Project Hail Mary

“I was alone all along, but now I am truly alone. The sole living human within several light-years, at least.”

Wow. That was fascinating and highly addictive.⠀
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To be honest I was reluctant to believe that Weir could rip five stars out of me. Why, question? Well, I rated “The Martian” just 3 and felt like I was the black sheep of the Goodreadsverse. Mainly because I thought Mark Watney was too smart to be true and because the level of detail was dull and overwhelming.
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“Project Hail Mary” was everything I expected and more. The story is told through a series of flashback and present events. I never thought I would end up enjoying this back-and-forth (I mostly want my narrative to be linear!) but Weir managed to cohere the story masterfully. I was helpless like a bird following a trail of bread crumbs. I was connected, I was Ryland Grace. I frankly felt every possible feeling in the threshold and certainly didn't almost cried. IT IS THAT GOOD.⠀
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Like me, you're probably a little skeptical on the lone scientist thing but hear me out and turn a blind eye a little because this is such a beautiful story. It's a tale of hope and survival and friendship. I don't know what else to say without spoiling it for you so just go ahead and experience this for yourself. There's a big chance you will put this story in the “unforgettable” corner of your mind.

I'm sad I'm done reading.

I've really enjoyed this book. It's somewhere between the Martian (which is the best) and Artemis. The plot was very surprising to me and I liked the little plot twists here and there. I'd like to see this made into a movie!

I devoured this book. It was very martian-esque. Much more so than Artemis. I enjoyed the entire story front to back. Andy weir is very good. 

Can't wait to see what they do with the movie rights to this.

I really enjoyed this one, and like the Martian, could not wait to dive back in. I appreciated what wier tried to do with Artemis but in this one he goes back into his talent sweet spot - delivering a first person “science the hell out of it” narrative. On top of the excellent plot he ads a new layer of interspecies relationship that is refreshingly different from the usual. If you like the Martian you will love this one.

Excellent book, have now listened to it twice, nice mix of SciFi with a good splash of humour and sorrow thrown in. The narrator adds to the overall rating of five stars given.

10/10

Absolutely phenomenal book. One of the best audiobooks I have ever went through. Entertaining from the first page all the way until the last. Definitely recommend!

Update:
I listened to it again and I am left with the same feeling as before. This audiobook was so good I ended up doing every chore possible around the house as an excuse for listening all day.

I feel a bit melancholy when I finish such a good book, but at least now my balcony is clean.

My favorite book of 2021 (so far)

I???ve now read all of Weir's novels, and I think I???ve got a firm idea of the type of story he likes to write. His sense of humour is always threaded through the entire book and it???s a bit of a miss for me. In this story in particular I noticed straight away the character wakes up in an unfamiliar medical environment and starts joking about tubes in his butt and alien probes. Honestly, that just wasn???t funny to me and I thought it took away from what could have been a great opening if it had been written in a less comedic style. The comedy got less intense as the book continues and I found the rest of it didn???t take away from the story but simply didn???t enhance my enjoyment.

And I think it stems from the fact that I felt like I was reading Mark Watney lite. The sense of humour is strong in all of Weir's books and I think it leaves a lot of his characters with the same flavour, jokey science nerds who are incredibly clever but can???t take anything serious. I thought that was great in the Martian but as more characters have the same attitude it becomes less fun to read. And that???s my only real complaint with Project Hail Mary. Our character is always ending up in situations that just kind of happen to him and then his superior knowledge saves him every time, and it just falls a little flat.

Aside from the character feeling juvenile, the plot was great. Another lone astronaut in space, sure, but this one didn???t feel like a re-do of The Martian. The plot was built up over the book with flashbacks adding complexity and more of that science heavy problem-solving I liked so much in his debut.

All in all, this was a fun science fiction book that I had a good time reading. I???m not sure if it has the same star quality of The Martian, but it???s not far off.

The geek in me enjoyed it very much. Same style writing as Graeme Simsion's Rosie Project. I only wish it had a philosophical side or a deeper meaning to it.

I???m embarrassed by how long it took me to read this book but dang, was it good. Highly recommend.

