This book is fantastic. A man wakes up in a room with 2 dead bodies and absolutely no idea who he is, where he is, or why he's there. As he gains more and more of his memories, he learns of the devastation that is facing the Earth and what he's trying to do to stop it. What unfolds is a fascinating exploration of scientific success and failure. This book leans much more heavily on The Martian than it does on Artemis, so if you were heavily disappointed in Artemis, this should give you a much better reading experience!

Loved, loved, loved this book. The main character is similar to that of "The Martian": epic science geek with a sense of humor and a can-do attitude. But there are enough differences that it didn't feel like a sequel. There are really two timelines, the present events on the spaceship and the earlier events that led up to the beginning of the story. Both timelines are equally engaging.
I read this book in one day and when I was done immediately wanted to read it again.

I enjoyed this very much, more similar in writing to The Martian than Artemis was. Once again, the Science is complex, but the story of saving the earth from impending doom coupled with an ET like friendship, made this a captivating read.

I loved this book! I was a big fan of the Martian, and the way the protagonist's tenacity made me feel hopeful, despite the long odds. This book left me with a similar feeling of hope.

The genre is a little different here. While obviously both books are about space and are about technology we do not yet quite possess, I would categorize this book as more squarely science fiction than the Martian. Andy Weir's focus is similar, as he has a tendency to write his characters in a rather sparse way which nevertheless feels real.

I could not put this book down, and regret that I didn't start it earlier in the day. I'm still thinking about it two weeks later, and I've recommended it to several friends. Really an interesting read!

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir's newest novel, is a tour de force of excitement, discovery, and emotion. Waking up strapped to a medical bed, Ryland Grace has no memory of who - or where - he is. He finds himself the only survivor on a spaceship, no idea of what his mission is or how to operate the ship. As his memories slowly come back, Grace must use his newly-discovered knowledge to complete his mission under less-than-ideal conditions - a mission that will determine the fate of the planet.

Being a huge fan of Weir's other two novels, I was looking forward to delving into this one; I was not disappointed! Project Hail Mary grabbed me from the very beginning and did not let go until I closed the book!

Weir did a great job in building this near-future world. The real-world science was easily explained to the reader without appearing patronizing. Getting to explore the environment alongside Grace allowed the reader to feel as though they were experiencing events themselves, with both backstory and plot points evolving through the natural progression of the narrative rather than through expository information dumps.

Weir wrote Grace's emotions with an authority that was palpable. We cheered his excitements, felt his disappointments, and mourned his losses.

Combining the real-world science of The Martian, the humanity-saving mission of Armageddon, and the thought-provoking conundrum of Enemy Mine, Weir once again knocks it out of the park! A solid five-stars. I can't wait to see what this author comes up with next!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Okay, I'll admit that I was ready to give up on the book because of the first chapters and all the technical and scientific calculations and theories that were being discussed. OMGoodness, in the words of Rocky, “happy, happy, happy!” that I continued reading. Friendships, betrayals, space travel, world saving, edge of your seat suspense, aliens, humor and more is packed into story. Even the science and experiments became interesting. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I really enjoyed this book. It was more similar to The Martian than to Artemis. I couldn't wait to see what happened next and I loved the friendship between the main characters. I have already recommended it to people. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Best Andy Weir book! While I loved THE MARTIAN and thought ARTEMIS was good, PROJECT HAIL MARY is certainly ambitious and an amazing read. I love how Weir can write including so much science/technology and make it easy to read for the non-scientist. All of the characters in this book were fantastic. I can totally see this being turned in to a movie soon. Once I started this book, I did not want to put it down. I was hooked from the first page! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy. I will be singing this books praises!

Andy Weir’s latest has similar vibes to “The Martian”, complete with a man trying to science the sh*t out of things to survive in an unforgiving environment.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor of his crew, suffering memory loss after an induced coma to survive nearly four year of space travel. No one is there to help him, this is a last ditch effort to save humanity, and if he fails, Earth only has few decades left.

I wasn’t sure if the memory loss aspect was going to work for me, but I like how it was handled. He remembers things like the math and science he needs, but personal memories come back as they’re triggered in flashes (and flashbacks for the reader). He regains his memory bit by bit, remembering how he got involved in Project Hail Mary.

