Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
Ballantine Books | Hardcover | May 4, 2021
The Gist:
A junior high school science teacher turned astronaut wakes up on a spaceship in a galaxy far, far away with a foggy memory and two dead crewmates. As his memories return, he learns that it’s up to him to save the world, and along the way, he teams up with an alien, who’s also on a last-ditch-effort mission.
Read this if you like:
Steve Rogers and “Language”
Space
Aliens
Race-against-time thrillers
The Verdict: Similar to The Martian, but still good.
Andy Weir takes us to a whole new galaxy in his third novel, Project Hail Mary. When mankind learns that the sun is dimming at an alarmingly fast rate, the world comes together in a Hail-Mary attempt to save the planet and prevent an instant ice age. Ryland Grace is at the helm of this page-turning sci-fi thriller and the last man standing on what’s basically a suicide mission to a star called Tau Ceti. Grace was practically laughed out of the scientific community after he wrote a paper arguing against the assumption that all lifeforms require water to survive. As it turns out he was more on the mark than he ever could have imagined, making him an ideal candidate for the international task force that’s racing to find out why the sun is dimming and, more importantly, how to stop it. Once again, Weir has given us a character with a razor-sharp voice and electric personality we want to follow, and since space does not cooperate, Project Hail Mary’s plot is full of twists and turns as well. There are definitely more than a few parallels between Weir’s latest novel and The Martian, and Ryland Grace definitely gives off Mark Watney vibes. At times it does feel like deja vu, but without a doubt, this interstellar roller coaster is an enjoyable ride that will keep you at the edge of your seat.
