Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

86 reviews

emiliejade_bigelow's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative reflective fast-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? It's complicated

4.0


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teabrewer's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I loved this book! I loved the characters, the world-building, the references to other works of scifi, the surprising ending, the themes of friendship and the scientific sections.

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bjjzoe's review against another edition

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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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proudwing's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Loved the Martian yet found myself having to push through this at times. Much of the interplay in the Earth portions of the book reads more like a forum discussion than real conversation, and some of the dialogue and situations are cringeworthy to the point of wanting to hurl the book (the Courtroom scene and “Astronaut sex talk” particularly stand out). I found greater enjoyment in the sections set aboard the eponymous Hail Mary despite the protagonist (Ryland Grace) – academic exile and high-school science teacher – being no Mark Watney in terms of likeability or relatability. 

The real star of the book (apart from Tau Ceti) is
Rocky, the alien engineer. While this little guy does seem able to resolve just about any problem (Deus ex Petra?) that issue is overshadowed by the fun his character brings to the novel.
The later chapters are much more enjoyable, with the plot now focused on
the two explorers overcoming their barriers and resolving their shared problem
with believable technobabble and high tension action set-pieces, elements which Weir seems particularly adept at writing. 

Bit of a rocky road but overall, I liked the book and would recommend it to those who enjoyed the Martian with the caveat that it presents a situation far less believable. 

One thing to note is that despite the fact the book is only a few years old, it feels surprisingly dated at times. Seeing the real-world struggle to resolve COVID makes the effective and united international response to the threat of
astrophage
seem… unlikely. And frequent references to the effectiveness of ROSCOSMOS and Soyuz, again seem… misplaced given their current reputation. 


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violerwolf's review against another edition

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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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alicewolfe's review against another edition

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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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khaosiren's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.25


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s_green217's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25


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pagesforages's review

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adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0


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corallydeer's review against another edition

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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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