Project Hail Mary

How to write like Andy Weir:

Problem • Humor • Solution • Humor • Problem • Humor • Solution • Humor • Problem • Humor • Solution • Humor • Problem • Humor • Solution • Humor • Problem • Humor • Solution • Humor • Problem • Humor • Solution • Humor …

Also don’t bother with character development.

Jazz hands!

Ryland and <spoiler>Rocky</spoiler> are a dynamic duo for the ages. Every fist bump, every "amaze" made me giggle. The moment Ryland woke up on the Hail Mary felt like a nod to the <spoiler>1968 Planet of the Apes</spoiler>—the disorientation, fear, and realizations hitting all at once that made my skin prickle.

The scientific breakdowns were thankfully limited and used sparingly to drive the story forward. Ryland's wry, sardonic tone definitely helped keep me engaged too. Honestly, I cared more about Ryland and <spoiler>Rocky</spoiler> than Earth for most of the book. Honorable mention for that badass Eva Stratt, who basically lit a match, threw it over her shoulder, and walked away from an explosion in slow motion in an unexpected courtroom scene.

Oh and the ending! The moment Ryland walked through that door I knew and <spoiler>my heart expanded three sizes this day</spoiler>. The final chapter felt 100% earned.

Andy Weir writes the most engaging characters in sci-fi period.

Woah! It's been a very long time since I read sci-fi, and this story kidnapped me along on a whirlwind of a space adventure! I couldn't put the book down as I needed to know what happened next at all times. The constant element of mystery, with a few action sequences sprinkled in, really achieve the amazing tension that kept me being pulled into the story stronger than gravity (heh). As any good fictional story does, Project Hail Mary draws some pretty compelling parallels to our own reality. Although the comparisons it draws are unambiguous, the thoughts it inspired in me were not. I mean, there aren't really clear villains in this story for me, and that's why it was sometimes difficult to decide whose side I was on. We are pretty used to having heroes and villains in our stories, after all.

The reason I only gave four stars is that despite the exciting storyline, unfortunately Andy Weir's stylistic writing choices did not do it for me the same way. Right from the get-go, the main character's inner dialogue was... grating. I don't like it when too many spoken language ornaments are used in writing, as (to me) it simply makes the writing itself stand out way more than the story or the character's personality. Breaks the fourth wall, if you will. The other issue comes with the 'show, don't tell' rule. There was far too much telling going on!!! I get that for dramatics it can be effective to end a chapter with "Thing X happened. Uh oh. That means bad thing XYZ", but not every few paragraphs, please! I should be able to discern the character's emotions and the implications of things directly from how they're written, without explicit explanations every single time.

I wish I could rate higher than five stars!! This was amazing. I don’t even typically like fiction and I loved it. It’s funny, there’s some science and learning, and such a heartwarming story. I loved the take on alien life being friendly and not terrifying. I also loved watching the world team up together.

I wasn't sure if Andy Weir could capture my imagination again like he did with The Martian. It turned out that tis second book, Artemis, wasn't up to the task - but Project Hail Mary? That's a different story. From its amnesia infused beginnings and all along its two-timeline narrative that eventually dovetails together, the book works brilliantly at unravelling a mystery. Similar to The Martian, the plotline here is driven by one person (or in the case of the second timeline, a small team of people) overcoming massive technical and science problems. I feel like this is a signature of Weir's best work, though time will tell. Project Hail Mary simply proves that Andy Weir is not a one hit wonder and that, in fact, his best work may be yet to come.

I listened to the audiobook version and enjoyed those extra details that can only be found in the audio format.

I love how Weir combines the detailed scientific plot points with humor, and for this particular novel, I love how he took this cliche trope that retreats anything and anyone disabled like we're only worth to die somewhere in the plot, and he just subverted it! I wont detail this further. I just love the way he wrote this story. Absolutely refreshing.

If you read The Martian and you liked it, then you will probably like this too.

3.5
The main character is soooo cringey. I didn't enjoy being in his head. On the other hand, Rocky is very nice.

Loved this book!

Fantastic book. I love this author.

A little long-winded, but great story! If you like audiobooks, you'll get a better experience listening to it read than reading it IMHO.

It's cute. Didn't blow my mind, but the “science the sh*** out of this” shenanigans were a lot fun. Yes, it does feel a lot like The Martian at times, but with a different and interesting enough premise to make it worthwhile. The most unbeliebable part of this was the protagonist not knowing about Pete Best. Dude! Come on! Beatles lore is not something you can avoid even if you want to.

Phenomenal read. Captivating, creative, detailed and fun. One of the best books I've read in years.

If you enjoy sci-fi novels, this is a must read. This is the first book I read that was written by Andy Weir. So my expectations were high going in and somehow this book exceeded them. 5/5 would recommend. Jazz Hands.

