Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

28 reviews

bjjzoe's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

Minor: Vomit, Excrement, Alcohol, Cancer, Drug use, and Drug abuse

violerwolf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book wildly oscillates between being 2 stars and 4 stars for me, so I averaged out the rating. People really love this book, and I understand why. Andy Weir has really mastered using tension and keeping you constantly guessing, wanting to find out the next piece of the astrophage puzzle. The science is written in an understandable way. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the humor and dialogue that Weir writes is.. painful. I hardly could get through the first 5 or so chapters of this book with its Marvel movie-esque “Well, that just happened” quips. The book excels at tense action, and I do love the relationship between Grace and

Rocky

, but I wouldn’t  reccomend this if you’re looking for complex or interesting characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, and Death

Minor: Cancer, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, and Suicide

Not-really-spoilers about the Suicide tag:

The major plot point is that Project Hail Mary is a suicide mission.

alicewolfe's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

Minor: Excrement, Alcohol, and Drug use

triple_m's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Highly recommend the audiobook, the voice actor is incredible and the 🎶 are delightful. Legitimately funny and I think it being in audio added to the humor.

This isn’t a book that I would normally read but I’m glad I gave it a chance. There’s definitely some science-dense sections but the author does a great job about rephrasing and dumbing down the topics so it’s easy to understand. 

a really wholesome story and I still smile when I think about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide, Excrement, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

corallydeer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

This book was absolutely fantastic. I read it in tandem with the audiobook in a book club setting alongside my husband and it was such a great time. As far as the book itself is concerned, I truly adored the whole story and was glued to it the entire time. As a note: I have not read The Martian (yet) and have only seen the movie, so I can't speak to any comparisons between the two books. I did see in previous reviews that some people felt like Grace was pretty much the same character as Mark Watney just rebranded as a

quirky school teacher

, and while I do agree with this point I don't feel like it detracted from the story at all. If anything I felt like blending that personality with someone who's

a teacher

was incredibly fitting and made it extremely relatable as someone who

works in education

.

I loved all of the directions the story took and the details; every time I felt like I had a handle on where the story was going it would throw a slight curveball and I'd be glued to my chair trying to figure out what in the world was going to happen. I adored

Rocky

so so much as a character; my husband and I both loved that

he wasn't a stereotypical humanoid alien

as well and the details describing him were incredibly well done. The relationship between the two characters was hilarious and heartfelt and left my husband and I crying in the car on multiple occasions. I strongly agreed with this one comment on a Tiktok video about the book by someone named Amanda that said:

"

The way Grace went from being forced to sacrifice himself for humanity to voluntarily doing it for Rocky [...]

"

This book truly left such a wonderful impression and is easily getting categorized into the books I wish I could read again with no memory and will easily be a reread-er for me.

As an additional review for the audiobook: I 100% recommend that everyone try out the audiobook either in tandem with the book or on its own. It's easily one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to and was so masterfully done. The way that they did

Rocky's dialogue

was phenomenal and blew my husband and I's minds. And we were blown away by the level of emotion that the narrator put into Grace's parts. It was truly an amazing part of the whole experience for us!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Suicide, Confinement, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Excrement, Blood, Cancer, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Sexism, Cannibalism, Cursing, War, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

Confinement

(Grace is technically confined on a pretty small spaceship throughout most of the book and is also forcefully confined in a cell in a later part of the book)

| Death

(death is an extremely large part of this book since it's focused on a suicide mission)

| Grief

(Grace experiences detailed grief over the loss of his crewmates and his own impending death)

| Medical Content

(there are various bits of described medical situations including blood draws, the use of the Nannybot, catheters, etc)

| Suicidal Thoughts & Suicide

(one of the primary plot points of the book is that the Hail Mary mission is a suicide mission; the main character regularly thinks about this and it comes up in detail in a number of flashbacks)

| Alcohol

(recreational drinking is described on a few different occasions, including for celebrations)

| Drug Use

(one of the astronauts on the Hail Mary mission requests a recreational drug to use up until committing suicide upon completion of the mission)

| Fire/Fire Injury

(Grace experiences chemical burns from ammonia and fire is depicted in a few situations)

| Gun Violence

(one of the astronauts on the Hail Mary mission requests a gun for his preferred method of suicide upon the completion of the mission)

| Injury/Injury Detail

(there are a number of injuries experienced and sustained throughout the book)

| Kidnapping

(Grace is revealed to have been forced onto the Hail Mary mission and is essentially kidnapped and confined for this)

| Animal Cruelty

(the Nannybot arms on the Hail Mary are revealed later on to have been perfected through animal experimentation)

| Blood

(there are minor depictions of blood through blood draws and at the beginning of the book with the removal of the catheter)

| Cancer

(there are minor references to cancer in relation to radiation and exposure)

| Cannibalism

(it is revealed in the very last chapter that for Grace to survive on Erid the Eridians eventually learned how to clone his muscle cells and produce meat for him so he is essentially experiencing self-cannibalism)

