👽👽👽👽👽
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
Published May 4th, 2021
By Ballantine Books
496 Pages
*This post contains affiliate links. We earn a small commission if you purchase the book through this link.
Project Hail Mary is the latest novel to come from the mind of Andy Weir – the author famous for bringing us The Martian. The real question is, can he do it again? Can Weir create another compelling science fiction novel full of snark, chaos, and science galore? The answer is yes.
Ryland Grace is all alone. He’s more alone than any other human has ever been. He and his crew set out in a desperate race against time, hoping to save humanity before it became too late. Now, Grace is alone and still facing insurmountable odds.
Grace is now millions of miles away from the nearest human, but at least he has reached his goal. Now he just has to figure out how to operate the ship, conduct research, and find the answer that humanity depends on. Thankfully, there’s one more twist that might just help to even those odds.
If you loved the science and humor that was pouring out of every crevice in The Martian, then you’re in luck. Project Hail Mary has taken the formula that worked so well there and then threw a whole new set of circumstances into the mix.
Admittedly, that does mean that Ryland Grace and Mark Watney have a lot in common. They’re brilliant, sarcastic, witty, and forced into situations of pure survival and isolation. But as the saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ The format works, as all of the scientific info drops might come off dry if not balance out by this style of character.
I loved the storytelling method that Weir used here. It wasn’t a clear-cut adventure through space, but instead something much more compelling. Grace’s story unfolds over the course of the novel, told through two different points in time, before the mission and during the mission. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of compelling information and events worth following, even before Grace left earth.
It made for a thrilling read, one that kept me happily tucked in on my couch for hours at a time. Naturally, now I’m picking how Project Hail Mary would look on the big screen. I’m hoping that we’ll be hearing adaptation news in the near future because it has as much potential as its predecessor did.
Thanks to #BellantaneBooks and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Leave a Reply