Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary is Andy Weir’s third book, following The Martian and Artemis. Like the previous two, it deals in realistic science fiction, with a lot of math, research, and actual science being used in the plot. The story is a bit more far fetched than The Martian, relying more of the fiction half of science fiction, but it’s still (somewhat) easy to read, funny, and worth your time. Although, if I had to give you one of his books to read, I think The Martian still has the lead in the clubhouse.
Project Hail Mary follows a scientist trying to make sense of why he is in a spaceship with two dead astronauts, surrounded by stars he doesn’t know, and no memory of how he got there. The first thing we learn is that Earth’s sun is losing power, and fast - so fast that it would be an apocalyptic event in less than 50 years. It’s up to the scientist, who doesn’t even know his own name at the start of the book, to try and save humanity.
I could take or leave the flashback stuff, they mostly served as filler and backstory for our main character, and often found myself wanting to get back to the present in the spaceship. Weir uses the device of recovering his memory through visual cues, though this stops around halfway through in favor of just going to the flashbacks without any trigger. That’s fine and all, just odd that there were cues in the begging, and just stop.
Without getting into specifics, I think Weir does a good job explaining the science to everyone, even though most people are going to handwave it away with an “I trust you, nerd.” I mean I’m not gonna check his work when it comes to measuring something’s mass in zero-G. I wanted to read a book not do math! As far as I can tell, all of the math and science is (for the most part) sound, although Weir does fall into a writing trap that goes something like this:
I finally finished calculating how big the needle needed to be to puncture the cell’s membrane: 12 microns. All I had to do was use planc’s constant, and a couple of derivative equations, then have the 3D printer do all of the work. Soon, I would be the star-system’s smallest serial killer.
Or something like that. A lot of science, with a quip at the end. It happens just enough to be noticeable.
Otherwise, I think the story is engaging and fun. The problems are interesting and pressing, and the main character is flawed and relatable, even though he’s basically one of the best scientists in the world and extremely lucky and yadda yadda yadda all that main character stuff.
Obviously I don’t want to talk spoilers, but if you read it you’ll understand this next part. I think his descriptions of life and evolution were very compelling, especially what the audiobook does with language. One of the couple of times an audiobook would be worth listening too.
It’s a fun read, especially if you like science fiction. Often sci-fi is just Star Wars or Star Trek types, so it’s nice to see capital-S Science-fiction taking the stage. Definitely worth checking out.