Project Hail Mary

This is my first review of a book and is a kind of reaction to the one star commentaries that I saw. For sure I have read The Martian a while back and I can see that this book is similar, but I think a lot of people enjoy it (like I did) because of those similarities. Sure, there are a lot of cliché characters but in the kind of hopefully vision of the future that is lacking right now. The stereotipe of scientists from Russia, China, America and other places that set aside differences to save the world is a much needed hope that if the world is at stake we will all come together. Sure, the book is not all fairies and rainbows, the hero is actually a coward sent against is will to save humanity and in the mean time there is almost a surety that there will be wars and the usual humans in the time of an apocalypse, but the overall tone is optimistic and upbeat and is what a lot of us need sometime. So is a fast and entertaining lecture, that you maybe forget after a while what is about, but you will remember that you felt good reading it.

What a lovely read this was... I tend to read some pretty heavy sprawling-plot sci-fi, and came at this knowing virtually nothing about it other than having seen The Martian in the cinema. As such, I found the small, contained nature of the story (despite the huge consequences in the background) to be thoroughly refreshing. I was smiling throughout and constantly wanting to read on to find out what happened next. I was up 'til 1am last night because I got close to the end and just had to keep going. Excellent.

I've got a problem with Andy Weir and his gripping, immaculately-scientific, personality-driven, first-person, man-against-an-impossible-problem, astronaut everyman books.

That problem is that I can't put them down. It happens every time I read The Martian, no matter how many times I read The Martian, and I know it's going to happen here too. Ryland Grace's devil-may-care retrograde-amnesia-fueled save-the-world-from-an-existential-threat story is just too enthralling.

Why is this a problem? Because I need to sleep, Weir! I don't have time for your perfectly-plotted twenty-course meal of fascinating ideas I've never seen in a sci-fi novel before! I don't have time for your surprisingly-good interpersonal chemistry! Humans are stupid when we need sleep!

So I start the book, even if I've read it before, and I know that no matter when I start it, I'm going to spend hours reading about a protagonist scienceing some intractable problem, understanding everything because he's a genius, being appropriately self-effacing when he makes a mistake, naming things laconically or with copious pop culture references, and eventually becoming a master of some incredibly specific task nobody has ever done before with no other human around to know what a savant he is. I'm going to spend that time, enjoy every minute of it, and then be exhausted the next morning!

I'm begging you, Weir. Just write a slightly more boring book. I promise I'll still read it, just maybe not all in one sitting.

Loved it!

We're taken into a space adventure and slowly the details are unveiled until we fully understand what the heck is happening.
It may get a bit technical for most people and long, but I loved all those specifics, my imagination really took off by having so much details to live off.

Favorite book in a while for sure.

Definitely a worth while read. I'm glad he did not get back to Earth. It's better left to the reader what happened after saving Rocky.

I think this will be the book I recommend the most this year. It is entertaining from beginning to end. If you like sci-fi or space stories, read it. If you don't, read it anyway because you will laugh. It is very rare that I tear through a book in the span of a day, but, and I apologise for the cliché, I could not put this book down.