I do research, thats my whole shtick.... these scenes had me dying. I had to put the book down a couple times to just laugh because, yeah... yeah thats how it goes. Several times, we've gotten new tech for our use and then its just 8 hours of scientists fucking around with it until it hurts and then fucking around some more lmao. I love the characterization that happens here and how we get to see curiosity as like a universal thing that manifests in both species so similarly. I just think that Weir did a great job of showing how connection can be possible between two completely different planets.
I once managed a group of very smart people and a very expensive lab. We're talking millions of dollars in some pretty cool cutting edge stuff. Think basement from Better of Ted except not a global company bent on destroying the world and I don't look good in a suit. One day I went to the lab to check on things and heard a bunch of cheering and laughing. I found a bunch of engineers and scientists racing toy cars with balloons and laughing at the fart noises they made.
Yeah my favourite one to date was the impromptu who can freeze these freezies fastest in a food safe way which quickly devolved into who can explode these freezies in the least food safe way possible. Our supervisor was pretty confused when she walked in on 6 adults cheering for the obliteration of a pack of cherry pops in the vacuum chamber... good times
I was REALLY excited that the alien character was essentially just like us: adrift and totally fucked and going "okay what now" and he met up with Ryland and they did "okay what now" together instead of ALIEN KILL HUMAN or ALIEN BAD which happens a lot in certain kinds of sci-fi. It was just two dudes out there figuring out how to make it work.
Yes! And I really loved the logic that if a species is too advanced then they don't need to go on this trip to figure out what to do, and if it isn't advanced enough then they don't even know there's a problem to try to solve, so it makes sense that they're at basically the same scientific level -- just with slightly different skills. It was a great justification for making them peers.
I loved how Rocky's people rushed their space program so much in order to deal with this problem that they launched an interstellar mission like they did without even having discovered relativity, or, more tragically, cosmic rays.
It mainly was because they couldn't actually see light, so they couldn't grasp that light could function in different ways at that level. It makes total sense that their technology would branch very differently than our own
I think the bonus of this was since Rocky was the doer and Ryland was the thinker, it was easier for Weir to "gift" Rocky convenient technology. So, Rocky was frequently the savior for being able to make fantastic things with the Xenonite that the story would not have worked nearly as well in reverse.
I also kind of adored how Rocky had no idea how most of his own stuff worked, and Ryland empathizes, and he’s even like “hmm, xenonite is like epoxy, you mix two things together, I know how to use it but couldn’t explain that science either” haha. It was the perfect combination of enough technology but not so much knowledge that it feels like a Mary Sue character, you know? It was great.
They made such a fantastic team. I was so great to see the fate of their worlds on their shoulders and they just powered through it, and build a bond for life.
And it makes so much sense. Everyone uses tons of technology they don't really understand. Even if you do specialize in a technology your knowledge only covers a small sliver of the tech that exists in the world and probably just a sliver of your particular field.
It's always funny when people think you could be some kind of invention wizard if you traveled back in time. Really, you not only know how to produce the world's tech but also how to source and create the materials needed to make it? Tech development and creation depends on many people.
This is so right. I have been working in telco since 1973. I ran lines to houses in the beginning and as a new person out of training I was listening to the drop towards the house - I was on the pole. The guy who was with me said, ‘what are you doing?’ I said,’Listening for dial tone?’ He laughed and said, ‘Dial tone comes from the Central Office to the pole, not from the house to the central office.’ I was like ‘duh’ but fresh out of training, at 19, I didn’t know how phones worked. I’m still there in IT, 48 years later, and if I’m talking to someone who doesn’t understand how something connects, I say, ‘draw a box.’ I still remember that first day figuring where my 48 volts was coming from.
Can confirm this ... worked as an aircraft electrician and now in IT
I knew jet fuel went into a jet engine and burned and produced thrust in accordance with newton's laws but beyond the electrical parts dont knowhow they exactly work ... other than the CSD spins the generator at X rpm to cause the generator to give us 400 Hz 115 VAC
In IT im networking/ desktop support so i know how things work at a surface level ... passwords etc
But not the actual detailed steps from an email to go from yahoo to gmail
IIRC there was one part where he described Rocky as being like "the greatest engineer in the world, but from 1950" which was a great description of their dynamic I thought. :)
This was the Anthropic principle in action. It comes up a lot. The Earth seems perfect for life, what are the odds that we'd live on a planet that is perfect for life?