This should straight out be among the top of the nominees for the Hugo Award 2021. It's that good! Project Hail Mary is an emotionally stirring hard Sci-Fi adventure about an astronaut who is on the most critical mission to save mankind but has suffered severe amnesia. He is the sole survivor in a spaceship and has forgotten what he is supposed to do, what his name is, and even where in the solar system he is !! To summarise without giving any spoilers, if you took inspirations from Memento, Interstellar, Arrival, and The Martian, put it in a mixer and made a mind-bogglingly good novel out of it - Project Hail Mary would be exactly that!
Not only it turns out to be one of the best books I've read this year, but it will also definitely be among the best Sci-Fi novels I've ever read. This is the first Andy Weir novel I've read and I loved his writing style. I'll check out his other novels later. The Martian was adapted into a great sci-fi film; so, I can definitely expect some quality books from him. Great stuff! Highly recommended! <3

Easily one of my best reads. Andy Weir writes not just for the story but for the love of science. If you think Martian was great, wait until you read this one.

There is something about this book that just hums with life. Overall I loved it. I loved the plotline and the excitement and the scope. I was swept up in what is certainly a page-turner. But, for the life of me, it is one of the most difficult 5-star reviews I have ever given because in so many ways it didn't deserve 5 stars. The characters, even with nearly 500 pages to flesh them out, are pretty thin, outside of Dr. Grace and one additional character. The science, while fascinating, gets to be ridiculously monotonous. The wooden dialogue in some areas and the caricatures of characters are frustrating. I can suspend my disbelief about the grand ideas and unfathomable twists of the story more than I can for the outlandish notion that nearly all those portrayed in the book exercise the same sense of humor, especially given the gravity of the situation and the life and death circumstances. There were some twists added and arduous detours into theoretical space problems that simply didn't need to exist (the situation is incredible enough, thank you) and that only further exacerbated the book's issues. It reminded me quite a bit of the film, Armageddon, which is absolutely nuts and full of problems but is still such an enjoyable ride that you can't help but smile.
So, in the end I couldn't dock it. The fun of it all just made it impossible to not enjoy.

I went into this book knowing nothing and was so glad I did. Everything was a surprise which made it a fantastic read for me. A lot of the science was beyond my understanding, but that didn't take anything away from the heartfelt and funny aspects of the story. I recommend going into this book blind and just enjoying the ride!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Page turner, entertaining and so content with the storyline!

Full video review on my BOOKTUBE channel - https://youtu.be/5QZ4Mzpn7Ls

This was a great story as a Martian 2.0 and you can feel those great ???Mark Watney??? humor with our new protagonist Ryland Grace. It was a fantastic and action packed read with lots of humor and science.

Scientist turned middle school teacher gets roped into a last ditch effort to save Earth. There's lots of nerdy science and even aliens from outer space. This was the second time reading this. Enjoyed it as much as the first reading. If you liked The Martian, you'll like this one, too.

Kot velik Andyev fan, predvsem zaradi knjige The Martian, sem dolgo in nestrpno pričakoval njegovo novo knjigo. Večjo, debelejšo in pogumnejšo kot prejšnjo, a takšno, ki ohranja znani rahlo humorni stil pisanja, inteligentnega in iznajdljivega glavnega (in edinega?) junaka, smrtonosno okolje v katerem se je znašel in vse neverjetno situacije iz katerih se rešuje. Ne ravno 007, za povrhu še sam v vesolju in brez deklet, a v 21. stoletju je tak junak skoraj enako cool kot Bond v prejšnjem stoletju.

Začetek knjige me je navdušil. Verjetno predvsem zato, ker sem si res želel, da bi bila knjiga dobra in da bi mi ugajala.. Nekje v sredini sem sklenil, da je Andy pretiraval, da je zgodba preveč neverjetna, hkrati preveč linearna in premalo presenetljiva. A do konca se je razpletlo tako, da je Zdrava Marija takšen tipičen drugi ali tretji studijski album. Ni novi presežek, je pa še enkrat ožel izvirno idejo in stil prvega albuma, ravno toliko sta si podobna, da so ga navdušenci veseli. Pa nič več kot to.

Project Hail Mary z veseljem priporočam v branje vsem, ki jih veseli žanr lahkega, skoraj igrivega sci-fi, a The Martian zaenkrat ostaja tisti pravi, prvi in verjetno največji Andyev hit.

