Project Hail Mary

Author: Andy Weir

Rating: 2/5

Ryland Grace is the last man standing on a mission that he has no recollection of, with the fate of his home planet on his shoulders.

Spoilers ahead.

Detailed Summary

There are two storylines starting from when Ryland Grace is on the Project Hail Memory and from when the whole project first started. There’s a bright line from the Sun to Venus. A space probe shows this is made of alien microbes. Eva Stratt is given authority to do whatever required to make things better. Ryland Grace, a highschool science teacher who used to be an academic, is selected to be the first to study this microbe. He names them “Astrophage.” After his initial experiments, other scientists are given samples as well. Grace figures out how they reproduce and they decide to use Astrophages as fuel for whatever space craft they send to Tau Ceti, a star that has been infected but doesn’t show signs of infection. Only coma-resistant people (there are specific genes) are allowed to become astronauts. Grace has to train the others in Astrophage science. Two of the science leads die in an accident and Grace is given a sedative and put aboard the Project Hail Mary. He’s given an amnesia-inducing drug as well.

When Grace wakes on the spacecraft, he has no memory of himself or anything. His crewmates have died. Grace finds an alien spacecraft that he calls Blip-A. The ship is from 40 Eridani and they have also been infected with Astrophage. Grace befriends the alien named “Rocky” and they learn each others’ languages. The Eridians overestimated how much fuel they would need so have loads. Rocky and Grace work together and realise there’s an Astrophage predator which they call “Taumoeba.” They selectively breed Taumoeba. They refuel Project Hail Mary and part ways but there’s a second infestation of Taumoeba and Grace realises Taumoeba has evolved resistance against both nitrogen and xenonite (a compound made by the Eridians). Grace sends the beetles with information to Earth and goes after Rocky and rescues him. They go to Erid. The Eridians find interesting ways to keep Grace alive and he becomes a teacher to the young ones there. Rocky tells Grace that the Sun from his solar system has stopped dimming which means the mission was a success.

Review

Eh. I was tempted to DNF this multiple times. I didn’t because I had told the librarian at the public library that I would let him know my thoughts and it would have been a blow to my ego to not finish it. I enjoyed learning about how the Astrophage’s biology worked. However, I glossed over the space stuff because I don’t understand physics (:-/). I also liked the bit where Rocky and Grace were becoming friends and learning each other’s languages. I thought the ending was wholesome with Grace going to Erid.

Things I didn’t like:

• The writing felt cheesy. I can tell that Weir really loves science which is nice! But I also felt this diluted the writing and I didn’t feel the stakes as much even though Earth was experiencing massive climate change over a very short period of time and likely wouldn’t have survived for much longer.
• I think Grace is a testament to people’s natural curiosity for how things work. However, I don’t know if that was enough of a motivation for him. We do realise that he didn’t actually volunteer for the mission which made him kind of relatable? But then why do anything?! Surely curiosity can’t be the only driving factor? I just felt there was a bit of dissonance there.
• I didn’t like how the narrative kept switching between the past and present. I found myself preferring the flashbacks over the current story. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. It did mean I wasn’t all that invested in the current plot.