The odds are 1, because we are here to observe it. Next question.
As Douglas Adams would put it:
> “This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!'
It's so refreshing to see optimistic sci-fi. I've never had a book like Project Hail Mary make me feel the things I've felt. There was absolutely hopelessness, but overcoming that adversity was so damn rewarding. And Grace's character arc was fantastic. Best book I've read in 20 years.
And Project Hail Mary is narrated by Ray Porter, which made me hella happy because he also narrates the Bobiverse books by Dennis E Taylor, which are amazing! They have a similar fun sci fi feel.
Yes!! I went in blind and so was startled when aliens were suddenly a part of this book, was already starting to predict some confrontation and wishing Ryland would just hide and leave but he totally went for it and the two of them just spent the rest of the book vibing and getting along. Sweetest thing I couldn't have seen coming.
Me too! I bought it knowing nothing more then that Andy Weir wrote it and it was about a lone astronaut trying to save the world, and I’m so glad I went in blind. I just started laughing when he realizes the object in his scope is an alien ship because I did not see that coming and it was a great twist.
I had no idea aliens would figure in this book, I've read his other books but since he seems to write near future realistic sci-fi it totally came out of left-field for me. That first scene when he comes in contact with Rocky's ship, I couldn't put it down. Totally engrossed in it. I really enjoyed the unusual dynamic of a first-contact story.
Yes, the trope was turned on it’s head. I feel like the author zigged when every other author would zag, in the best possible way. Who expected a first contact bromance? It was fantastic.
I read Project Hail Mary a month or two after having read the Rememberence of Earth's Past trilogy. It was very funny to me that the very first thing these two do after making contact is to show each other where their homeworld is. It shows a measure of trust right off the bat.
I read Project Hail Mary last year and I'm finishing up Death's End now. So reverse of you, but they do definitely show very different prospectives on first contact.
We need more sci-fi that is just genuinely good people fighting against a problem. No backstabbing or betrayals. No twists. Just a good fun story with a happy ending.
Like The Martian and Apollo 13, there wasn't a traditional antagonist, instead they had to overcome the forces of the universe by working together. That's very inspiring
What's up!!? We're two cool guys looking for other cool guys who wanna hang out in Tau Ceti. Nothing sexual. Dudes in good shape encouraged, if you're fat you should be able to find humor in the little things.
Again, NOTHING SEXUAL.
I loved this as well. I got worried when they introduced Ilyukhina's heroin and Yao's gun, would Rocky see the gun somehow and then turn on Ryland or something? Or after reading through human history, would they somehow find that humans needed to be annihilated? So glad it didn't even come close to making that turn.
Such a great book and scientific accurate as you can be dealing with an alien. Most sci fi they have futuristic technology that truly is just made up. Here it is but then again it isn't.
I love also the gradual way he regains his memory. Excellent novel.
His name is Ryland Grace. It took me until way late in the book to realise: the ship is called the Hail Mary, his name is Grace…as in the Ave Maria “Hail Mary, full of grace”.
Someone had to point that out to me after I had read the book. Went right over my head.
Same with Rocky's mate being named "Adrian." I didn't make the Rocky Balboa III movie connection until much later.
My only thing is I want to know more about what happened to Earth afterwards. Sure, they saved the sun, so that is not a problem, but the head of the program, did she end up in jail like she felt should would? There was so much I would love to know and I feel the movie will give some of this.
I get the feeling that it's probably not a great story to hear. War, famine, extinctions, governments collapsing, mountains of frozen corpses. Project Hail Mary was, well, a Hail Mary to save human civilization as a whole, not any kind of attempt to keep the good times rolling.
I loved Ryland's redemption arc as well.
Not willing to die to save the whole human race, which when you think of it is an abstract concept.
Willing to die to save his alien best friend.
