Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Project Hail Mary

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

20 reviews

powellki's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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brookey8888's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative medium-paced

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

5.0

I’m actually shocked I liked this. I did not think I would give a adult Syfy a five star. I just really enjoyed the characters and just getting to know them. There is one character that I love with my whole heart. This was also really funny, but at times sad because I did tear up a few times. It was interesting learning more about space. I’m not going to lie some parts went over my head because I didn’t fully understand them. I would highly recommend this and the audio book because of a certain character and the voice.

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sharebear431's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective 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? No

4.75

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beatricehenriette's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective 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

5.0

I absolutely loved this book, specially after it hit a major point that took the story to a whole new level. The main character wasn’t my favorite and then I kind of understood why, but his growth in this book was HUGE! Friendship can change people so much and this is one of the best friendships I’ve read about in a science fiction book.

I could not put this book down no matter how hard I tried, even the first part when I didn’t quite get the main character’s intentions and personality.

Do I want to know what happens next? YES. Do I want a sequel? Not so sure. It was kind of an open ending but I think I’m fine with the story as is.

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keepsleep's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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diifacto's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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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kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

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ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny informative fast-paced

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

4.5

I was aprehensive at first, the writing style was awkward but it improves as Rylands mental state improves. Sci-Fi is not suppose to make me cry, and I definitely didnt expect Andy Weir to be able to make me cry. Rocky is obviously the best character. Stratt can go die in fiery pit.

Thoughts while reading:

he doesnt rememeber anything at all, yet he has strong opinions on colloquisism right from the start?
Weirs writing seems to be regressing with every book he writes, what started as a non-chalant, more natural style has progressed into cringy and juvenile, once you take away the science jargon from the work, whats left reads like it was writed by a 13yr old for a creative writing assignment, which is such a shame because the ideas of this book are brilliant

Around the 70 pages mark the writing improves a lot and stops sounding like it was written by a child, maybe Weir wrote the beginning like that on purpose to reflect Rylands confused state of mind, but it honestly made me seriously consider dnfing the book (glad I didn't)

Just because hes a teacher doesnt mean he wouldnt swear
He calls the astrophages an invasive species, when theres no indication at that point that they are, he and everyone else has no idea where they came from, if they evolved on the sun or venus or any other planet in the solar system they wouldnt be invasive, the solar system would be their native habitat
Weir has clearly done a lot of research for this book but it seems he skipped over some very basic biology
Astrophages are single-celled so they cant be warm bloodied, you could describe them as Homeothermic, but no single-celled organism is able to do thermoregulation, obviously this is an alien so maybe it could but it still wouldn't be described as warm-blooded
“People always assumed our first contact with alien life would be little green men in UFOs. We never considered the idea of a simple, unintelligent species” - only hollywood thinks aliens are little green men. No scientist worth any merit does, numerous agenies including NASA have been searching for single celled life on mars for years
How the hell is he the only person in the entire world who thinking water isnt essential for life?? Astrobiologist have been saying our concept of life in regards to searching for alien life, is too narrow for years. From the BBC ScienceFocus: “some scientists suspect alien life may have evolved to exploit alternative chemicals like hydrocarbons capable of performing the same roles [as water].”
96.415*C “For anything living on earth it would be deadly” he has a doctorate in biology, yet is unaware of the existence of extremophiles? A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between 41 and 122 °C - Thermophiles are found in various geothermally heated regions of the Earth, such as hot springs like those in Yellowstone National Park and deep sea hydrothermal vents. A 30 second google search shows hes wrong.
“Theres just no way it can infect humans. Besides its been a couple of days and im not dead.” Again hes a biologist yet has no understanding of incubation periods? Just because it hasnt been around humans before doesnt mean it cant infect/harm us, pathogens evolve constantly. Most of the pandemics and epidemics that happen are the result of diseases that previously were only seen in animals evolving to be able to infect humans - bird flu, swine flu anyone? The Stratt ends up having a better understanding of incubation periods than a man with a doctorate in microbiology
Very convenient that his amnesic brain is able to pick precise memories to recall just as theyre needed. Hes able to force himself to remember things, how?
It gets a LOT better around the 30% mark, Weir is taking a much deeper drive into speculative science fiction than he did in his previous two books
How can come rocky needs the clock pushed up to the wall to be able to hear the ticking but he can hear Roland move his finger in the air?
How is rocky able to determine that ryland breathes oxygen, yes he tested the atmosphere but that would have only been 21% oxygen so why would he assume that was the vital element, why doesnt he think humans breath nitrogen?
Who is stratt and why was she appointed the head of the project when she has no knowledge of even basic science and is extremely undiplomatic
“I dont like little dictators in their little kingdoms” does stratt understand irony?
On page 236 ryland complains about there being no way to clean his clothes and he has to soak them in water, but earlier it shown the robot/computer doing the laundry...
Why is the microbiologist teaching the physicist how space radiation works?
Just because the vast majority of scientists are men doesnt mean you should exclude all women and homosexual men as possible candidates its extremely sexist and homophobic. Stratt says its to stop sexual tension but theres no issue of that in current space missions so why does it matter now. But at least ryland calls her out on it but why include it in the book at all?

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kayleyhyde's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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wanderonwards's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Project Hail Mary is a sweeping and creative science fiction adventure, brimming with twists and Weir’s signature laugh-out-loud humor and easy to understand science. I had no idea where the plot was going most of the time, but I definitely enjoyed the ride and guessing where the story would turn next.

One of my favorite aspects of Project Hail Mary (without giving anything away) is how each character’s salvation rests with helping others, and how no character could actually solve the problem at hand without teamwork and shared resources. Each of the primary characters all answer the same question in their own way: how far would you go to save your species from extinction? I really enjoyed watching this story play out in ways I did not see coming.

However, some sections of Project Hail Mary were too medically descriptive for my taste. I’m sure they were fascinating and creative, I just didn’t want to read them. There’s also a scene with detailed discussion on assisted suicide (this is a suicide mission, after all), which still feels on the edge of insensitive. Yes, it is part of the story, but do we really need to go into the step-by-step of different methods? I think Project Hail Mary could have included these scenes without describing every detail.

I also think this book could have benefited from another perspective: I found many of the questions I had were left unanswered by the end and I wish there had been a POV from someone still on Earth. By the time Grace wakes up on the Hail Mary, 13 years have already passed on Earth, which would have put the rest of humanity in the middle of some of the scientific predictions we learn about as Grace regains parts of his memory. Although, I understand why Weir would not want to tackle that storyline in an already almost 500-page book. With that said, I’m glad there was some focus - however small - on the “real” world consequences for the characters’ actions as they try to save humanity’s future by adapting their present realities.

Thank you again to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.

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