Reviews with content warning for Grief - Project Hail Mary

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

112 reviews

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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mlwe's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

4.5

Summary:
"What's two plus two?"
"What's two plus two?"
"Incorrect. What's two plus two?"

Do you know the answer? Because the protagonist of Project Hail Mary certainly doesn't; he can't even remember his name! Thus, we are taken on an adventure. Who is this character? Where did he come from? And, maybe more importantly, where is he going? As pieces of events and flashes of memory return (in the form of non-chronological storytelling), the readers begin to construct the plot, returning to the present to affirm conclusions with the protagonist. As reality begins to take shape for the protagonist, the readers must confront the best and worst parts of humanity, and how we have both the ability to save our world and the power to destroy it all.

My Thoughts:
The author excels at creating passionate, well-rounded characters that are easy to love (and hate!). I read the book fairly quickly, as the plot is constantly developing. The slowest parts of the book are the first chapter, since we are thrown in media res, and a couple of pages of world-building which are needed to foreshadow later events. The time jumps are clearly illustrated (new chapters, section breaks, explicitly stated), and they do not cause confusion or pull the reader away from the story. The science is well explained. Although it is a significant portion of the story, readers could skim the explanations and rely on the protagonist's summaries, if desired.

Some complaints include all the plot lines. While the story reached a definite conclusion, I was not satisfied with all the resolutions. <Specifically, I felt navigating the ups and downs of life and water was ultimately unnecessary. Likewise, discovering Stratt's criminal actions and learning about Grace's teaching on Erid felt rushed.> Therefore, the ending was a bit of a miss for me.

I'll reread the book one day, if only to meet Rocky again.

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devirtualized's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
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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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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melethwi's review against another edition

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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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kagamine's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious slow-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? Yes

3.5

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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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