Project Hail Mary
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By Andy Weir
avg rating
2 reviews
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVELA BARACK OBAMA READING PICK
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING RYAN GOSLING
A lone astronaut.
An impossible mission.
An ally he never imagined.
‘The most enjoyable hard SF I have read in years’ GUARDIAN
’Weir’s finest work to date. . . This is the one book I read last year that I am certain I can recommend to anyone, no matter who, and know they’ll love it.’ BRANDON SANDERSON
‘If you like a lot of science in your science fiction, Andy Weir is the writer for you. . . This one has everything fans of old school SF (like me) love.’ GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
‘Brilliantly funny and enjoyable. One of the most plausible science fiction books I’ve ever read’ TIM PEAKE, astronaut
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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 imagine it, 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.
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‘One of the most original, compelling, and fun voyages I’ve ever taken.’ ERNEST CLINE, author of Ready Player One and Ready Player Two
‘Undisputedly the best book I’ve read in a very, very long time. Mark my words: Project Hail Mary is destined to become a classic.’ BLAKE CROUCH
‘Andy Weir’s brilliant Project Hail Mary…is one of those stirring sci-fi novels about every government on Earth banding together, through science, to save civilisation from collapse. I loved it.’ THE TIMES
‘A suspenseful portrait of human ingenuity and resilience [that] builds to an unexpectedly moving ending. A winner.’ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
‘Weir returns with gusto . . . his writing flows naturally, and his characters and dialogue crackle with energy. With this novel, he takes his place as a genuine star in the mainstream SF world.’ BOOKLIST
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Ordinarily, space exploration is an anathema to me, but this book is not about the customary rocket launches to the Moon or Mars in an internationally competitive race. Instead, it concerns saving our planet in a highly imaginative, cooperative and scientific way. The story and its characterisation are an absolute masterpiece of fiction. If you haven't read 'Project Hail Mary' yet, then I implore you to do so post haste.
Former academic, Dr. Ryland Grace, loved educating children and making physics accessible to his audience. It is therefore a shock when he finds himself as a candidate of a suicide mission onboard a spacecraft with no remaining human contact and endeavouring to find a solution to astrophage, a bacterium which is soaking up the Sun's energy thereby endangering life. This is a situation, which coincidentally is mirrored outside our galaxy and problematic to another planet, Erid. Its spaceship Blip-A also has only one survivor, Rocky, a mechanical spider-like alien with five arms, no eyes and an external pentagonal carapace. Rocky, an intelligent engineer and handyman, hears and communicates only through sound in his own unique ammonia filled atmosphere. What an endearing and friendly creature he is. When Ryland and Rocky make contact, their shared plight unites them and a solid bond of camaraderie and scientific innovation ensues.
I really cannot praise Andy Weir enough. This is a fast-paced, suspenseful delight. I even began to understand the theory of relativity and, trust me, physics is definitely not my forte. For such an edge of your seat drama, it manages to encompass humour, alien sarcasm and pure entertainment in one fell swoop. I won't reveal the outcome. You'll become so invested in the narrative that you will be willing Ryland and Rocky to win the day. I'd love to see the film depiction of this story, but I am so glad to have read the book first. I love it!
This book was recommended to me by a good friend. I did get involved in the storyline of an astronaut who wakes up from a coma and has to work out what his mission is. However, there is a lot of science in the book, I found it very factual in narrative style as well, so it didn't give me the depth of narrative I usually enjoy. The main character's relationship with an alien life-form he meets is funny and moving, but the plot gets quite far-fetched towards the end. Readers who like their science will enjoy it more than I did. 7 out of 10.
