Project Hail Mary: Book Review

I recently finished reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and it did not disappoint. Weir continues to be the best science fiction writer out there and delivers some of his best work yet. Find out why this novel is beloved by many people and selling like hot cakes.

Project Hail Mary Summary

Ryland Grace is a junior-high school science teacher who is currently aboard a spaceship. He has temporary amnesia and doesn’t know what his name is or where he is at the moment. As flashbacks occur, Grace realizes that he is humanity’s only hope of survival.

As Grace’s memories slowly return, we learn that he worked as a molecular biologist. He ended up leaving that job to teach school after some controversy. Now, he is dragged back to the lab by Eva Stratt to save the world from “astropaghe.”

Astrophage is an alien single-cell organism that has been spotted on Venus and the sun. The microbe is absorbing a lot of solar energy and dimming the sun as a result. If gone unchecked, this will cause an ice age within the next 30 years. And billions of people will die as a result.

Stratt has been given the power to override almost anything in order to find a solution. She hires Grace as well as hundreds of other scientists in order to research the new microbe. Their solution is to go to a nearby star named Tau Ceti. This star is immune to Astrophage and a spaceship is sent to find out why. 

Grace and two other astronauts were sent to this one way trip. However, the two other astronauts died in a coma while aboard the ship. Now, Grace is alone and has to figure out everything while slowly getting his memory back. He ends up getting help from where he least expected and hope to find a solution before time runs out for earth. 

Commentary

Andy Weir is a master of writing science fiction novels. He includes a bunch of real science to make the psuedo-science seem legit. And it works. Partly because I’m not much of a science person and partly because there isn’t a lot of information thrown at you. Some people might analyze the science of the novel but that ruins the whole point of a science fictionbook

If you are like me, then you have read Weir’s other novels. Those novels made me excited for Project Hail Mary and I was not let down. He knows how to keep you hooked and I really enjoyed the protagonist gaining information about his life before the spaceship the same time the reader does. 

Former president Barack Obama and Bill Gates both added this book to their best books of 2021. The book went on to receive the 2021 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and some other awards. Overall, the book was a major sucess for Weir and continues his streak of writing amazing science ficiton booms.

Conclusion

If you have read Weir’s previous novels and liked them, then you will enjoy this a lot. I believe his writing is getting better and better as he writes more novels. He may have written the Martian on a blog post but he has polished his writing since then. And I am glad to follow him on this journey.

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