Well after setting up high expectations with Martian I guess this was coming. And no its not a bad book at all. In fact some parts are absolutely fun especially Weir's brand of science. In this are he does not disappoint. The scenario's are all plausible without seeming too outlandish. Even the discovery of another species is handled with ease. If there is anything that makes this book not live upto the previous one its the heart. The narrative is really dry and unemotional. No loneliness of space, no fear of death etc. You could swap the protagonist with a robot and nothing would be lost. Worth reading just to expand your horizon though. There are other worlds than these!

Not quite as gripping for me as The Martian was. But, still an interesting story with a nice twist at the end.
The protagonist, Ryland Grace, is a reluctant hero with a big mission. To accomplish it, he has to science the hell out of multiple problems all the way through the story – with a little help from a friend. It isn't easy.
I think it is best to go into this story cold. If you can avoid it, don't even read the cover text.
I recommend the audio version. Ray Porter's narration is very good, and there are elements of the story that can be presented better in audio than text.
Solid four stars.

I honestly think Weir is the best science fiction writer I have ever encountered. I know next to nothing about actual science, and he gives clear, clever explanations for just about everything happening in his stories, to the point that even I can understand what's going on. Most of the sci-fi I read, I mentally substitute “magic” for any sciencey thing happening. Making an explanation clear, and funny, and engaging? That is a hell of a talent.

I loved thissssss! This is the best sci-fi book I've read since [b:Dark Matter 27833670 Dark Matter Blake Crouch https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472119680l/27833670.SY75.jpg 43161998] by [a:Blake Crouch 442240 Blake Crouch https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1479398727p2/442240.jpg]. I want to read more books like this!I liked how even though we had only one POV, it was never boring. The narrative kept shifting between the present and past (since Grace had no memories of how he came to be in space), so he had to do a lot of brainstorming to remember stuff. And this man did so many EVAs in this damn book. Every 5 pages, he was like ‘Time for an EVA'. Every time he did an EVA, I was like, yep! This is it. He's dead now. Whose idea was it to make the book cover an EVA scene? I thought something bad was going to happen on every EVA!Likes:• The sass! The dialogues! The smart but idiotic decisions!• ‘Instant toga'• When I reached the ‘Emperor Comatose' line, I knew I was going to love this book.• The science was accurate and not over the top. The high school physics stuff was easy to follow. Some high-level science was not explained in detail (Thank God). • The extinction-level event was very cool. Nothing grandiose but still impactful enough to cause an apocalypse.• No spoilers but THAT came out of nowhere and was pleasantly surprising.• The second half of the book was my favorite.• (How to say this without spoilers) The whole music to English conversion part was awesome. I loved it.• The subtle chapter number change for the last chapter was a nice touch ;)• The ending was so sweet! I did not expect it at all. Loved it!Favorite dialogues:• I am Emperor Comatose. Kneel before me.• All right, genius brain: come up with something! ...I'm hungry. You have failed me, brain.• I have a date with a cylinder.• “Sample device radio signal strong. Getting closer. Be ready.”“I'm ready.”“Be very ready.”“I am very ready. Be calm.”“Am calm. You be calm.”“No, you be cal-wait. I see the sampler!”• Usually you not stupid. Why stupid, question? • You are leaky space blob.• Your face is leaking. This book can be best summed up by the quote: ‘The real treasure was the friends we made along the way.' P.S. I've found an article saying this book was optioned for a movie a year ago? (WHAT?!) Really looking forward to it!

WOW! I SUPER enjoyed this book. I am, of course, a fan of his book the Martian but after hearing mixed reviews about Artemis I was nervous to read anything else for fear it would taint my appreciation for his first book. I went into this one pretty wary. But I was not disappointed. I honestly can't write any more of my thoughts because I know the minute I do, i'll starting giving out spoilers. But what I can say is that as a person who is not a fan of Sci-fi this book was fan-fricken-tastic.

Fantastic! Another home run from Andy Weir, his best since The Martian. I don't want to get into spoilers, but this book combines the hard science fiction and humor of Weir's earlier bestselling triumph with a few more fantastical elements that may delight fans of Dennis E. Taylor or Peter Clines. If you're wondering why those two authors, apart from a particular plot element present in Project Hail Mary, the audiobook is narrated by Ray Porter, who is a G.O.A.T. level audiobook narrator. I found Project Hail Mary to be compelling, fascinating, and even emotionally moving. The protagonist was a realistic and flawed hero who seemed completely relatable. The plot, while a bit out there, seemed plausible enough to this non-scientist. I would highly recommend this book, and especially the audiobook version! 5 stars.