Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Rating: 4 of 5 if you haven’t read the Martian

Rating: 3 of 5 if you have read the Martian

I enjoyed Project Hail Mary, but having read “The Martian” it felt a little too familiar.

“The Martian” was probably one of my favorite books of the last 10 years, I enjoyed reading it a lot. I think if you haven’t read the Martian then Project Hail Mary will feel very fresh, but having read the Maritian I couldn’t help but feel like Project Hail Mary was the “The Martian” all over again with an alien extra shoved in it.

Imagination wise I though the story was good. The idea of a intersteller life form eating our sun for food was kind of fun and sort of believable’ish. The main character was likable and I liked how Any Weir created a non-linear story line using the main characters memory loss as a plot device. Rocky the Alien is fun and his high pressure high heat amonia world is cool. I liked the Hail Mary spaceship and its various details on how it creates gravity is kind of neat. All in all there’s a lot to like about Project Hail Mary, but unfortunately for me there was a lot I didn’t like.

Things I didn’t like

First I just couldn’t help but feel like I was reading the Martian all over again without all the “fucks”. The pacing was the same and you always knew that Grace was going to “figure things out”. With the Martian it felt fresher, with project hail mary it just felt too well trodden.

Second the optimism of project hail mary is a little thick. Somehow humanity unites together to save the world. The way it was written just felt too easy. It all read a little like a PG movie. Its like the opposite of Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. To me both naritives seem false. We won’t work together so well as in Project Hail Mary or behave has comically as in “Don’t Look Up”.

The third issue I had with project hail mary is the characters just weren’t believable enough. The skills of Grace to save the world just didn’t seem to fit. He was a niche researcher who gave that up to be a school teacher. How does he have such a diverse skill set? I didn’t find it believable.

I have other complaints but I’ll end here. I don’t actually think I’m the target market for the book. I really think Andy Weir intends the book to be a inspirational young adult book, and in that context I think its a great book. Fourteen year old me would have loved this book. 42 year old me is jaded and can’t enjoy it as much. That’s not the books fault. Its mine.

Overall, I recommend you read Project Hail Mary. You might not love the book, but I think you’ll enjoy it.