing it to The Martian, but I thought the scientific info-dumps were handled better in that book.

⚠️ Minor Spoiler Alert Ahead ⚠️



There’s an alien! This is the part I liked the most. I enjoyed the learning curve and the struggle of understanding each other’s language and culture. Rocky, the alien, is by far the shining star of Project Hail Mary.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for this early copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of Project Hail Mary in exchange for an honest review.

It’s impossible to talk about Project Hail Mary without comparing it to the author’s bestselling smash, The Martian. Both books revolve about a man discovering he’s alone, far from Earth, facing an impossible task. Admittedly, the stakes in this book are quite a bit higher. If Mark Watney failed, he would die; if Ryland Grace fails, all of humanity may die. Why? Funny you should ask, because at first Ryland can’t remember either. So the story moves back and forth between what’s happening in the present and memories he’s starting to recover that explain why he’s alone on a spaceship millions of miles from Earth with humanity’s fate in his hands.

Ryland Grace isn’t exactly like Mark Watney, but they’re definitely more similar than they are different. So once again, there’s a lot of deadpanned humor and sarcasm in this story. And like with The Martian, the main character is once again required and able to perform a staggering amount of tasks—theoretical, engineering, astronaut stuff, and more!—that stretch the bounds of believability.

With all that said, Project Hail Mary is a difficult book to talk about because it has a secret that I’m simply unwillingly spoil. It’s revealed about a quarter of the way in—early enough that a person could bail if it was a hard pass for them. But while it took me a little while to accept what was happening, once I did I really enjoyed this book. Yes, things work out pretty conveniently at times, but the story works. It’s fun and very imaginative, with some good action sequences and a couple of nice twists. Maybe most of all, as with The Martian, there’s a sense of joy about science and discovery in these pages that’s just a pleasure to read. Recommended. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

I really enjoyed this book. I really liked The Martian so I might be biased. It had a lot of similar elements in it that I enjoyed in The Martian: it takes place in space, lone guy in space, snarky narrator. Plus some other things that made the book enjoyable (which I can’t say because then it would be a spoiler, LOL). Again, there is a lot of science. If reading too much science isn’t your thing, I think you can let your eyes glaze over it for a few seconds and continue on and still enjoy the story. Unlike Mark Watney, there isn’t an F-bomb to be found. It had a satisfying ending and a bit sad and not sad and one I didn’t expect.

I enjoyed The Martian, but I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did. It's sort of as if Weir took The Martian and combined it with "Arrival," the movie about the linguistics professor who learns to communicate with aliens. This one is full of fascinating science (you'd better like both physics and microbiology) including more fascinating details about space travel. But it is mostly a story about overcoming adversity and coming to love people (or aliens) who are extremely different from yourself. It's a great book. Highly recommended.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book is absolutely stellar (pun intended); it kept me hooked from start to finish and was impossible to put down. It’s been a long time since I’ve consumed a book so quickly, and I’m already considering a reread; it’s just that good.

Though this book was extremely heavy-handed with the exclamation points (our main character is a very enthusiastic fellow), overall I loved the casual, fun, smart and witty writing style that was reminiscent of The Martian. Ryland is like a quirky, PG version of Mark Watney; some people might take issue with the similarities between the two characters and the general themes of both books, but I found The Martian and Project Hail Mary to be significantly different (and enjoyable) enough that it wasn’t a negative for me.

Some people also might not enjoy how science/math-heavy this book can get, but I personally appreciated it because it made the scientific explanations for the storyline feel well-researched and within the realm of possibility. Again, if you liked The Martian, or Dark Matter or Recursion by Blake Crouch, you’ll probably enjoy the science-y-ness of this book.

Despite being so science-heavy, this book was surprisingly moving and reflective, and also had several great plot twists. It’s definitely best to go into this one knowing as little as possible about the story for the full effect.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Andy Weir's book The Martian, so I was eager to read his latest. I am happy to report that Project Hail Mary is just as good, if not better, than The Martian. Usually I end up a bit bored with a book like this where the science details are so prominent, but I didn't have that problem here. In fact, I found it to be such an easy and fun read that I finished the book in a single day. The plot is fascinating, the main character Ryland Grace is interesting and well-developed, and the ending brought everything around full cicle which I found extremely satisfying. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a healthy dose of science in their sci-fi.

Thanks to the author, Random House-Ballantine, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this novel.

I’ve enjoyed Weir’s other books, so I was excited about this one. We follow Ryland Grace, a man on a suicide mission to help save Earth from a Sun-eating (literally) little microbe by traveling to a nearby system that isn’t be effected by Astrophage. But he is doing it alone because his crewmates died en-route (they were placed in comas to survive the journey) and he can barely remember his name. But there is an unexpected ally in this fight that might save everyone. The story jumps back and forth from present time in the ship back to when Grace was back on Earth and everyone was attempting to prepare for Project Hail Mary. We slowly piece the story together as he remembers more and more. Like other Weir’s books, be ready for a lot of science and nerdery. But it doesn’t overwhelm the story. Grace is a solid narrator, but he can get a little annoying at times. By far the best part of the book is Rocky. Hands down. I don’t want to say much more about that, just read it!

I have truly enjoyed all of Andy Weir's novels, but this one was definitely my favorite. Fun, fast-paced, and so difficult to put down. I can definitely see myself re-visiting this one as well. Highly recommend!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free e-copy for review.

Loved! Will be recommending to library patrons who are already fans of SF and those just starting out. I also plan to purchase for my nephew who is a Andy Weir.

I feel as though this may be Andy Weir's most fully realized character, and the plot, while a bit juvenile, was really compelling, and I couldn't put this one down.