62.4k reviews for:

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir

4.49 AVERAGE

medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is definitely not without its issues but the storytelling is solid and it managed to be compelling the whole way through. Also it made me weirdly emotional at times, like why did I care so much about the little alien crab spider? And yeah okay, the ending got me.

I loved the premise of having to find and destroy space algae that is literally sucking the energy out of the sun, leaving the earth to essentially go into an Ice Age and all humanity would likely die. Great setup. And, the protagonist, Dr. Ryland Grace, is a snarky smart Junior high science teacher who gets sucked into the whole mess. The science is sound, though a bit much for my taste, and I marvel at Weir's imagination. Of course, Grace must save the planet on a solo mission, where he finds an alien whom he befriends, and together they put their science minds together through to save both planets and all earthly and alien life. Weir even developed the alien's language, and they had to figure out how to communicate with each other....another great concept.

I enjoyed this book. I laughed through this book. I marveled at this book. It's very cute and very clean, appropriate for all age groups. But after a while, I felt it became very repetitive, and I just want to skip to the end about halfway through because it seemed to just drag.

I will say - this will end up making a great movie, though, which I think Weir had in mind as he was writing it.

FIVE STARS FIVE STARS FIVE STARS FIVE STARS

Never thought a spider alien that sings in robot notes called Rocky could make me laugh, cry, and love this book so much. Heck, made my math hating ass almost want to study physics. 10/10, Andy Weir is a legendary author. Absolute favorite.

2/24/2024: almost three years later, still an absolute pleasure to listen to
adventurous hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes