Project Hail Mary

Great Science Fiction book and a great story of friendship!

Andy Weir writes pretty good one note hero stories that are heavy on the science and engineering and feel screen ready. This was enjoyable, but not particularly deep. Like The Martian, the protagonist suffers from a series of obstacles and overcomes them one at at time, with the application of dark humour and science and significantly less potatoes.

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~!

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.

DNF I didn't care for this. It was too unbelievable and too corny. So, not for me.

Gave up. The amnesia/ suddenly remembering stuff as required really bugged me.

As with The Martian, this book is over the top with the heroic solutions to unsolvable problems, but it was still fantastic.

While there are some new developments in this one, it very much feels like another 'The Martian' with a slightly different story. The protagonist is almost the same exact character and a bunch of the other elements feel very similar. I'm still happy with this book, because the elements that are new, are wonderful.

The 'The Martian formula' made some plot points a bit predictable, but I think he did a very good job on this one. This may seem like I'm bashing the book, it's still a fantastic read. I hope he is not sticking too much to his formula in the future, because it was noticeable, though this was still an absolutely worthwhile story to jump into. Please don't stop writing.

Good:
The plot twist around Ryland's amnesia is great!
"Space amoeba" story done right.
Relationship between Ryland and Rocky is endearing.
Audiobook elevates the whole experience.

Bad:
Protagonist with amnesia trope has been done before.
Rocky has interesting alien physiology & boring human psychology.
* Earthbound story-line and characters seem childish & oversimplified compared to science in space sequences.

Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!

Andy Weir seems to tell one type of story very well, and any criticism of The Martian involving the super-human skillset of the protagonist probably applies here as well, but it's definitely a return to fine form after Artemis, so I'm here for it.

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.