Project Hail Mary

audio cd

Published July 13, 2021 by Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio.

ISBN:
978-1-7136-3029-6
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4 stars (14 reviews)

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, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part …

16 editions

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is my first review of a book and is a kind of reaction to the one star commentaries that I saw. For sure I have read The Martian a while back and I can see that this book is similar, but I think a lot of people enjoy it (like I did) because of those similarities. Sure, there are a lot of cliché characters but in the kind of hopefully vision of the future that is lacking right now. The stereotipe of scientists from Russia, China, America and other places that set aside differences to save the world is a much needed hope that if the world is at stake we will all come together. Sure, the book is not all fairies and rainbows, the hero is actually a coward sent against is will to save humanity and in the mean time there is almost a surety that there …

Andy Weir delivers again

No rating

I wasn't a huge fan of Artemis, but loved The Martian. Project Hail Mary is closer to The Martian in tone and theme. I very much enjoyed it.

I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Ray Porter, who also narrates the Bobiverse series. The two are similar enough (big space travel stories) that there was a certain comfort in hearing Porter's voice, but I also periodically felt some dissonance between the two stories. For example, I kept expecting the narrator to offer a solution to one of the science problems based on the tech available in the Bobiverse-- which is silly because they're not even written by the same author! Still, it was a good performance by a good narrator, and I enjoyed this book immensely.

Entertaining and gripping

4 stars

My usual science fiction reads don't cleave quite as strongly to 'reality' as this one - which is part of the reason I found it so interesting.

The writer has created a set of scientifically plausible scenarios and then builds the narrative around whether or not they can be resolved - while throwing in a bunch of twists along the way.

I have a very scientific/technical background, but I think that there would be wider appeal; although the general scientific concepts in here are frequent (including physics, biology, astronomy etc) they don't extend to making it feel like a text book.

I enjoyed the characters and the plot. Thumbs up for a recommendation.

Problem - Solution

3 stars

Andy Weir writes pretty good one note hero stories that are heavy on the science and engineering and feel screen ready. This was enjoyable, but not particularly deep. Like The Martian, the protagonist suffers from a series of obstacles and overcomes them one at at time, with the application of dark humour and science and significantly less potatoes.

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

What a lovely read this was... I tend to read some pretty heavy sprawling-plot sci-fi, and came at this knowing virtually nothing about it other than having seen The Martian in the cinema. As such, I found the small, contained nature of the story (despite the huge consequences in the background) to be thoroughly refreshing. I was smiling throughout and constantly wanting to read on to find out what happened next. I was up 'til 1am last night because I got close to the end and just had to keep going. Excellent.

repite a fórmula do éxito

3 stars

"A fórmula de El Marciano repítese de xeito demasiado evidente. Resulta entretido, e con coñecementos de ensino secundario podes desfrutar lembrando aquelas asignaturas de física e química. Parecese que entendes algo."

"O libro é fácil de ler, podes ler aos poucos sen problema de perder o fío da historia xa que non ten dobleces no argumento, nin significados ou reflexións que requiran un nivel de concentración elevado."

blog.xmgz.eu/project-hail-mary/

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Good:
The plot twist around Ryland's amnesia is great!
"Space amoeba" story done right.
Relationship between Ryland and Rocky is endearing.
Audiobook elevates the whole experience.

Bad:
Protagonist with amnesia trope has been done before.
Rocky has interesting alien physiology & boring human psychology.
* Earthbound story-line and characters seem childish & oversimplified compared to science in space sequences.

Review of 'Project Hail Mary' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

In this work Andy Weir returns to his excellent recipe from The Martian moreso than his experiements in Artemis. The technique pays off and we're left with another thrill-packed science-triumph. The story offers plenty of adversity and even some emotional moments of despair, but a calm head and ingenuity can accomplish miracles.

I would highly recommend picking this up on audiobook over paper. To explain why is a spoiler, so just take my word for it.

Pure entertainment

5 stars

I think this will be the book I recommend the most this year. It is entertaining from beginning to end. If you like sci-fi or space stories, read it. If you don't, read it anyway because you will laugh. It is very rare that I tear through a book in the span of a day, but, and I apologise for the cliché, I could not put this book down.

avatar for DerekCaelin@bookwyrm.social

rated it

5 stars
avatar for signalnine

rated it

4 stars