Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Project Hail Mary

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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the_real_al_cal's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

I had to sit with this one for a bit before I wrote this review, which, for me, usually means the book was an instant favorite. I'm not generally a fan of sci-fi, because I get lost by the "sci" part, but Andy Weir did a fantastic job of making even the most complex science terminology approachable and easy to follow, which is no easy feat! Everything about the story--even the fictional parts--feel solidly believable through the sheer scientific thought put behind them.

Even if you usually swing more towards the fantasy side of the fantasy/sci-fi genre, I HIGHLY recommend this book. The way this book is organized is so impactful, with the main character waking from a coma out in space and unable to remember why he's there. Throughout the book, he slowly recovers his memories, thus discovering that not everything is as it seems.

I'm being a little vague in my review, because this book is fun to read without any prior information. But rest-assured, you won't regret picking up this book about courage, sacrifice, and, ultimately, eternal friendship.

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lindsbian's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-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? Yes

5.0

Absolutely love this book. It was hard to resist staying up all night to finish, but ultimately had to pause even with how difficult it was to put it down - but as the book points out, we humans do need sleep! Project Hail Mary has so much of the fascinating sci-fi that made The Martian so successful, but the development of alien phenomena has led to such more creative worldbuilding. I love how the story realistically didn't tie up every single loose end, but it still had such a wonderful satisfying conclusion. Love how it can be bittersweet but still fulfilling and feel like a very good, complete story. I would love it if Weir revisits this plot, possibly in future generations

I would absolutely love to see Earth get to learn more about the Eridians! I imagine that one planet or the other would launch a deep space expedition to meet the other, either Eridians with their greater resources due to less catastrophe from the astrophage, or Earth once they have the means to do so, since of course they would have such burning curiosity about what Dr. Ryland Grace discovered!

But my desire for more is because it's such an amazing story that has additional potential, but not because I feel the potential was underused or wasted. Weird nailed the story he was telling, and whether or not he has another one to tell as a sequel, this book is just exemplary. Five stars.

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raichou's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Bisher habe ich mich relativ wenig für Sci-Fi interessiert, aber nachdem ich nur positives über dieses Buch gehört habe, konnte ich nicht widerstehen.
Ich bin so froh, dass ich mich nicht von der Dicke habe abschrecken lassen. Es war so gut!

Abgesehen von der Zusammenfassung, wusste ich nichts über die Geschichte und ich denke dass war auch sehr gut so. Daher möchte ich auch niemandem etwas vorwegnehmen, sondern lest es gerne selber und lasst euch mitreißen.

Aber Rocky war so putzig! Ich habe ihn so ins Herz geschlossen und als er fast gestorben ist, war ich erschüttert. Auch der Abschied als sie sich getrennt haben, tat mir innerlich weh. Dafür können sie jetzt zusammen alt werden.
Und sogar Adrian hat auf Rocky gewartet :)

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zosiablue's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring 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? No

4.5

Ah I really loved this. The friendship at the center of it made me 😭 several times, and I'm going to be thinking about it for a while. You could make a case that the dialogue is just on the edge of corny and that there's too much step-by-step science, but the story overshadowed any complaints. It was lovely and alien and hopeful.

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nickel_'s review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.75

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