Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Official Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I picked up Project Hail Mary because of a friend’s recommendation and the growing hype around the upcoming Ryan Gosling film adaptation, and I’m very glad I did.

The sun is not shining in this novel by Andy Weir, or rather, it is being depleted by little tiny microorganisms called “Astrophage” and risking the extinction of the human race from an ice age. Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship with no memory as to why he is there, but gradually puts together that his mission is to save Earth and figure out a way to put a stop to the Astrophage.

I’m admittedly not a science guy. It was always my worst class in school, so I can’t help but linger on how impressed I was in the author’s seamlessly embedded scientific knowledge in a novel. As I read, I felt much like I was one of Grace’s students, learning the information as it was presented.

That, and the arrival of a very special secondary character, make this book a four star read for me. Let’s get into it.

SPOILERS BELOW:

This is the second book in a row that I’ve read that is told in first person, and I have to admit that I still find the medium jarring. But unlike Dungeon Crawler Carl, the point-of-view in this novel is so crucial to its storytelling medium. Weir does not hesitate in throwing you into the middle of a space exploration where the character, like you, has absolutely no idea what is going on.

Plenty of books have flashbacks, but Project Hail Mary‘s flashbacks are special. Grace regains his memories at the same pace the reader does, which makes the flashbacks feel purposeful rather than random. Each one illuminates the present moment instead of interrupting it. I found this to be a really clever way of spoon-feeding information, constantly making the reader feel as disjoined as Grace does, as desperate for information as Grace is.

For this reason, the first 40% of this book is slow. It’s not DNF territory slow, but I wonder if I would have had a different experience with it if I didn’t already know the big moment in the middle. With the movie version of this book due to release in a week, trailers of it show the arrival of Rocky, the alien-being from the planet Erid (as Grace names it), who really sends this novel into motion about halfway through.

Rocky, and the way that Grace interacts with him, is nothing short of amazing. I mean, really, really special character work here. Rocky speaks only in sounds (like piano chords), but Grace slowly but surely figures out his language using computer software. Rocky is a master engineer, and his people don’t see, but rather use sound like a bat uses echolocation. There are things about Rocky’s culture (like how they all watch each other sleep) that Grace finds weird, just as there are things about human beings that Rocky finds weird. It’s really special character work, so much so that I felt like this is exactly what a blossoming interstellar friendship would feel like. Rocky’s language is so cute and quirky (such as his need to end every question with the word “question”) that you can’t help but love him to death. It made me crush this book.

As the novel progressed into the second half, the Rocky/Grace dynamic was so much fun that I sometimes felt sick of the flashbacks. I truly did not give a poop (as Grace would say) what happened before this mission; I just wanted to get back to Rocky. The book had evolved from a “save the world” story to a “relationship” story, and I no longer cared about the save the world story arc. It didn’t matter anymore why Grace was passing through space because he met Rocky up there.

The novel isn’t without faults, though. Some of the passages move really slow, but I do see it as intentional from Weir. Grace is so scientific that, throughout the novel, there are numerous experiments he sets up and conducts which sometimes felt like they dragged a bit, especially when the results of the experiments are “nothing happened.” I felt as though the novel could have been fifty pages shorter to really find its sweet spot.

Despite this, the character work and plot are absolutely masterful. The ending, in particular, really struck me. As I read, I really wondered how in the world Weir was going to land this plane satisfactorily, but sure enough, the final chapter of this book is beautiful.

Maybe four stars isn’t quite enough—but I can’t put it alongside my five-star favorites either. Four feels right. But I really enjoyed it and will be thinking about Grace and Rocky for sometime.

Onto the next one.

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Couple side notes:

My second novel, MEDUSA, is available on Amazon. Check it out if you’re interested in literary fiction with a psychological feel. You can see the reviews on Goodreads.

Also, I started a YouTube channel to post some of my reviews called “The Red Pen”. It’s very much a work in progress, but my hope is that this is the last book review I do that’s only in written form. If you’re interested in these kinds of reviews, please give it a subscribe and be on the lookout for more content from me. You can find The Red Pen on Instagram, Threads, and X.