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Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary (Hardcover, 2021, Ballantine Books)

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity …

Great procedural writing, meh characters

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.

replied to enne📚's status

@picklish It comes from the Red Letter Media review of Star Wars Episode I: "Describe a character without mentioning their job or their appearance." In other words, does this character express a personality outside of their mechanical role in the story?

It's a lot easier to describe Han Solo's personality than, e.g., Qui Gon Jinn's, because Han Solo is a much more written-out and realized character.