Review: Project Hail Mary

Author: Andy Weir

Started reading: August 11th 2021

Finished the book: September 6th 2021

Pages: 481

Genres: Science Fiction, Space

Published: May 4th 2021

Source: E-book

Goodreads score: 4.55

My score:

Synopsis

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 crew mates 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.

My thoughts

Thanks to Arjen for choosing this book as our buddyread! I was not sure what I was getting into, but I LOVED this book! I did watch The Martian as a movie. I have the book, but did not read it yet. As of now, I'm a fan. I think Andy Weir is the absolute top in the Sci-Fi genre! This book is definitely a must read if you love space, or if you loved other books by Andy Weir.

Pros

• No answers: You fall into this book right away and have no clue. Just like the main character. He has no idea where he is, who he is and what he is doing. Together with him you explore and slowly start to get some answers. The flashbacks in this book are a great way to give the reader more and more answers.
• No swearing: I think that I've not mentioned this as a pro before, but it was so clear that the main character is using all kinds of different ways to express himself, instead of swear words. I'm not against swearing in books, but it was a creative way to show that swear words are not always necessary to express yourself.
• Flashbacks: For a big part in the book, the flashbacks were my favorite part. You learn more on how Grace got where he was and all the work that was involved. I also liked it because it had more characters than the "here and now."
• Ending: At the end of the book I was left with such a melancholic feeling! The ending was beautiful. I had different outcomes in mind, but this one was not one of them. I would've not been able to come up with this ending. It does leave you with questions, but not in a bad way!

Cons

• Picture: I'm that person that dropped science and physics as soon as I could. I just wasn't interested. I do feel like I get more into it, because sometimes it's in books that I read. Some things were just hard to picture for me. But that's the only small thing that I can come up with.

Overall

This book was so much fun to read. We were rushing through and I felt like I was amused and educated at the same time. I can't wait to read more by Andy Weir. I feel like he's one of the best Sci-Fi authors out there. When I found out that this book was going to be a movie, I was really excited!

Other opinions on this book

"An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi."

- USA Today

"Weir spins a space yarn in a way only he can. Fans of his earlier works won't be disappointed."

- Newsweek

Memorable quotes from this book

"Good. Proud. I am scary space monster. You are leaky space blob." He points to the breeder tanks. "Check tanks!"

"He puts his claw against the divider. "Fist my bump. "

"Fist-bump. it's just 'fist-bump.' "

"Understand."

Thanks for reading!

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