Project Hail Mary

From the bestselling author of The Martian

No cover

Project Hail Mary (Paperback)

paperback

English language

ISBN:
978-1-5291-0062-4
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3 stars (4 reviews)

A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this incredible new science-based thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Martian.

A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined.

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 …

1 edition

For those who like this sort of thing...

2 stars

The hype over The Martian passed me by. If it hadn't, then I wouldn't have read this. Having read this, I shan't be reading any other Andy Weir books in the immediate future. There is the kernel of a good book in here, but it's ruined - for me - by firstly, excessive attention to detail. It's the textual equivalent of one of those less interesting Star Trek TNG episodes where the crew encounter a Problem which is eventually solved by the appliance of science. Sadly, the Enterprise crew were far more engaging than the underdeveloped protagonist here who is merely seems a frame on which to hang calculations. Secondly, Weir's problem solving is at his strongest when examining physical & engineering problems, but the biological nature of the Problem I found a bit silly. Thirdly and this is a problem that extends to a lot of science fiction, Weir's …

Meir av "The Martian"

No rating

Eng: Pretty much a sequel to The Martian - and that's not a bad thing.

Nor: Eg likte veldig godt "The Martian" då eg las ho, det er noko med problemløysing og det å tilpasse seg det ein har, som er tilfredsstillande å lese. Det er truleg det same som eg likte med MacGyver. Denne boka handlar om ein annan kar i ein annan situasjon, men opplegget er det same: ein mann med litt nerdete humor og mykje vitskapleg kompetanse må kjempe om å overleves i verdsrommet. Men her går ein steget vidare inn i science fiction, noko som fungerer bra. Samtidig så følest det av og til litt intimt å lese bøker som dette, då hovudpersonen utan tvil er ei forlenging av Weir sjølv. Ein slags dagdraum.

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.