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A review by amarettto
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
5.0
I devoured (most of) this book in a day. Straight off the bat, some hits for me were the unique sense of humor, immense character likability, captivating plotline, and a desperate yearning to have Rocky be my house pet. I'm not sure how he does it, but Andy Weir manages to construct riveting stories around plausible scientific theories and phenomena and you still don't feel like you are either reading a children's book, or something that goes over your head with physics and calculus thrown at you. I find that that sweet spot is hard to achieve and I think that's impressive.
That does bring me to the one thing that bothered me about it though - how wildly improbable the whole concept is. And I know it's fiction so before you write off this complaint, I'll explain just a bit further. For a book that comes off as so giddy about science and statistics, I couldn't help but keep thinking about the probability of some of these events. For example, the probability of running into alien life is already negligible, and on top of that, running into non-hostile alien life that is so similar to human life (in terms of having their own culture, reasonably similar ideas etc.) was just so fantastical. The idea that each could so easily pick up on intricate concepts put forth by the other was just a bit too much at times for me.
All this being said, I feel like I know what I'm going to rate a book just from how I feel when I turn the last page and set it down, and this book sent 5 star vibes all through me and so that was a no brainer. Above all else, it's just so wholesome and leaves you thoroughly satisfied with the warm fuzzies. It will be one of my top recommendations going forward!
That does bring me to the one thing that bothered me about it though - how wildly improbable the whole concept is. And I know it's fiction so before you write off this complaint, I'll explain just a bit further. For a book that comes off as so giddy about science and statistics, I couldn't help but keep thinking about the probability of some of these events. For example, the probability of running into alien life is already negligible, and on top of that, running into non-hostile alien life that is so similar to human life (in terms of having their own culture, reasonably similar ideas etc.) was just so fantastical. The idea that each could so easily pick up on intricate concepts put forth by the other was just a bit too much at times for me.
All this being said, I feel like I know what I'm going to rate a book just from how I feel when I turn the last page and set it down, and this book sent 5 star vibes all through me and so that was a no brainer. Above all else, it's just so wholesome and leaves you thoroughly satisfied with the warm fuzzies. It will be one of my top recommendations going forward!