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 …
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 dazzling interstellar journey, 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.
I really slept on this book. The Martian is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books. This book lived up to its legacy in a way that Artemis didn't. It was really so funny and heartwarming. It laughed out loud so many time. I wept. I felt betrayed, right along with Grace as he remembered what happened. This book was really almost perfect.
My only gripes were these:
I didn't like Rocky. Not as a character. He was just too good at fixing stuff. It made it less real. That was the magic of the Martian. It felt like it could really happen. I am not complaining about the fact of the aliens. I just didn't love how he was able to solve all of their problems with magic alien fabrication abilities.
My other complaint was the ending. I didn't think I got the pay off at the end that I wanted. I was on board with it being a tragic end. Then when Rocky magically had a ton of extra astrophage I, reluctantly, got on board with Grace surviving. I didn't really want him to die anyway. I was excited to get back to earth and see how things played out. I was excited to see him either get to chew out Stratt, or for her to be dead and for him to have to come to terms with it. I wanted that closure if he wasn't going to have sacrificed himself for the mission. But I didn't get that. Instead we got this sort of lukewarm conclusion with him going to live with the aliens and thinking to himself that maybe one day he'll go back to earth. It just really let me down.
Overall, I still have to give it a 5 because the rest was just that good. The way it was structured with the flashbacks was just genius. When books do that I usually hate it. But this was perfect. It gave us such a good break from what was going on with Grace, in the same way that the NASA scenes did in The Martian. Yeah. Just so perfect, other than the ending.
Ich habe am Anfang wirklich keine Freude an dem Hörbuch gehabt. Ein weißer Mann, allein irgendwo im Weltraum – Das kennen wir ja alle schon und spricht mich überhaupt nicht an.
Auch beim Grundproblem der außerirdischen Bedrohung, die zwar etwas kreativer war, war ich noch nicht wirklich an Bord. Ich bin einfach ewig nicht mit dem Hauptcharakter Grace warm geworden.
Aber ich liebe Rocky! Er ist der Beste. Zugegeben, das Ende ist mir zwar fast etwas zu kitschig, aber dieses schmalzige Happy End gönne ich Rocky von Herzen.
Der Roman ist wissenschaftlich interessant und erzählt eine spannende Geschichte der Menschheit, die uns leider, auf "etwas" andere Weise, auch in Wirklichkeit betrifft. Die Reaktion der Menschheit in dieser Geschichte sollten wir uns als Vorbild nehmen.
Der Roman ist wissenschaftlich interessant und erzählt eine spannende Geschichte der Menschheit, die uns leider, auf "etwas" andere Weise, auch in Wirklichkeit betrifft.
Die Reaktion der Menschheit in dieser Geschichte sollten wir uns als Vorbild nehmen.
A story about a high school science teacher who gets sucked (willingly) into humanity's attempt to save itself from "astrophage", a microbe that has the capability of living on the surface of the sun because it lives on energy. The problem is that astrophage will dim the sun by 10% and that will kill everyone.
The story begins with Ryland Grace waking up on a space ship with no memories. The device allows Weir to go into the history of astrophage through flashbacks, and also allow some things to not be told to the reader because Grace doesn't remember them... yet. Anyway, Grace realizes he's at Tau Ceti because it's the only nearby star system that isn't infected with astrophage and he's there to figure out why.
Project Hail Mary has a very 80s feel to it. Very gee whiz exploring the universe is very cool. A lot of plausible sounding science, if you accept the premise that a microbe can absorb the sun's energy, store it, and then propel itself at nearly the speed of light through releasing that energy.
Most of the characters appear in flashbacks explaining how we got here, and those characters are fun caricatures. Unfortunately only one of them, Eva Stratt gets any real repeat scenes. She's the administrator who is put in charge of Project Hail Mary. A wondrously amoral character that can command the militaries of any of the world's powers, including detonating nukes in Antarctica and force-drafting scientists to the project who really don't want to be part of it.
The primary story happens on the Hail Mary in the Tau Ceti system with Grace alone trying to figure out what to do. The plot is a series of scenes of problems appearing, Grace thinking and sciencing his way through them, followed by a short respite or flashback before the next problem appears. Grace solves all of them, but this isn't competence porn. He's incredibly sloppy in a way that really does remind me of my high school science teachers.
This is clearly written to be a major motion picture or a streaming series, so I expect there will be ample opportunity to consume this story that way soon.
