Project Hail Mary: Reviews by 2021 Reading Challengers

[Winter, Group Reads]

Tell us what you thought of the book! You can leave your review here. Even if you read the book outside of the group, please feel free to let us know what you thought of it.

Please make sure to mark your spoilers by typing "[spoiler]" at the start and [/spoiler] at the end but replacing the []s with <>s.

[BookishlyWise]

Cant wait to begin this one :)

[Karin]

Hooray. This was 4 stars for me, and here is my review . I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to say :)!

[Betsy]

I read this book in mid-June. I gave it 5 stars and have been enthusiastically recommending it ever since to all my friends and relatives. I think this is more creative than "The Martian". This is great science fiction. I am so impressed with the research the author must have done to create the atmosphere of this book. The characters are compelling. It was a fun, thoughtful, and engaging read.

[Karin]

Betsy wrote: "I read this book in mid-June. I gave it 5 stars and have been enthusiastically recommending it ever since to all my friends and relatives. I think this is more creative than "The Martian". This is ..."

Interesting--I liked The Martian better. I've read a LOT of scifi over the years and it takes a lot for me to give 4 or 5 stars--he's definitely a strong scifi writer, and I like the variety of the types of scifi he has written in his three books.

[Eirelyn]

I'm not really much of a sci-fi reader in general -- there haven't been many books in the genre that have held my interest -- but I liked this one a lot & absolutely loved The Martian so much that I gave it 5 stars. :D

[Andy]

disappointed with Ryland Grace character - too much of the same for me

take a head full of figures and a propensity for back of an envelop calculations - add a bucketful of scenarios and hypotheticals to emphasize these.

good plot and pacing - but felt very lacking in character development for me
maybe came in with expectations too high

The Martian was 5 star for me
Artemis 4 star
this could be 3 - will need to think about it some more

[Debra Diggs]

I loved this story!

[Barb]

Why the bold font? It seems over done. I thought bold was meant for emphasis, yet triple word repeat is emphasis.

[Karsyn]

I was really excited that Project Hail Mary was this month's read. I had been wanting to read The Martian for years and for whatever reason felt that I needed to read that before PHM. Got the audiobooks for both and once I started listening, I couldn't stop! I've always enjoyed dry, sarcastic humor, and Andy Weir uses a lottttt of that, I love it, and the narrators of Andy's books do a really great job as well conveying the sarcasm. Loved the somewhat full circle moment at the end as well, and the progression of Grace as a character. Would definitely read these again! 4/5

[Karin]

Karsyn wrote: "I was really excited that Project Hail Mary was this month's read. I had been wanting to read The Martian for years and for whatever reason felt that I needed to read that before PHM. Got the audio..."

These are books that are well liked across multiple generations, which good scifi frequently, but not always, is. However, his books often appeal to non-scifi readers as well.

I sent you a friend request because of your music connection plus we have some reading tastes in common. My son is an aspiring musician and majoring in music performance, but totally unrelated since he wants to eventually play principal trumpet in an orchestra (but likes more than just classical music, of course).

[Eirelyn]

Karin, as someone who rarely reads space-related sci-fi, I must agree with you that his books do appeal to readers like me. :D I liked this one a lot and absolutely loved The Martian (one of my favorite books, period, not just in the sci-fi genre). Weir is "AMAZE" at character development & realistic humor. I have really enjoyed reading his writing. :D

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Here is my review from when I read it in June! It's spoilery

[Ebb]

I really did not like the Martian but I read Project Hail Mary because someone suggested it for a book club I'm in. I definitely wouldn't have picked it up otherwise but I'm so glad I did! The book is very similar to the Martian but the humor didn't feel as forced and I think having the book equally split between Ryland's pre-flight and spacetime was a great idea and I enjoyed both parts equally. I'm really glad to have given this author another try. This ironically turned out to be one of the my favorite books of the year so far!

[jane]

I loved it, the plot, pace, characters everything. I like books where past and present story unfolds simultaneously, it keeps me glued to the book in anticipation.
Added this to one of my favourites too :)

[Eirelyn]

I'll leave my spoilery review here from when I read this back in June:

(view spoiler)[I really liked this book. I tried not to compare it to The Martian, but I had read that the month before this one and absolutely loved it (one of my favorite books ever!), so it was difficult not to. But I tried to read this one as its own entity.