P.S: if you have access to audiobooks, I would highly recommend listening to this in audiobook format (narrated by Ray Porter). This is the best audiobook I have heard so far and it's not even close.

Slow progress. 

Some of my favorite books ever are the ones I know the least about heading into them.  With most media I like to know what I'm getting into, but recently I've had a lot of fun with books where I find out about them just from a social media post or a friend telling me they're great with no follow-up.  I found out about Project Hail Mary from the former as one day I was browsing Reddit and saw a post with the title ‘Project Hail Mary took me to the stars'.  Knowing nothing about the book besides the fact that someone said it took them to the stars, I decided to try it out.  Project Hail Mary continues the trend of me having great experiences with books I know almost nothing about prior to reading the first page.    Project Hail Mary is in many ways your classic space-exploration novel.  It focuses on one character (Dr. Grace) who wakes up and is trapped on a space shuttle with amnesia.  As with most modern sci-fi, there's a lot of snark (which I have heard is characteristic of Weir's writing).  The areas where the novel is stereotypical are good for what they are, but there are two areas where the novel really separates itself.    The first is in how the amnesia is dealt with.  As the novel goes on, Dr. Grace continues to recover pieces of his memory.  The pieces of memory he recovers also serves as exposition to the reader.  This feels a bit forced at times but I am overall a fan of it as it nicely breaks up the book into two separate ‘timelines' in ‘past' and ‘present', allowing neither section to get too monotonous.  Where this device works extremely well is near the end of the book.  Throughout Project Hail Mary, Dr. Grace has assumed that he volunteered to go on a suicide mission to save Earth.  He has thought of himself as a hero for this choice and this ego boost has carried him through some of the more difficult events that occur during his journey.  But in one of the last flashback/'past' sections, we (both the reader and Dr. Grace himself) find out that he was forced onto the mission against his will and that he was given medicine that would purposefully induce memory loss in order to ensure his cooperation on the ship.  It's a gut punch that functions well as both an emotional beat as well as explanation for why he had amnesia in the first place.  I do wish there was a bit more emotional payoff to the reveal that he was a coward instead of a hero but I can overlook that considering how great the moment itself is.   The second area the novel really stands out is in the main non-Dr. Grace character in the ‘present' sections of the novel.  At first, Dr. Grace is alone in space but around one-fifth of the way through the book his ship encounters another one.  This ship turns out to be inhabited by an alien that Dr. Grace names Rocky.  I cannot put into words how much I love Rocky.  Even though Dr. Grace describes him in ways that make him sound like a monster (he's a five-legged pentagonal spider covered in a jagged metal exoskeleton) Rocky is an absolute delight to read.  The friendship that develops between Dr. Grace and Rocky, two creatures who are just trying to save their species, is heartwarming and far and away the best part of the book.  I was so worried that Rocky was evil the entire time and while that may have made the book more dramatic, I like Weir's decision to keep the relationship as a wholly positive thing for both of them.  This book made me fall in love with a creepy space spider and I couldn't be happier for it.    Project Hail Mary does so many other different things greatly as well.  The characters we meet in Dr. Grace's flashback sequences are all reasonably well-developed, seeing Dr. Grace finagle his way out of seemingly impossible situations is really fun and the science itself is really solid.  Weir covers all his bases to make this novel a well-rounded piece of literature    After finishing the book I decided to check out the Reddit post that inspired me to read it.  As expected, I saw a lot of praise but I also saw a decent amount of comments disagreeing with the original poster.  A lot of the criticism focused on the abundance of sassy jabs between the characters in the flashback sequences, the amount of suspension of disbelief required throughout and the science being kind of hand-wavy at certain point.  After reading that criticism I can see why someone would have a problem with these points... but I don't care.  Project Hail Mary isn't perfect, but it made me have so much fun that I could easily overlook its flaws and just let myself enjoy the ride.  That is a feeling I crave in any sci-fi or fantasy book and it's why I continuously go back to these genres.  Project Hail Mary took me to the stars too, and I'm not sure I want to come back down.   

Starring the same character from The Martian, with small tweaks, this book tries to replicate the funny guy doing math & science to avoid death, but weirdly changes the stakes. Instead of the thoroughness from the Mars mission, or the sardonic and casual rebellion of Artemis—also entertaining—this book leaves a lot on the table.

The science is somewhat sloppier, the jokes not as funny, and the relationship rushed. The whole second half of the book feels like it was written hastily under a deadline and a maximum word count.

The main character needed more depth, more difference from Watney, and then about 800 more pages of telling the story properly instead of rushing to an improbable and trite ending. Oh well.

