Project Hail Mary

A Novel

by Andy Weir

hardcover, 496 pages

English language

Published May 4, 2021 by Ballantine Books.

ISBN:: 9780593135204
OCLC Number:: 1149223512

(19 reviews)

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, …

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian--while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

12 editions

Joel :P reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary

4 stars

After reading The Mote in God’s Eye, I realized that Garrit Franke, a fellow Fosstodon member, finished reading this book, so I decided to give it a try too.

I have to admit that at first I was a little bit hesitant about this book, because it is a written in first person, and it also starts out with ammnesia and also flashbacks. But after that I got used to the writing style pretty quickly and started to really get into the main story and the mystery behind everything happening around our protagonist.

The story follows a lone astronaut that finds himself facing impossible odds every step of the way. The way the plot is revealed and how it moves forward every chapter is great. The scientific elements are pretty accurate and that was something I found really interesting. It reminded me a lot of Jules Verne’s novels that usually …

After reading The Mote in God’s Eye, I realized that Garrit Franke, a fellow Fosstodon member, finished reading this book, so I decided to give it a try too.

In this case of course the protagonist uses his scientific knowledge (as well as his memory slowly coming back) to figure out how handle his mission, which is pretty much to save the planet from certain demise.

I liked the setting and the characters that show up, there’s quite a bit of science tidbits I learned through this, and the moments of action and uncertainty are quite great. I could not stop reading many times because I just wanted to know what in the world would our protagonist do even just to stay alive to live another day.

I didn’t feel like the book was as long as it was, honestly. It was definitely worth it. I do think that it feels a little like a movie waiting to happen, the prose wasn’t as interesting and the plot ended up kind of predictable, and there’s a very wholesome twist at the end which is nice. Just a very fun read.

scienced@books.theunseen.city reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

A lot of fun and technical imagination

5 stars

If you read 'The Martian', this one follows the same chain of technical puzzles in a survival setting. But both the setting and the science are quite a lot more fictional. I still enjoyed it very much as it also has 'Enemy mine' vibes. Highly entertaining read, if you don't take the science too seriously.

scienced@books.theunseen.city reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

A lot of fun and technical imagination

5 stars

Sebastost reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is my first review of a book and is a kind of reaction to the one star commentaries that I saw. For sure I have read The Martian a while back and I can see that this book is similar, but I think a lot of people enjoy it (like I did) because of those similarities. Sure, there are a lot of cliché characters but in the kind of hopefully vision of the future that is lacking right now. The stereotipe of scientists from Russia, China, America and other places that set aside differences to save the world is a much needed hope that if the world is at stake we will all come together. Sure, the book is not all fairies and rainbows, the hero is actually a coward sent against is will to save humanity and in the mean time there is almost a surety that there …

mortaine@bookwyrm.social reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Andy Weir delivers again

No rating

I wasn't a huge fan of Artemis, but loved The Martian. Project Hail Mary is closer to The Martian in tone and theme. I very much enjoyed it.

I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Ray Porter, who also narrates the Bobiverse series. The two are similar enough (big space travel stories) that there was a certain comfort in hearing Porter's voice, but I also periodically felt some dissonance between the two stories. For example, I kept expecting the narrator to offer a solution to one of the science problems based on the tech available in the Bobiverse-- which is silly because they're not even written by the same author! Still, it was a good performance by a good narrator, and I enjoyed this book immensely.

Kian Ryan reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Problem - Solution

3 stars

Andy Weir writes pretty good one note hero stories that are heavy on the science and engineering and feel screen ready. This was enjoyable, but not particularly deep. Like The Martian, the protagonist suffers from a series of obstacles and overcomes them one at at time, with the application of dark humour and science and significantly less potatoes.

brab@bw.diaspodon.fr reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Engineering porn

5 stars

C’est un bouquin extraordinaire. On retrouve le plaisir d’ingénierie de The Martian, avec des personnage ayant plus de profondeur. L’histoire est captivante, j’ai eu du mal à lâcher le livre.

outofrange reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Gosh darn it, I am the sucker

3 stars

Yes it's a lot MacGyvering in space. I guess my brain likes that, and there's enough substance to it to trigger good musings. No regrets here.

bazpoint@ramblingreaders.org reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

What a lovely read this was... I tend to read some pretty heavy sprawling-plot sci-fi, and came at this knowing virtually nothing about it other than having seen The Martian in the cinema. As such, I found the small, contained nature of the story (despite the huge consequences in the background) to be thoroughly refreshing. I was smiling throughout and constantly wanting to read on to find out what happened next. I was up 'til 1am last night because I got close to the end and just had to keep going. Excellent.

Keith Stevenson reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Gave up. The amnesia/ suddenly remembering stuff as required really bugged me.

loppear reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

3 of 9 people I asked IRL also hated this book

2 stars

In taking a much larger scope than the Martian, repeating the same formula failed to entertain or engross me, instead the tricks and slick solutions to improbably back-tracked premises seemed to go a long way to nowhere.

bnmng reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

As with The Martian, this book is over the top with the heroic solutions to unsolvable problems, but it was still fantastic.

bbbhltz reviewed Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Pure entertainment

5 stars

I think this will be the book I recommend the most this year. It is entertaining from beginning to end. If you like sci-fi or space stories, read it. If you don't, read it anyway because you will laugh. It is very rare that I tear through a book in the span of a day, but, and I apologise for the cliché, I could not put this book down.