I felt like Ryland was very well developed. In fact, all of the characters were, including Rocky. I loved the relationship & friendship between Ryland & Rocky, and I am so glad that they remained friends throughout the entire novel. I also really enjoyed all the backstory, as Ryland remembered more and more of his past. I also found it interesting (and rather refreshing, really) that Ryland absolutely, under no circumstances, wanted to be a part of the mission. He was terrified of going into space and had to be physically forced to do it, entirely against his will. When he finally remembered this fact, he mentioned something about how he was a coward, but honestly, I think most people would have had this reaction. He was not an astronaut; he was a science teacher. He never wanted to nor planned to ever go into space. That was not something that was even on his radar, and then suddenly, it was thrust upon him against his will. The refreshing part, however, was that he remained very human in his reaction. He didn't "rise to the occasion" and suddenly become this heroic person who decided to take on any life-threatening challenge that came his way (at least, not until he was already into it & had no other way to survive). He had to physically be forced onto the ship against his will. Of course, he did rise to the challenge once he was already in space, but a lot of that was self-preservation -- he was already in space, so everything he did was to survive. At least, until the end when he decided to put Rocky's life ahead of his own in order to save him & the Eridians.

I felt very satisfied with the ending. Ryland had mentioned earlier in the book that he really had no one back on earth (except his students, who would be all grown up by the time he returned), so I was glad that he and Rocky got to live together on Erid for the remainder of Ryland's life and that Ryland was also able to do what he loved in teaching the little Eridian children.

I was so happy that Ryland went back to help Rocky, once he realized the problem Rocky would be facing (& unable to fix himself). I was also glad that Rocky's "people" were able to solve the problem of Ryland's food on Erid. I didn't understand why they couldn't just, molecularly, create food that he could eat, so I was glad when he mentioned that that was exactly what they ended up doing.

I'm so glad this didn't turn into a "typical" alien/space story, where one or both of the species end up betraying or killing the other. It was so refreshing to see the two species able to work together & help each other out, with no ulterior or nefarious motives. All in all, I really enjoyed this book & the characters, and I found myself eager to come back to it each day. (hide spoiler)]

[John]

4 out of 5

More emotionally resonant than The Martian, more back-to-basics than Artemis, Andy Weir is the flag-bearer of a new brand of sci-fi: one less concerned about heavy philosophy and contemplation of our place in the universe, but reflective of what may await us, as space travel becomes more of a tangible reality.

Full review. Some minor spoilers:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

(Also, I wrote the first draft of the Wikipedia article for Project Hail Mary. Small claim to fame, I guess.)

[Karin]

John wrote: "4 out of 5

More emotionally resonant than The Martian, more back-to-basics than Artemis, Andy Weir is the flag-bearer of a new brand of sci-fi: one less concerned about heavy philosophy and contem..."

Yes, one of the things I like about his scifi is the lack of heavy philosophy, which is ironic give that I sometimes read heavy philosophy. However, so much of the heavy philosophy has already been done and has been repeated ad infinitum, and he just tells a great tale that is also scifi :)

[Ashleigh]

I finished! Haven't yet done a review yet, but I admit I did not expect the ending to happen how it did! I gave it 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 on Goodreads

[Valerie]

I really enjoyed this novel. The premise is both original and believable, and the plot is never predictable. I was gripped from mystifying start to unexpected ending.

[Meghan L]

I think this is the first group read I've done this year, and I really enjoyed it! I gave it five stars.

[Nicolas]

Karin wrote: "Hooray. This was 4 stars for me, and here is my review . I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to say :)!"

Agree 100%. This is Weir's best work yet, I think!

[Karin]

Ashleigh wrote: "I finished! Haven't yet done a review yet, but I admit I did not expect the ending to happen how it did! I gave it 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 on Goodreads"

I agree. On the one hand, it wasn't the ending I'd been rooting for and I was sad he couldn't go home, have a family, teach people what he'd learned, etc, but on the other hand it worked and we got the ultimate good news :).

[L Y N N]

Eirelyn wrote: "I'll leave my spoilery review here from when I read this back in June:

I really liked this book. I tried not to compare it to The Martian, but I had read that the month before this one and absolut..."
Regarding your "spoilery review":
I also greatly appreciated them (view spoiler)[working together to save both worlds, however, I still believe that if situations were reversed and Rocky had to come to earth, we humans would have killed and dissected him. I have no faith in the human race overall to be as welcoming, kind, and generous as the Eridians... So for me, it felt much more realistic for the "alien" race to be accepting and appreciative... I wonder if Weir felt that way? (hide spoiler)]

[L Y N N]

Definitely my favorite of his three books thus far. Though I admit I loved both of the others as well. He really is an all-time favorite author for me!

[Eirelyn]

@Lynn, I totally agree with you about the (view spoiler)["alien" race being more accepting & appreciative. Humans would definitely have held Rocky captive & run countless tests & then when they got everything they wanted from him alive, they would have killed & dissected him, like you said. Humans as a whole just cannot let things be. (hide spoiler)]