Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

Like many, many people, I loved Andy Weir’s The Martian (even before the movie). I was more uncertain about his second book, Artemis. While I think there are authors who are brilliantly able to experiment, try new things, dip into different voices, different kinds of stories, and even different genres, there are other writers that (for me as a reader, at least), have a Thing They Do Well and are best when they stick to doing it. I like Project Hail Mary for all the same reasons I liked The Martian: the hard science (and, in this case, a possible end-of-life-on-Earth scenario) is delivered through the smart, slightly snarky voice of a male scientist who is not particular introspective, very practical and innovative, and is dealing with an impossible situation as best he can.

In this case, the narrator is Ryland Grace, and he’s actually a former scientist who has given up academia for teaching junior high science, a job he loves. But as the book opens, Ryland doesn’t remember that — he doesn’t remember anything, even his own name. He awakes from an induced coma to find himself on a spaceship with two dead crewmates and no idea who is he or what his mission is.

As his memories come back, they are horrifying — Ryland is the only survivor of a last-chance mission (hence the title) that was intended to save Earth from a terrible fate. And he has no idea how to do it.

Any normal person would just curl up in a corner and die, but if you’re an Andy Weir protagonist, you buckle down, get to work, make friends with an alien, solve problems, and do your best to salvage what you can on your way to a surprisingly poignant and bittersweet ending. I really loved this book.