Lots of science details here, about what’s happened to the Sun and Earth, how the project and the ship are created (loved Stratt), and every aspect of the mission. Dr. Grace is a scientist who dropped out of academia to teach science to middle school kids, and that shows in how the character “explains” the details of the mission. It also shows in his language, which is probably a nod to the many teachers who wanted to use “The Martian” in the classroom, but couldn’t due to the language, until a student edition was later released. Even if you don’t get all of the science, you’ll get enough to understand the plot.

This is Weir’s most epic work to date, and considering his previous books were set on Mars and the Moon, that’s saying something.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I loved this book, and couldn’t wait to get back to reading it on my train rides to and from work. The story is exciting, and the characters are engaging. This book is everything I loved about The Martian and more. There is a LOT of science in this book, but I was still able to follow it even when I didn’t totally understand all the explanations. I was a little worried about whether the story would get wrapped up adequately, but I thought the ending was great.

This is another good sci-fi thriller from Andy Weir. Dr. Ryland Grace, a scientist and middle school teacher, finds himself on a mission to save the planet. Upon awakening from his induced 'space coma' and learning that his crew mates have died, it takes him some time to get up to speed and recover his memories.

A bit panic-stricken at finding himself all alone light-years from earth, he ends up encountering another spaceship and another sole survivor from that crew. Rocky, a spider-like alien with 6 arms, is a great engineer. They learn to communicate and work together to solve the problem causing a threat to both worlds. After they've parted, seemingly having found a solution, Dr. Grace discovers it isn't going to work and he has to make the choice to either return to earth or warn his alien friend of the disaster.

A bit heavy on scientific issues at time, this will be a much-anticipated book for fans of the author.
Dr. Cheryl Youse
Colquitt County High School

Oh, I really loved this! This book takes everything that was great about The Martian and adds a wonderful new element (which I’m not going to mention, to avoid spoilers). I like how all of the science elements are worked out in such detail, but not to such a degree that it bogs down the story (and easy enough for me, a non-scientist, to follow). Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC for review.

I must say this is Andy’s best novel to date and in some ways, his most ambitious as well. This time around he leans more into the sci-fi elements of the story and stretches modern science to meticulously build the world this story takes place in. I found myself almost immediately taken with Ryland Grace, his humor, and the seemingly impossible mission given to him to save his species, to save the Earth, from certain destruction. I had expected this novel to maybe be slower in pace, but that wasn’t the case at all. The narrative was actually quite compelling and the intrigue of the mission kept me invested start to finish. When I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about what was going to happen next.

Project Hail Mary is a masterpiece. I loved The Martian when I read it and Project Hail Mary is more epic in scope (if you can believe it). I'm convinced that Andy Weir hates his protagonist though because he puts them through absolute hell. But that is what makes the story so interesting. He did it with The Martian and Artemis, but he perfects it here. Project Hail Mary is a booksellers dream. It's just as good (if not better) than The Martian and will be easy to handsell.

So good. All the stars. I’m even prepared to say it’s better than The Martian. The character was still sassy and resilient, but unique from Watney in a way the author didn’t quite manage with Artemis. The pacing is perfect! The ending was satisfying and (spoiler?) hopeful. There was a lot of math and science, which I probably didn’t understand but which all seemed totally plausible and did it’s job of setting the tone and immersing the reader.

I cannot get enough of Andy Weir. The imagination and science in his works are to die for. Project Hail Mary was a brilliant and cautionary tale. Highly recommend for scifi fans and will be purchasing!

5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dr. Ryland Grace wakes up from a long sleep on a spaceship with no memories. His two crewmates are dead and he has no idea where he is or how long he was asleep. Grace has a lot to figure out in order to save the earth from an extinction level event with help from a unique partner. The novel switches from current Grace to the past as his memories start to return.

What a brilliant and fun novel. Andy Weir once again delivers an action packed story. There is a ton of science here, more than in his other books. He ties together global warming, an end of the world scenario, space travel and lots and lots of science into a wild ride. There are plenty of laugh out loud lines. His characters are awesome. I love Grace, I want to be a bad ass like Stratt, and I want a friend like Rocky. Sorry to be cryptic but it is worth the wait to find out more.

Project Hail Mary is a return to the same energy of The Martian. Its that humor-in-an-almost-hopeless-situation quality that made the story of Mark Watney so much fun. Andy Weir once again manages to use science to bring an engaging and thrilling narrative to the page without making it feel 'too smart' or hard to follow.. The story of Dr. Ryland Grace unfolds in stages and you learn his history at the same time he does, which helps the story to unfold in a very organic way, but everything is not as it seems at first. All in all this was a book that refused to be put down until it was finished.

#ProjectHailMary #NetGalley