“Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir is an interesting read to say the least. In preparation for the movie releasing in February, and because the cover art will be changing to the movie poster in December, what better time to read this book than now? An incredible amount of research went into the writing of this book, maybe a little too much. The sheer amount of rocket science talk that was used throughout the book made me feel kind of stupid.
The sun is dying, and middle school teacher, Dr. Ryland Grace, is among the few people who can save it, with the help of Rocky, his unexpectedly friendly and intelligent alien ally, of course. A microscopic alien species is stealing the sun’s energy, and Earth’s one mission is making sure they cannot. Apparently, the only thing that can bring the world’s nations together is the threat of it dying.
My absolute favorite part of this book is Rocky, the little (big) rock spider alien that Ryland finds on his journey. If a character were able to carry a story, it is him. He was sassy and humorous and made the moments when he was a part of the story something to look forward to.
Something that I was not a big fan of was the beginning of the story. While it had some humor to it, it was just kind of confusing and an information overload. Right off the bat, there are equations being thrown around halfway expecting the reader to understand what is going on.
The problem solving throughout this book was incredible. The flashback chapters getting connected to the issues that happened in this book, paired with Ryland picking up hints with the things that he has around him made the flow of the story, well, flow.
I also enjoyed the writing style Andy Weir used with this book. It has the feel of Matt Dinniman’s “Dungeon Crawler Carl” with much fewer F-bombs. It was an overall humorous writing style in a serious setting with a chaotic feel that just tied it all together. That being said, it did feel like Weir was just flaunting his knowledge.
This was definitely an interesting read, even though every step of the way told me that I am not cut out for rocket science, not that I was planning to go that route; I study graphic design. It was funny, the character development worked out wonderfully, though the meburger was an interesting thing to read about later in the story, I will give you two guesses as to what you think that is. Likelihood is that you are probably right. I give this book a 4/5 for the general confusing nature of it.