Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Project Hail Mary

Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

28 reviews

marippe's review against another edition

4.5

I thought this was a fun read. The relationship developed between Ryland and Rocky was really sweet, and I came to really like Rocky (even though he's described looking like a spider...)
Even though the book is very scientific and has a lot of the jargon that I don't really understand, I wasn't too lost. I think that goes down to Weir's ability to simplify it.

I really liked Stratt- everything she does feels consistent in her character.

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shlymiller's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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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

3.0

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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singalana's review

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

If you liked Andy Weir’s first book, The Martian, you’ll probably like this one, too.

Our protagonist, Ryland Grace, wakes up and has no memory of where he is, who he is and how he ended up there. The story is told in a dual timeline: in the past timeline, we slowly find out how Ryland ended up there, and in the present timeline, we follow Ryland’s struggle to fulfil his mission. And his mission is no less than to save humanity.

Project Hail Mary is science fiction, with a heavy emphasis on the science part. I found this book to be much more speculative than The Martian. But even though it focuses a lot on the science aspect, I still feel that these books are very accessible. The story felt original, interesting and, in a way, optimistic.

Even though the plot is different, this book feels very similar to The Martian. Let’s take our main character for example: he is basically the same as the protagonist in The Martian. And the writing style and sense of humour are exactly the same. I didn’t mind too much, but I expected some growth from the author, and I don’t think I would be able to handle a third book with exactly the same protagonist and writing style.

Before we head into spoiler territory, my overall thoughts about this book were that the premise was interesting, it was easy to read and follow, and it was a relatively quick read. Sometimes, I felt frustrated because of the past timeline because I was more interested in the present timeline.

Spoilers!

This is a first-contact story, and I think it’s quite an optimistic one at that. I found the aliens and their physiology and behaviour interesting. What I didn’t like that much was the dialogue (especially towards the end). I kind of get it because the alien learns language from the main character, but since I’m not a huge fan of the main character, it’s a bit annoying.

In the past timeline, there have been annoying stereotypes about other nationalities.

But the ending had a few things going for it: I liked the way the past timeline ended (the final reveal), and I liked the (sort of) open ending. Also, the ending had a sort of circularity, which was interesting but not the strongest point of the book.

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lizziaha's review against another edition

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Strong character development? Yes

3.0

This book was just boring to me. I had to fight to stay focused during the science parts, I didn’t feel that much connection with the main character(s), and the writing wasn’t anything to write home about. The parts I was most invested in were the flashback scenes because I was curious to see how Ryland ended up on the mission in the first place. This was the shining star of the book in my opinion, because it really highlights the character growth that he goes through. (And the plot twisty nature of it doesn’t hurt.) And I’ll admit it, it makes the emotional climax of the book hit that much harder. I was in tears (something that usually doesn’t happen while I’m listening to audiobooks).

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bananachip868's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

Rocky is my favourite character and I want to hug him, even though it would probably kill me.

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isd's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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thecrimsoncorsair's review against another edition

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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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