
author: Andy Weir
published: 5.4.2021
publisher: Ballantine Books
genre(s): sci fi
pages: 476
source: gift
format: paperback
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:

the blurb
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 crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
- a few notes
- my review
- the good & the bad
POV:
keywords/phrases: apocalypse, climate crisis, alien, sacrifice, friendship
tropes: save the world, space travel, aliens, ticking time clock,
spice: 0 🔥
language: 🤬🤬
read this if… you loved The Martian by the same author, or sci-fi with a good dose of humor and emotion.
the good
- The pre-apocalyptic countdown gave an air of terror that really drove the story.
- The relationship between Rocky and Grace was amazing to read.
- So much science, but it never felt lecturey.
- The unexpected humor was a delight.
the bad
- No notes!
This book… I loved it just as much as I loved The Martian by the same author. Weir is fantastic at relating heavily science-laden text without making it feel like a college lecture. He’s also great at finding humor in unexpected places, which is something I truly love. Project Hail Mary is part classic science fiction and part buddy comedy, an unlikely combination if I ever heard of one. But it’s an accurate statement!
The stakes are high in this story, so much so that the chances of success seem almost infinitesimally small. But there is something weirdly hopeful about it, especially in the way the world comes together to find solutions. Yes, it’s science-heavy, but there is so much more to it. It’s about rising above adversity and fear, about finding connections in unexpected places, about sacrifice. I didn’t expect the emotional impact the book had on me!
The story is told over two timelines, the present and flashbacks to the near past. The backstory of the past was vitally important to the overall plot, and the format really helped with the anticipation level.
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reading challenges:
- 2025 52 Books Reading Challenge
- 2025 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
- 2025 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: Author Edition
- 2025 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge
- 2025 Beyond the Bookends Reading Challenge
- 2025 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge
- 2025 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge
- 2025 PopSugar Reading Challenge
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