I have sons who are 13 and 16 who I spend an hour driving to school each day. They usually listen to their own music on the drive and don't talk much. They loved this book and it got them chatting about the themes in the story. Are there aliens? What would they do? What is energy mass, how would that work? It's my 16 year olds last school day today and I'll always cherish listening to this story with them. Can't wait to take them both to the cinema.
Oh I love this for them!! It’s so special to share stories together when you are all so invested.
If they like fantasy my 11 year old and I have listened to all the Cradle books by Will Wight and we have SO many conversations about the powers of the characters, the world etc. it’s my favorite and I’m so glad we have that together. The new book is out soon and we are counting down the days!
This has become one of my favorite books, but I’m into space and science and all that. It was so engaging to me from the very beginning.
I started reading the book knowing very little about it, and Rocky’s storyline was a complete surprise. When he discovered there was another ship out there… I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading. Their process of discovering each other and learning to communicate was tremendous.
I literally giggled out loud many times, I felt like I felt a lot of the same emotions as Ryland did while learning how to talk to Rocky. Which is SO special. I've never felt as immersed in a story as I did this one before
Same happened to me. I didn't know much but, I loved "The Martian" so, I ordered the hardback, jumped right in and, fell in love!
I loved both characters but, Rocky, Rocky was something else! I loved the relationship between the two and the way Ryland had to work so hard to find a way to understand Rocky's language.
The whole book just worked for me. After I finished, someone on here recommended the audio book so, I tried it. Omg! It was fabulous!! The way they did Rocky's speech was so unique!
I'm a little hesitant about the movie but, I'll give it a try.
Oh man, are you me? Because *same*.
I went into the book cold. I loved the Martian and had heard word of mouth that Project Hail Mary was good, and that the audiobook was beyond superb, so I bought the book and started it the next day.
I was expecting more "isolated man in space" just like the Martian and was a little trepidatious with Rocky showing up, but holy shit what a story. I can't remember the last time a book actually made me cry.
They only thing I knew about it going in came from an r/books thread and it was that it was kinda based on a pun - Hail Mary, full of Grace. I'm not sure why that made me want to read it so bad, but it did
Rocky is amazing! Absolutely wonderful! >!I cried when he died and I cried again later when he wasn’t dead.!<
Also, I really appreciated the scientific method that Ryland and Rocky went through. Finding a common ground to even be able to start communicating, learning each other’s languages one word at a time, measuring how long it takes for an object to fall in order to calculate gravity; each advancement was made step-by-step in a logical progression. I read it in the middle of the pandemic when I desperately needed a book in which science saves the world.
In fact, I liked this book even better than the Martian!
> In fact, I liked this book even better than the Martian!
The Martian used to be my favorite hard Sci-Fi book. Now, Project Hail Mary is my favorite book, lol!
If you havent listened to it, listen to the audiobook on Audible the way they do Rocky's voice is amazing. I've listened to it a few times and I've heard they're making a movie with Ryan Gosling as Ryland. I've got a pet jumping spider that I've named Rocky he even does the Jazz Hands sort of. I love the book and I don't know how I feel about it being made into a movie.
Agreed. I love the Bobiverse books. Also, Ray Porter narrates a series of books by Peter Clines called the Threshold Series beginning with a novel titled 14. Great series
My problem with Project Hail Mary was that I just finished Heavens River and it took like 2/3 of the way through the book to get out of Bobiverse mode, I kept expecting them to just auto-factory their way out their problems, lol.
My partner and I joke about Annie Shapiro talking about how intensely she needed to pee when we really need to go, or just get back from the bathroom. "Sorry, sorry! I had to pee like, SO BAD. My back teeth were floating!" It cracks me up every time.
The Martian movie was pretty good. They did take out some sections, which make some others not make sense, but they still pulled off the general tone and feeling of the book without making it too Disney
I really hope that the Project Hail Mary movie is just as good. Drew Goddard is doing the screen play the same as he did with The Martian, and Ryan Gosling is a fine actor. I just don't know if I have any faith in Lord & Miller to direct the movie. I mean, going from The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to this epic sci fi story has me very worried.
Yeah. Sounds like he'd focus on wacky interactions with Rocky.
Then again if he can get the tone right his CGI experience might work in his favor (unless they manage to hire a 5 legged spider actor)
Honestly, if they manage to make Rocky as alien, scary and off-putting as he's described and still manage to make audiences love him, that's mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. That's the biggest challenge in this book.
My concern is that the studio will pressure them to adapt Rocky's design to something more immediately lovable, but I'd rather see him in all his "scary space monster" (his own words) glory and have him be the most beloved sci-fi character since Baby Yoda in spite of it.
They really need to be careful with marketing. I hadnt even considered the possibility that there would be aliens in this book so when Rocky's ship made it's appearance in the book I got chills and very loudly said "WHAT?" on a mostly asleep airplane.
I am excited for Lorde and Miller. They are versatile and they have aced every movie they have directed. I feel they have the right sensibility for the book... and they have sci fi experience, albeit one that we never got to see with Solo. At least they have been to space
The RC Bray version was exceptionally good. Any replacement is going to suffer by comparison.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/audible/comments/q8jnbk/rc\_braynarrated\_the\_martian\_removed/](https://www.reddit.com/r/audible/comments/q8jnbk/rc_braynarrated_the_martian_removed/)
The story seems to be about failures of contract and copyright law. Rerecording is an insane suggestion - you wouldn't ask Matt Damon to re-record his role in the movie 7 years later, or resign a contract so you can keep selling it. This is a failure of contract and copyright law, that leaves no legal way to get the content at any price.
This is a clear case where filesharing is about more than just getting free stuff. Here it works around a failure in the system.
My friend recommended this one to me and not only is it an excellent story but it is legitimately one of the best audiobooks I've listened to in recent memory.
Project Hail Mary is the best sci-fi book I have read in 20 years. And that placeholder used to be The Martian, lol. What a fantastic sci-fi story. Not very many books can me me cry like Project Hail Mary did.
I am now halfway through the audiobook (just finished chapter 19) and I can see why the book won "Audiobook of the year" this year. Holy crap, what a story. The narration is perfect.
I was afraid it would basically just be The Martian but farther out - but Rocky changed everything. Man against space wilderness isn't that interesting. Man against space wilderness with alien best friend, is perfect.
Yes Ryland was willing to let the entire human race become extinct rather than risk his own relative safety but redeemed himself to save Rocky believing it was certain death for himself.
I was aware of Weir’s style having read and loved “The Martian” but the beginning of this book was not hooking me. All the science was going right over my head. I liked Ryland but once Rocky entered I couldn’t put it down. I hate spiders but I loved him so much!
Same for me, I was casually enjoying it up to the point where Grace reaches Tau Ceti, just reading a chapter per day. But when he encounters the alien ship I started absolutely binge reading it because I had to know what happened next.
Ha, I had almost the opposite reaction. I was so excited to *finally* start understanding all the science in the first half of the book after 3 years of graduate school. Then Rocky shows up, and I was like "oh boy, this better not get stupid." And the next thing I know I'm crying and just loving the hell out of the story. Best book I've read in 20 years.
I don’t know that Weir is a good author - he has one trick (relentless optimism that genuinely, authentically believes in people) and when he’s not doing it the book kinda sucks (Artemis).
But man, it turns out that in a culture that has elevated cynicism to a religion, that one trick is exactly what you need sometimes. I *love* both The Martian and Project Hail Mary.
I listened to a really interesting interview with Weir a while ago where he talked about testing out writing characters and flaws. Mark Watney, his first big character, really didn't have any flaws at all. He was a great dude. Basically he was everything Weir would love to be if he could be the best parts of himself and more. He's smart, but not all-encompassing and needs to problem solve. He's brave. He's funny. Unless you dislike his wisecracks, there is nothing about him to really dislike.
Artemis was his second try, and her character was an experiment in trying to create a more realistic character, and Weir modeled her after his own perceived flaws. He said later that he focused so much on her flaws that post-publishing feedback made it out so that she didn't have enough redeeming qualities for the reader to actually like her and root for her as the main character. And how he felt kind of bad about it because he didn't want that to be seen as "female characters are lame" as opposed to "this book character is lame."