| Cursing

(Grace pretty much never curses due to his habits as a teacher, but other characters curse a bit)

| Excrement

(there is the usual understanding of where drinking water comes from on the Hail Mary ship [recycled and treated urine] and later on there is mention of "poop" related to the waste coming from the Taumoeba cells)

| Murder

(it's revealed later in the book that Stratt forced Grace to go on the Hail Mary mission to which he accuses her of murdering him since he doesn't want to go)

| Panic Attacks/Disorders

(Grace experiences a panic attack when first exposed to zero g's on the Hail Mary)

| Sexism

(Stratt reveals during the Hail Mary astronaut selection process that she specifically put the call out for heterosexual men because she didn't want to deal with potential sexual tension on the mission, this is called out and results in a bit of back-and-forth)

| Sexual Content

(some of the astronauts that volunteered for the Hail Mary mission openly discuss their sexual escapades in relation to enjoying their finals days alive on Earth)

| Vomit

(periodically there are small bits of depicted vomit like when Grace enters zero g for the first time or experiences painfully high g's)

| War

(there is passing speculation throughout the book about the potentials for widespread war on Earth while Grace is in space trying to save the planet, but we never see any of it as the reader)

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Vomit, Death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Excrement, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Alcohol, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, War, Sexual content, and Gun violence

thecrimsoncorsair's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

3.5

Great book that kept me invested throughout. I loved, loved, loved Rocky; and his friendship with Grace - the MC. I honestly loved Rocky far more than I did Grace. Ryland Grace is pretty much your typical mary sue, self insert type that Weir loves to write. So Grace often got on my nerves. Dude's a junior high school science teacher. I don't care if he was once in higher academia, he's just too good at everything he does. It got pretty annoying at times. But overall, I ignored it because I wanted to know what was going to happen, and if everything was going to work out. There were a few issues that were grating. One, it was a little too USA, USA, USA! At times. And there's one particular line about the US military being soooooo amazing that made me want to gag, but it is sparing. I just don't recall there being this much America-riding in his other books. I don't know, it was pretty bad when it happened though. Two, I'm not perfect at writing, but I'm also not an author. I noticed two very glaring errors in the book, and I couldn't believe it. One was so obvious I'm honestly shocked it got by multiple editors. I accept errors in self published books, or lower end books. It's to be expected. But from a book at Weir's level, it was kinda bothersome. Three, there was a lot of diversity. Multiple different people from multiple countries. I will give him that. But I swear to god they were all stereotypes of those countries. All of them. It was driving me nuts, and then my hunch was reinforced when he introduced the most stereotypical Canadian imaginable, and even wrote his dialogue with Canadian inflection. Lol. Dude. You can do so much better with international characters. I mean come on. Other than those small gripes I was immersed in the plot. I was immersed in the characters, and even the technobabble was interesting to read. With a little bit of overexplanation, but that's pretty typical of his books. The absolute best part, and where this book shined was the relationship between Rocky and Grace. And just for that alone, the book was absolutely worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, War, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Body horror, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Excrement

lunar_witch's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Blood

Minor: Abandonment, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Addiction, and Excrement

melethwi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book made me laugh then cry then laugh again. Ended exactly how I wanted it to. Though the stakes were extremely high, it felt extremely heartwarming and I had complete faith in the competence of our MC to save the Earth. I 100% recommend this book. 

The only note I can give this book is that you have to suspend disbelief to accept how much science the MC knows- but that's pretty much par for the course of an Andy Weir book, and didn't bother me too much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Death, and Excrement

Moderate: Vomit and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Blood, Drug use, War, and Grief

pata's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective slow-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? No

4.25

No se lleva las cinco estrellas porque me sobra mucha, mucha ciencia (que se explica en profundidad para que lo entienda cualquiera y por tanto ocupa muchas, muchas páginas), pero me ha encantado. 

La sinopsis oficial hace mucho spoiler, porque nada más empezar el libro estás en blanco -con el protagonista- y vas descubriendo -recordando- cosas, pero si has leído la sinopsis te sobra casi el primer tercio del libro, la verdad.

Me sobran también ciertos detalles de los flashbacks. Hay personajes que parecen payasos, no sé si el autor quería hacerlos peculiares o únicos, pero a mí me sobran completamente esos "quirks" (y no son nada creíbles). 

Lo mejor es sin duda Rocky, alias "la araña culona" (nunca un error de traducción caló tanto en la sociedad). Soy muy, muy, muy fan de Rocky. Se gana el libro.

Poco más que añadir. El final me ha encantado, una maravilla, gracias. Me han faltado algunas cosas ahí (explicaciones, tal y cual) pero es de lo mejorcito que he leído. 

La verdad es que estuve a punto de dejarlo al principio, porque se parecía demasiado a otro Marciano y no quería leer otras 500 páginas de eso. Pero me alegro de haber seguido.

Resumen: genialidad con exceso de ciencia. No leas la sinopsis si puedes evitarlo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts