Book Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary is Andy Weir’s third novel. He has previously published The Martian and Artemis. I read The Martian around the release of its movie adaptation and absolutely loved it. It’s one of my favorite books of all time and one of the rare books that I’d recommend to anyone regardless of how often they read or their preferred genres. I had incredibly high expectations for his second release Artemis and they unfortunately were not at all met. I didn’t like the characters, the setting, or the story. Therefore; upon the release of Project Hail Mary I still wanted to give it a try but my expectations were significantly lowered.

I read this book having never once read the description on the cover and honestly I would recommend that. This is one of those books where the less you know going in the more enjoyable it will be (which makes writing this review a little tricky!). The gist of the story is that Earth is being majorly harmed by the presence of something unknown in space. Our protagonist Ryland Grace awakens from what seems to have been a long sleep in a spaceship where he is accompanied by two dead crew members. He has no memory of why he is there, where he is going, or who he even is at first. Then, slowly, as he gains his memories back he realizes that he has been sent on this mission to hopefully solve the problem of what is destroying Earth so he can save all of humanity before it’s too late. However; the discoveries he makes end up being impactful to more than just Earth. The story is told in two timelines. Ryland’s current experiences in space alongside flashbacks to the years leading up to his trip which make the book feel less solely focused on one man and adds more characters and settings to the story that could have otherwise felt a little sparse.

I really enjoyed this book. I think that Andy Weir effortlessly combines pretty dense science with humor and an engaging narrative in a really refreshing way. I notice that a lot of science fiction I read leans more heavily on either being really good fiction or really cool science and I appreciate the way that Project Hail Mary balances between the two. I don’t think this book is for everyone in a way that I believe The Martian is. This book is essentially a scientist using science to solve a big scientific problem and I can see people could get a little bored with the explanations of the problems and the hypotheses of how to potentially solve them, but I personally loved all of it. I would definitely recommend this particularly to fans of science fiction and space travel.

Have you read Project Hail Mary yet? Or any of Andy Weir’s other books? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!