Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir, 2021
I picked this up in the middle of a hot sci-fi streak, right after finishing the Three Body Problem trilogy. A stark contrast in tone from TBP, but right on par in its ability to keep my eyes glued to the pages. The whole story takes place over a few months, around present-day judging from its references (SpaceX), scientific knowledge, and available tech. In fact, if you did any undergraduate level science this will be a very fun refresher of core principles in biology, chemistry, and physics. Much of these principles propel the story as our protagonist Ryland Grace, a junior high science teacher with retrograde amnesia finds him self alone in space tasked with the mission to save humanity. Equipped with all of humanity's knowledge and a lab aboard the Hail Mary, he unravels the story for us through meticulous experiments - using methods of deduction and invention that would put Sherlock and McGyver to shame - with sarcastic science nerd attitude to boot.
The science in the book made me wish I had read it when I was much younger. It's one of those things that would make a child aspire to become a scientist. For anyone with an interest in science at all, there is plenty of joy to be found here.
Science experiments are one half of what made the book a 5-star for me. The other is Rocky, a life form from another planet on a similar mission as our Grace. As their friendship blossomed, I became more emotionally invested in the well-being of this weird looking creature than the teacher's quest for humanity itself. After spending weeks in "dark forest" mentality reading the Three Body Problem, Rocky was a delight to meet. The author nailed this friendship. It was a delicate balance between heartwarming camaraderie and the extinction-level stakes of their work. In less capable hands, this could have deteriorated into a cheesy thing that chipped away at the story's poignancy, but it was told just right. I found out later that there was going to be a movie based on this book starring Ryan Gosling, I'm really crossing my fingers that the movie delivers on this friendship as well.
The book juxtaposes between the teacher's shenanigans on the ship in present time, and his life on Earth leading up to the mission (told as his amnesia gradually wears off throughout the book). In the flashbacks we meet Stratt, the leader of Project Hail Mary. We aren't told much about Stratt's background that qualified her for the position, but soon after the crisis that warranted the mission in the first place was discovered, she was basically given Godlike clearance on Earth, imbued with the authority to order political and military leaders from all corners of the world to drop everything they are doing to get what she needed to make the project happen. For some she might be a dislikable character, but I really appreciated her no-bullshit attitude and utter relentlessness to get the project done. A secondary but very memorable character that stuck with me throughout the book.
~500 pages of off-the-cuff ingenious problem solving, scientific discovery, sarcastic teacher humor, and intergalactic friendship on the backdrop of extinction-level threat for two planets. This was an amazing read! My first Andy Weir novel but certainly not the last.