Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

 

First Line: "What's Two plus two?"
 
When Ryland Grace wakes up, he doesn't remember much, except that he's been asleep for a very long time. When the memories start to return, he realizes that he's millions of miles from home... and he's the only surviving member of a crew that set out to save Earth.
 
Now it's all up to him to prevent an extinction-level event for humanity, and what may at first seem impossible is given a ray of hope with the appearance of an unexpected ally. Now Ryland Grace just might have a chance. 

~

My first encounter with the mind and imagination of author Andy Weir was when I read The Martian. I liked it a lot, but it was science-heavy science fiction, and there were times that all that made my eyes glaze over. However, I noticed that most of my friends and fellow bloggers who raved about it had listened to the audiobook, so when Project Hail Mary came out and readers began raving again, I remembered this and wisely bought the audiobook. What happened?

I loved it!
 
Project Hail Mary reminded me of those Sci-Fi classics that I absorbed in my teens and twenties. A very human, very likable, yet flawed hero. A mission to save Earth. Catastrophe millions of miles from home. Meeting an alien life form. Yes, this book is still science-heavy, but Ray Porter's voice kept me enthralled throughout. The science never became a drag. I was completely engaged in the story. I laughed. I cried. I wondered what was happening to Grace and Rocky when I was away from the book.

Yes, I loved the entire story, but my favorite part had to be Grace and Rocky, the alien who's one of the best sidekicks in literature. Showing how they learned to communicate, how they learned what made the other's species tick, how they came to work together to solve what appeared to be an insurmountable problem... 
 
(Although Grace and Rocky are definitely the heroes of this book, I'd like to say a word of praise for Stratt, the steel-spined, no-holds-barred woman in charge of putting together the mission to save Earth. She often made me laugh, and even though I wish I could learn what ultimately happened to her, I'm fairly certain that her own predictions came true because that's how we humans roll.) 
 
Project Hail Mary is sheer storytelling delight, and one of my Best Reads of the year. I can hardly wait to see what Andy Weir's imagination comes up with next!
 
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Narrated by Ray Porter
ASIN: B08GB58KD5
Audible Studios © 2021
16 hours, 10 minutes
 
Science Fiction, Standalone
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased from Amazon

12 comments:

  1. I'm not usually a SF fan, Cathy, if I'm being honest. But this does sound really interesting, and with a well-developed protagonist. I'll have to tell my husband about it, too; he really liked The Martian, and he enjoys SF.

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    1. If your husband loved The Martian, he should really enjoy this one!

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  2. I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I did, too, and yes, I'd like to know about Stratt. :) Rocky was so beautifully created--a great example of how you can fall in love with alien creature whose heart is of more importance than his appearance.

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    1. If you think about it, there's a lot of love in this story. It's not all hard science.

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  3. Rocky is the best, isn't he? He's the reason I loved this book, too. :D

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    1. Rocky had it a bit easier than the human. After all, Ryland had a fall from grace, didn't he? (I know... go ahead and groan.)

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  4. I'm interested and will be looking out for this one. Thanks for the review.

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    1. You're welcome. I hope you get a chance to read and enjoy it, Mystica!

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  5. Yes!!! I am so glad that you loved it. This was an auto-buy for me and I jumped right in without even reading the flyleaf. My teacher heart loved the student-teacher relationships and the sense of humor was laugh out loud giggly for me. I will say that I read with my phone beside me so I could look up things I wondered about or were far above my poor little brain. A few tears were shed. I did truly loved the ending as well. It felt perfect for me. Rocky and Ryland forever - fist-bump!

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  6. I'm with you on wanting to know what happened on earth and specifically to Stratt. You're probably right that her predictions came to pass.

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    1. Too bad Weir can't write a short story or novella about this, but I would imagine that mind of his has moved on to something else.

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