Book Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I had seen this book around for the last few years - it always pricked my attention but I never picked it up. But a few weeks ago I went to the movies to see Superman and saw the trailer for the movie version of this. Figured now's the time to read it. (Couple notes about trailers. First, I love them! I know not everyone - especially in my family - feels that way, but I love a good 20-30 minutes of trailers before the movie - gives me something to look forward to later in the year - or, in the case of Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, exactly a year from now. Second, seeing Superman was so different from what usually draws me to the movies - Marvel and Star Wars - so I wasn't used to seeing mostly Warner Brothers trailers - they were actually completely different trailers than what I saw in front of Fantastic Four this past Sunday. If it weren't for Superman I wouldn't be reading this book! Last, the trailer for Tron: Ares, which I first saw in front of Captain America: Brave New World, was conspicuously absent from Fantastic Four. Did anyone see it in their theaters? I'm a little bit concerned about a big-budget movie that's supposed to be out in two months not having a trailer in a blockbuster. Anyway, I digress.)

For those who don't know, Andy Weir is the author of the book The Martian, which I never read, but went on to become the movie starring Matt Damon, which I did see. I didn't love the story in The Martian (in the whole run-time there was only one time where it felt like Matt Damon wasn't completely in control of his situation), but it was definitely interesting to see a story that was so reliant on hard science.

Project Hail Mary is no different. Hard, real science is the very foundation of this story, despite how fantastical it gets (and it gets WAY more fantastical than The Martian - in a very good way). It can be hard to follow at times - sometimes I just had to skim the sections to figure out if what I was reading fit in the "good" or "bad" bucket), and can seem repetitive, especially as the story is wrapping up (although maybe it wouldn't seem as repetitive if I was able to follow the science better?), but loved that the very latticework of a completely sci-fi story was built on real stuff. Also, learned a thing or two - will never again take for granted how lucky we are that we can safely see our food cooking inside a microwave oven.

The whole story is told from the point of view of one man, Dr. Grace - he's not the only character, but every event is told from his POV. While this man - a scientists, of course - can leave you catching your breath to keep up with the math, he's very well-written and fun to follow. And unlike the botanist in The Martian, Dr. Grace faces dramatic moments continuously. This really helps keep you involved in the story.

As for the story itself...see, this is where I'm at a bit of an impasse. Normally I would give you a taste of it, but I'm thinking less is more here. When I saw the trailer, I didn't know it at the time, but it gave away A TON of the story; in the book, however, Dr. Grace wakes up alone, and has to figure out where he is and what he's supposed to do. So I was a bit disappointed that this mystery, which was pretty well written, was already spoiled by the trailer.

So I'm going to say this: This book gets eight out of ten hot dogs. And if this sounds interesting to you, read it NOW before the trailers spoil it for you!