Book Information:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Series: Standalone
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 476
Published: May 4, 2021
Publisher: Penguin UK

Book 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?”

My thoughts:

Our Sun is what makes life on Earth possible but its in danger. The Sun’s energy is being taken away and scientists are struggling to figure out why. Enter Ryland Grace, a failed research scientist and high school Physics teacher, who might just have an answer to save humanity, but he just doesn’t know it yet. Our protagonist wakes up on the Hail Mary, the most advanced space craft ever created. His memories are limited at first, other than the not-so-easy task of saving the planet. His crew mates are dead – never waking up from their 4 years coma – leaving him to do it all on his own… or so it seems.

Despite the overall concept of the story being quite depressing and gloomy (y’know, the end of the world), Project Hail Mary manages to remain light-hearted and fun. The humour is excellent and doesn’t feel forced. I don’t want to talk too much about the alien Grace encounters in the novel – I went into this story totally blind and actually had no idea he’s even be meeting an alien – but the friendship they develop throughout the story is just so wholesome and cute! The prose is conversational, as if Grace is talking directly to us, as well as being his own stream of consciousness. Once you pick it up you can’t help but read it for at least an hour, making Project Hail Mary the perfect smooth easy read for the weekends.

With science fiction I always worry that the science will be too much for me to engage with and properly understand as I’ve read a few in the past that are quite heavy with it. Here its all explained in a basic, linear way so as long as you have a basic understanding of biology, chemistry and physics, you’ll be able to follow along just fine.

This book really is as good as everyone says it is. A solid 4 star read. ⭐⭐⭐⭐