Project Hail Mary -- Andy Weir

Experiencing the book

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is about an apocalyptic natural disaster which leads a group of scientists to send a rescue mission to save Earth and the adventures the sole survivor of the crew, Ryland Grace has during the mission.

The book starts with the narrator, being Ryland himself, suffering from Amnesia and the reader learns about the world as Ryland remembers back his memories. The initial third of the book is interesting due to it’s extremely grounded nature. It includes Ryland discovering: he is on a space ship, he is in a different galaxy and the purpose of this inter-galactic travel. The second third of the story revolves around an alien species: Iridians and one particular of them Rocky. The interactions between Ryland and Rocky and their collective mission to solve the crisis at hand. The final third of the book is about Ryland’s memories and relations with the scientists, his redemption arc to attempt to sacrifice himself to save an alien species.

Also, this is officially the first audio-book I have heard.

The theme it revolves around

Project Hail Mary revolves around Experimental science, space travel, astronomy and touches slightly on human collaboration during an extinction-level crisis. The author carries a scientific tone throughout the book and ensures that the laws of physics remain consistent throughout. All the situations the protagonists encounter are solved with the help of science, there is no magic involved. The book (and thereby the author) wants to instill “Science itself is magic” principle into the readers’ minds and it does a good job with it. That said, the book does seem to stretch it’s usage of science and does it at convenient times making it slightly less believable.

The thoughts I had during and after completing it

I found the first third of the book to be really really interesting. All of it was just raw physics. It was a mystery + science story where deductions were made purely through observations and then using maths to make sense of them. I found the 2nd third to be slightly pretentious and more in the realm of sci-fi even though author does a good job of making it sound reasonable. Not a huge fan of aliens as a concept, it gives too much uncertainty to suspend my disbelief. However establishing the communication lines part was really cool. For the final third, the part felt slightly rushed and tagged on at the last minute. However, the ending is wholesome and salvages it somehow.

After completing the book, I have slightly bitter taste in my mouth. The book is written well but it did have a potential was much more. A classic case of what it could have been. Regardless, the ending is conclusive and feels satisfactory, albeit rushed.

Negatives

The primary one I have is something foundational. I don’t like the concept of extraterrestrial species all that much. It’s too vague. Too many directions to go in. But to author’s credit, it is handled really well. Furthermore, the ending is too rushed, the book could have used a chapter or two more to gracefully resolve a few more character arcs (Ryland-Strat, Ryland-Rocky, Ryland-Earth). The slight open-ended nature makes the book slightly open to speculation which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just not my thing.

Ratings: 3.5/5

Kudos to Ray Porter for an amazing narration.