hail mary

Andy Weir, of The Martian fame, has revisited those roots for Project Hail Mary. The protagonist, Ryland Grace, has many of the same traits as the astronaut, Mark Watney in The Martian: he's a scientist at heart, and because of his love of science, he believes in the scientific method and its ability to solve problems. And man, are there problems. Weir's infectious love of science is clearly the seed planted in both of these characters, and his ability to use it to drive a story is what makes his stories stand out. 

What I read years ago, is that hard science fiction, relied on the futuristic technologies to support the story line, whereas soft sci-fi are more character driven stories, and the future and its technologies are more of a setting, which may help to enable the character stories in ways that may not be possible with our current understanding of science and technology. Weir is, by contrast, writing science fiction built on known science and technologies. Not as much in this book, as The Martian, however. Things get pretty wild in this one, but Weir's Ryland Grace uses the scientific method to understand and adapt these newer technologies and materials to solve problems.

What these two stories have in common then, are that they are both like complicated puzzle rooms, that if not solved will kill you. In The Martian, the astronaut had to continuously solve problems, using science and logic, to prevent his instant death. If only to increase the chances that he might ultimately survive. Project Hail Mary steps it up a notch. Not only does Ryland Grace have to work to stay alive, he simultaneously needs to solve a larger puzzle, which has all of humanity on the line. So this one steps further into that hard sci-fi sub-genre.

Weir uses an interesting plot structure that relies on flashbacks which Ryland Grace can't make sense of at first, as he recovers from memory loss. Memory loss which also hampers his ability to problem solve in some ways, at a time when its obviously critically needed.

According to the interwebs buzz, this book has been optioned for a movie, and we may actually see that in the next year or two. Based on my reading, its seems like a good candidate for a movie. This is Weir's third novel (that I'm aware of.) His second, Artemis was good too. You can read my review of that book here.

Read this book. Especially if you liked his other novels.

This review is for a book I read a while ago, and I'm trying to catch-up on the pile of books I read in 2024 that I didn't write about. You can see that hole in my blog entries listed on The Books tab at the top of the page.