I enjoyed “The Martian” and this is more of the same, which is a good thing. Ryland, the protagonist, is a golden retriever of a narrator: super ENTHUSIASTIC! which surprisingly, didn’t grate (too much). Because it’s science and problem-solving, and Weir does a good job of keeping it interesting without dumbing things down. Really fascinating stuff. The stakes are much higher this time too. Very enjoyable.
I enjoyed it. It was similar to The Martian, in that someone has to science the shit out of a life-threatening situation, but everything else is very different and the stakes are so much higher. So you do indeed get a new book despite the broad similarities. The characters were fun and I can see how they will translate onto the big screen with the upcoming movie adaptation. Recommended if you enjoyed The Martian or if you enjoy a lot of science facts and their application or if you want to know beforehand what happens so you can focus more on Ryan Gosling.
Ryland Grace wakes up disoriented on a spaceship, with amnesia and no memory of his mission. As he pieces together his situation, he realizes he's humanity's last hope on a desperate interstellar mission to save Earth. The amnesia hook throws the reader headfirst into the story alongside Ryland, unraveling the mysteries surrounding the mission and his own identity. A thrilling sci-fi adventure that explores themes of human ingenuity, resilience, and the power of cooperation in the face of overwhelming odds.
Ryland Grace wakes up disoriented on a spaceship, with amnesia and no memory of his mission. As he pieces together his situation, he realizes he's humanity's last hope on a desperate interstellar mission to save Earth. The amnesia hook throws the reader headfirst into the story alongside Ryland, unraveling the mysteries surrounding the mission and his own identity. A thrilling sci-fi adventure that explores themes of human ingenuity, resilience, and the power of cooperation in the face of overwhelming odds.
After reading The Mote in God’s Eye, I realized that Garrit Franke, a fellow Fosstodon member, finished reading this book, so I decided to give it a try too.
I have to admit that at first I was a little bit hesitant about this book, because it is a written in first person, and it also starts out with ammnesia and also flashbacks. But after that I got used to the writing style pretty quickly and started to really get into the main story and the mystery behind everything happening around our protagonist.
The story follows a lone astronaut that finds himself facing impossible odds every step of the way. The way the plot is revealed and how it moves forward every chapter is great. The scientific elements are pretty accurate and that was something I found really interesting. It reminded me a lot of Jules Verne’s novels …
After reading The Mote in God’s Eye, I realized that Garrit Franke, a fellow Fosstodon member, finished reading this book, so I decided to give it a try too.
I have to admit that at first I was a little bit hesitant about this book, because it is a written in first person, and it also starts out with ammnesia and also flashbacks. But after that I got used to the writing style pretty quickly and started to really get into the main story and the mystery behind everything happening around our protagonist.
The story follows a lone astronaut that finds himself facing impossible odds every step of the way. The way the plot is revealed and how it moves forward every chapter is great. The scientific elements are pretty accurate and that was something I found really interesting. It reminded me a lot of Jules Verne’s novels that usually felt like something that could be possible to do.
In this case of course the protagonist uses his scientific knowledge (as well as his memory slowly coming back) to figure out how handle his mission, which is pretty much to save the planet from certain demise.
I liked the setting and the characters that show up, there’s quite a bit of science tidbits I learned through this, and the moments of action and uncertainty are quite great. I could not stop reading many times because I just wanted to know what in the world would our protagonist do even just to stay alive to live another day.
I didn’t feel like the book was as long as it was, honestly. It was definitely worth it. I do think that it feels a little like a movie waiting to happen, the prose wasn’t as interesting and the plot ended up kind of predictable, and there’s a very wholesome twist at the end which is nice. Just a very fun read.
I enjoyed this work quite a bit. The only criticism I have is that at some point in the novel you reach crisis fatigue. Yes, piloting a starship based on technology that's been developed in the past year or so is going to present some issues, but it sometimes feels like it's unrelenting.
I enjoyed this work quite a bit. The only criticism I have is that at some point in the novel you reach crisis fatigue. Yes, piloting a starship based on technology that's been developed in the past year or so is going to present some issues, but it sometimes feels like it's unrelenting.
Me ha encantado. Es muy entretenido y siempre están pasando cosas. El robo es desenfadado y el nivel de ciencia no es muy alto, diría que lo disfrutas si sabes de los temas pero que no es necesario para pasar un buen rato leyendo.
Me ha encantado. Es muy entretenido y siempre están pasando cosas. El robo es desenfadado y el nivel de ciencia no es muy alto, diría que lo disfrutas si sabes de los temas pero que no es necesario para pasar un buen rato leyendo.
