Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

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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.

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I was a bit hesitant going into this: I’ve always wanted to read The Martian ever since I fell in love with that movie, but it’s been sitting unread on my shelf for an embarrassing number of years now — because I’ve been scared it won’t live up to the film… since it’s so not my book genre. Way out of the comfort zone. But that’s also a lot of the reason why I decided to give Project Hail Mary a go — and before I watch the adaptation (which I’m really looking forward to, by the way — the tickets are booked!).

And what a book it turned out to be! I gotta say — I loved it, and had a hard time putting it down. All the science would have gone straight over my head if not dumbed down and explained enough (but I’m still upset he had to explain the Celsius boiling point to a European. I get that it might need explaining for any readers not used to Celsuis — but not to Stratt, so choose another character!). As I’d been hoping (and frankly expecting, after The Martian, there was also a lot of humour throughout the book, to balance the tension of the plot.

The premise itself is incredibly intriguing: the sun is slowly dying, its energy drained by an alien bacteria-esque organism (later named Astrophage). A scientist-turned-schoolteacher is sent on a Hail-Mary mission (LOL) to another solar system to figure out why — and hopefully save humanity. He wakes up with no memory, and his fellow astronauts dead. As his memories gradually return, so does the full weight of what’s at stake.

And then — the best part — he’s not alone anymore.

Rocky absolutely stole the show for me. Watching them figure out how to communicate and work together was easily my favourite aspect of the book. Their dynamic got surprisingly emotional, and it was great seeing Grace’s character growth because of it.

I have to admit… I wasn’t entirely in love with Rocky’s spider-like appearance, and I rather dreaded seeing that on the big screen for two hours (until I re-watched the trailer) — though personality-wise, he was adorable.

I do have a few mixed feelings about the ending:

I really loved how Grace ended up, and especially his final bit of character growth — putting away his “selfishness” (or fear, I guess) to go after Rocky, his first and only real friend. What makes his decision at the end feel even more powerful is the reveal that he never actually chose to go on the mission in the first place, but was forced into it. This time, he chooses to stay, even though it means he’ll never make it back to Earth.

For a while, I genuinely thought he’d just send off the research data to Earth and accept his death on the Hail Mary, but this was really satisfying — and their reunion was so cute.

While Grace’s story is wrapped up nicely, part of me is still itching to know what happened back on Earth — we get confirmation that the mission was a success, but how bad did things get while they were waiting? Then again, maybe it’s better that we don’t find out.

Also: what about all the other stars already affected? And surely there would be consequences to letting the Astrophage spread to even more stars? Would that be considered at all?

But honestly, these are minor questions in an otherwise incredibly enjoyable story.

Overall, this was such a fun, engaging read — chaotic, emotional, and way outside my comfort zone, but absolutely worth it.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5 rounded up, and I don’t feel bad about it)

~🖤~ FAVOURITE QUOTES ~🖤~

“It’s a weird feeling, scientific breakthroughs. There’s no Eureka moment. Just a slow, steady progression toward a goal. But man, when you get to that goal it feels good.”

“Fist me!” I push my knuckles against the xenonite. “It’s ‘fist-bump,’ but yeah.”

“What’s the point of even having a world if you’re not going to pass it on to the next generation?”

“Human brains are amazing things. We can get used to just about anything.”