Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Blurb:

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, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, 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.

Review:

I first saw this book at a German supermarket under the title of “Der Astronaut” (translation: "The Astronaut”). Noticed it was the same guy who wrote the Martian, so I got the book and read it later that day. Then, a bit later, I picked up the English version of “Project Hail Mary” from my local library and read through that as well. And then, a bit later my uncle sent it over as part of the book package that also included “Children of Time” by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Every time I’ve picked up this book, whether it be the German or English version, I’ve had an absolute blast reading it. Not only was Ryland an amazing main character in either language, but the story progressed the same as well. Props to the translator! 

Now, my experience reading this novel was a bit different, to say the least. Considering I first read it through an excellent attention to detail by Langowski and then in the original, and nothing felt amiss. Now, since this is an English book, I’ll go into detail with the English version and in terms of translations, I might talk about those in greater detail at some point here.

First characters, or in the case of Ryland, character. He is definitely a bit unique, considering how he slowly starts remembering his past and his characteristics. I think this sentence sums up his unique situation quite nicely:

“I know Liberia uses imperial units but I don’t know my own name. That’s irritating.”

Then, how he transitions from someone who lost his memory and realizes what he’s tasked with, he defaults to the panicked human, yet after enough deliberation and cursing towards the reason why he’s stuck on that mission, he decides to follow through with it. 

Another thing I really liked was the scientific accuracy of “Project Hail Mary”. I looked at the end credits Weir added and all that extra research via asking people in the field really showed throughout the entirety of the novel. It’s as if Ryland sent back an audio clip to earth with everything he encountered, and not as a written work. Which I loved. 

Then, the plot. Reading through the blurb, you know he’s dealing with a last chance mission to save earth. Problem is, at least for us, that it seems kind of generic. It is not. There are flashbacks back to Earth wherein Ryland slowly notices the sheer magnitude of what he is involved in. To him, he’s in a flying, spinny cage and he wants out. There is no high stakes mission to him. Until he remembers.

Finally, the writing style of “Project Hail Mary”. I know I’ve already mentioned that it’s as if Ryland sent back an audio clip. That’s because not only is it written as if Ryland were talking to a machine, but also because it’s written in first person, much like Weir's other novels. 

The amount of fun and laughter I had from reading the English version alone was absolutely amazing.

If there was anything negative about the book, I’d have to say that I wished to have a bit more backstory to his other crewmates. 

As always, thank you for reading to this end of the review, if you are still here. And if this book doesn’t sound like something you’d want to read, I’d recommend checking out other reviews for other books that might be more up your alleyway by other reviewers here, like Lyons' review of “Beta” by MT. Zimny or Mayers review of “Rise of the Ranger” by Philip C. Quaintrail.

Have a good morning, good afternoon or good night!