Proiectul Hail Mary

The situation was terrifying, but the project itself was awesome.

A bunch of my friends were rereading this book before the movie came out, so I thought I'd join along. Project Hail Mary is another space engineering procedural with Andy Weir protagonist voice. The characters are pretty thin, but I think you're reading this for the science problem solving. I always appreciate interspersed flashbacks (especially here where there's a bit of a reason why Grace continues to remember more over time).

I also personally don't know that this book makes for especially great movie material, but what do I know. (On this reread, there was also some airquotes jokes that really didn't land for me along the lines of "wow it'd be bad if I were fatphobic/racist/a pedophile" and I'm throwing a few side eyes.)

4.5 stars for procedural/plotting, 2 stars for characters. Averages out to 4 stars because there's a lot more of the former.

Excellent procedural problem-solving writing and enthusiasm for science that bleeds through the page. The science facts and problems were fun.

I found the characters pretty flat. Noone other than Grace passes the Phantom Menace test, and Grace's emotional arc didn't work for me at all. The reveal toward the end wasn't justified by what happened before or after.

Looking forward to the movie, wondering how they'll make it work with Rocky's speech and the timeline.

I had fun reading this and ripped through it, which is basically what I needed for post-holiday slump. Now I have a good reading habit and can read better stuff with more focus, yay. Fun story and enjoyed the science and comfortingly rhythmic problem-solving, and the alien stuff was cool. But ultimately I can't say I thought it was good.

Der Roman ist wissenschaftlich interessant und erzählt eine spannende Geschichte der Menschheit, die uns leider, auf "etwas" andere Weise, auch in Wirklichkeit betrifft. Die Reaktion der Menschheit in dieser Geschichte sollten wir uns als Vorbild nehmen.

Stranded lonely astronaut fighting for staying alive this this time on a spaceship. Includes more different things that make it more varied than "The Martian" , lots of flashbacks and don't know how will they manage that in the movie they're making of the book. Like "The Martian" lots of science and humour. IMHO it's a good read, keeps you going forward to know how he solves each of the problems, if you're a bit geekie and you like science and space you will find it really entertaining.
I've heard, no pun intended, good things about the English audiobook version.

Another masterfully witty, 'hard' sci-fi adventure by Weir, I stayed on the edge of my seat constantly turning pages.

After reading The Mote in God’s Eye, I realized that Garrit Franke, a fellow Fosstodon member, finished reading this book, so I decided to give it a try too.

I have to admit that at first I was a little bit hesitant about this book, because it is a written in first person, and it also starts out with ammnesia and also flashbacks. But after that I got used to the writing style pretty quickly and started to really get into the main story and the mystery behind everything happening around our protagonist.

The story follows a lone astronaut that finds himself facing impossible odds every step of the way. The way the plot is revealed and how it moves forward every chapter is great. The scientific elements are pretty accurate and that was something I found really interesting. It reminded me a lot of Jules Verne’s novels that usually felt like something that could be possible to do.

In this case of course the protagonist uses his scientific knowledge (as well as his memory slowly coming back) to figure out how handle his mission, which is pretty much to save the planet from certain demise.

I liked the setting and the characters that show up, there’s quite a bit of science tidbits I learned through this, and the moments of action and uncertainty are quite great. I could not stop reading many times because I just wanted to know what in the world would our protagonist do even just to stay alive to live another day.

I didn’t feel like the book was as long as it was, honestly. It was definitely worth it. I do think that it feels a little like a movie waiting to happen, the prose wasn’t as interesting and the plot ended up kind of predictable, and there’s a very wholesome twist at the end which is nice. Just a very fun read.

I enjoyed this work quite a bit. The only criticism I have is that at some point in the novel you reach crisis fatigue. Yes, piloting a starship based on technology that's been developed in the past year or so is going to present some issues, but it sometimes feels like it's unrelenting.

This book instantly became one of my top 10 favorites.

The humor and the science is a big draw for me. Everything is so thuroughly explained to the point where you learn while you're sucked into the world and environment. The chemistry is the most interesting that I have ever read.

Right around the half-way mark I started to fall into the world more. I was sucked in and couldnt get out. Once I finished I just stared at the page hoping that once I blinked more pages would appear; I just wanted more even though the ending was quite succinct.

This is absolutely a great read, another banger by Andy Weir~!