Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

This was me during the majority of this novel:



Packed with science and humor Project Hail Mary makes for a thoroughly entertaining high-stakes interstellar adventure. I’ve never read anything by this author nor have I watched the film adaptation of The Martian…the reason why is because I thought I would find them boring (yeah yeah, boohoo away). So imagine my surprise when I found myself immediately captivated by Project Hail Mary. One of the novel’s strengths lies in fact in its narrator and protagonist, Ryland Grace. He wakes up on an empty spaceship, with two dead bodies and no memory of who he is and how he got there. As he pieces together the puzzle of his identity he recalls the purpose of his mission: to save humanity (easy peasy right?).
Interspersed throughout the narrative are flashbacks that provide a backstory to Grace and the various stages preceding ‘project hail mary’.
In space, Grace faces a seemingly never-ending series of life-or-death hurdles. But, lucky for him, he may not have to do so alone. What follows is a clever and heart-warming storyline about survival (what one is willing to do for the ‘greater good’) and friendship. Speaking of, my favourite aspect of this story was the friendship between Grace and Rocky.
The narrative is chock-full of science & maths & other stuff that went way way way over my head. To be honest, after the ‘what’s 2+2’ question that occurs in the first few pages, well, I was lost (i am not joking). Still, through Grace’s narration, Andy Weir manages to make all these complicated facts, theories, and scientific terms far from boring. Grace’s enthusiasm for science is catching so I found myself just rolling with whatever he was saying or whatever was happing. Something that I could follow more easily was the language aspect of the story, which I found very ingenious.
I usually would give more details about the story but here one of the narrative’s biggest appeals is that we don’t really know what is going on so I advice prospective readers not to read too much about its plot.
Overall this was a highly enjoyable read. The humor, the ideas, the bond between Grace and Rocky, well, they make Project Hail Mary a book worth reading.

my rating: ★★★★☆

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