A damn fine book. And a better the Martian. I feel like it retained both wonder and realistic sci fi and managed that balance perfectly. I would change one thing, which is the flashbacks. I get why they aren't in a separate chapter, but it broke up the action sometimes and I rushed through them a lot.

I love this book. Andy weir has a way of combing humor with life and death and hard scifi. this book had me laughing at so many places i maybe should not have been laughing at, and realyl in situations i would be terrified to find myself in perosnally

What happens when you combine star eating microscopic life with aliens and the eventual death of humanity, well this book is that story and was a fantastic read and highly recommended

A good story if you can get past the excruciatingly bad prose.

I really enjoyed this book, even though it drags here and there. The main reason I like this book is the friendship that develops between Grace and Rocky and it is what kept me reading and enjoying every last bit, even the parts that drags. 

For me it's a 10/10 even with its short comings. 

Listen, this book was phenomenal. It has become my favorite science fiction book (and no, I haven’t read the Red Rising series yet). I highly recommend the audiobook because there is a ton of math and science and reading it may be a little much. Plus, the narrator does an amazing job. I laughed out loud several times. I used both physical and audiobook. Ryland Grace started out being my favorite character, then Eva Stratt stole the show. And just when I thought she had it on lock, Rocky took over. This is more than just a book about outer space. It’s about sacrifice, love, betrayal, friendship, duty, and honor. The easiest ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I ever gave.

I feel I need to preface this review with the fact that I’ve realized Science Fiction maybe just isn’t my genre. I enjoy sci-fi movies & TV, so I always thought that would translate to books, but in film, when they start talking about physics & quantum mechanics, I politely disassociate and just focus on the pretty pictures. I guess I can’t do that while reading.

Boyyyy does this book get deep into the nitty gritty of physics, mathematics, quantum mechanics. Every theory or experiment that Ryland has is explained in excruciating details. I’m not a complete dummy, I understand some of it, I just don’t care 🤷🏻‍♀️ To me, a lot of the pathos and fun of the book really gets distracted by getting lost in these scientific details. But also, I think that may just be a me problem. I think this sci-fi just doesn’t make my heart sing. That’s ok.

I had high hopes due to the glowing reviews but it never really grabbed me. Aside from the science, I just found Ryland to be a bit hokey for my taste. On the other hand, I loved Rocky. I loved their friendship, how they learned to communicate, all of that was A+.

It’s a good read, just not quite my cup of tea.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from the very first page. I didn't read any descriptions beforehand, which heightened the sense of surprise and wonder. I highly recommend doing the same.

I absolutely loved this book and savored every page. I particularly enjoyed Andy Weir's previous work, “The Martian.” While they share many similarities, I found this book to be even more captivating. To avoid spoilers, I'll refrain from providing specific details.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction or was particularly fond of “The Martian.” For me, it stands as one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.

This book reminds me alot of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. A heavy dose of science, an interesting storyline, and characters you can take an interest in for the entire book.

I took off 1 star because I found the explanation of the sciences would drag the story down alot of the time but that's just me. If I were worked in the world of science I might enjoy this level of detail.

I do know enough science to recognize the name Jim Green in the acknowledgments. I used to listen to his podcasts (Gravity Assist) and was sad when he shut it down but hey, what a way to move on to other pastures!

Project Hail Mary is an absolute joy to read—possibly the most fun I've ever had with a book and without question my favorite novel I've read over the course 2024 (so far). Seriously, it's the very definition of a “page turner.” I devoured it over four evenings, doing my best to limit myself to 25% each night; I had to force myself to put it down and get some sleep, which was no easy task.

The story is packed with all sorts of science jargon of various levels of complexity, but Andy Weir makes it all accessible and fun, no matter how much (or how little) I knew about the concepts. It felt like I was right there, figuring things out alongside the main character, without ever feeling lost or overwhelmed.

I laughed out loud so many times while reading this—Weir's humor really comes alive in the interactions between the main characters. But it's not all laughs; there are moments that hit so hard they had me on the verge of tears. It's the kind of story that sticks with you, a truly unforgettable adventure. If I had to describe it, I'd say it's like a mix of The Three-Body Problem trilogy, Interstellar, and E.T.—packed with wonder, mystery, and so much heart.

It's hardly a groundbreaking opinion to say that Project Hail Mary is already a modern classic in the realm of science fiction. But if Hollywood gets the film adaptation right, this story has all the makings of a worldwide cultural phenomenon. The characters, the stakes, the sheer sense of adventure—it has the potential to become the next E.T., a feat no story has truly achieved since, well, E.T..

This book was exhilarating, heartfelt, and absolutely impossible to put down. Project Hail Mary is the kind of story that reignites your love for reading, reminding you of the magic a truly great book can bring.