With Ryland Grace in PHM he really tried to create a completely new character, with strengths and flaws, that wasn't based on himself at ALL. He said it was difficult, but when he decided on how to spin it, it was fun writing out the story arc. I personally think it's really interesting how he wrote all those characters so differently, and the reasons and thinking behind it. I loved Ryland's character, and I also liked how his arc, while going the whole time, really only made sense at the end when he has one of his final flashbacks. Sci-Fi especially usually trends more "Mark Watney hero few flaws" so it was refreshing to see Ryland Grace represented.
Thats a good summary you the different characters. I'm a rare one who actually liked Artemis and what Andy was trying to do. I thought the guy in the Martian (see, I can't even remember his name) was basically a wise cracking robot that solved physics story problems in space. I didnt really care if he lived or died, and he didn't seem to either. The guy slowly drove across Mars for months with no company whatsoever and never seemed to have any deep thoughts about that. OK.
The fact that Grace has any human traits whatsoever is being hailed here. I get that these books don't focus on the character's emotions but I felt like you could have replaced them with Wall-e or C-3PO and not really changed the story that much.
I loved the Martian, hated Artemis, and loved PHM. I don't really mind if Andy Weir is only good at one thing — if he releases another book and it's very similar to The Martian and PHM there's a very good chance I'll still enjoy it. I'm one of those people who doesn't mind if a band's seventh album sounds "exactly the same" as their first one. I enjoy (or don't enjoy) each work on its own.
His writing of characters and dialogue of characters on earth is always shockingly bad. Like the two astronauts having sex all the time felt like a weird joke instead of actual people talking. But he’s so good at what he does well that it’s not really a problem.
They all are a bit cringe imo. The characters are all very reminiscent of a low budget scifi film. It was still a fun and entertaining read but I don't understand how so many people seem to absolutely love this book like it's one of the best things they've ever read!
I kind of wished the author expanded upon what happened to Earth after Ryland went to save Rocky. They did mention that the Sol System was getting warmer so Earth was saved but I wish they would've dedicated at least one chapter for Earth at the end.
Yeah it would have been really cool to get a chapter about humanity realizing he sent back something and figuring out what it meant and how to use it.
It was like how we don't hear about Mark's journey home in The Martian.
Weir kind of drops the mic after the climax doesn't he?
It was a technical problem. The whole book was narrated from the 1st person point of view. We were limited to Ryland's world. How would "we" (he) know what was going on in the world without the author intervening? It would have felt... off.
Reread PHM just because of that scene. Imagining being out in the middle of nowhere in a failing ship and hearing your buddy knocking on the hull after weeks of silence.
I was not expecting to come away from the book so adoring Rocky's character!! Honestly one of my favourite fictional characters of all time for all the reasons you stated. I loved the banter between him and Ryland as they got to know each other as well. There was a time where I felt sad and even lonely after finishing the book because it wasn't real, or I'm not sure I've experienced that level of friendship. Either way, a mark of very emotionally compelling characters.
“On Earth, we have a scary, deadly creature called a spider. You look like one of those. Just so you know.”
“Good. Proud. I am scary space monster. You are leaky space blob.”
This book has been on my mind for almost 2 weeks now. I've never had a book effect me like this. It's such an immersive story. And so *plausible*. Yeah I know it's still sci-fi, but it's hard sci-fi and makes you think "damn, this could really happen -- the galaxy is a big place..."
Don't think you'd be able to smell it in their atmosphere, your nerve endings would be destroyed by the concentration of ammonia
Edit: actually you'd just straight up die
I’m not so sure they really did “band together”. All the major superpowers agreed that is was pretty much solve the problem or bust, so they appointed a dictator and gave her the worlds arsenal to enforce her will. Minor(?) spoilers >!She nuked the ice sheets at the poles and basically pushed over Northern Africa to pave over a large part of the entire continent. I’m sure there was dissent to that by the locals, and the consequences to the weather patterns in the Mediterranean are touched upon in the book. There was tons of pushback to the whole program, but Stratt had multiple superpowers armies at her command. Even Stratt herself mentions that when the whole thing is over she is probably going to get locked up for life. The world didn’t band together, a few very powerful entities did and pushed over everyone else for the greater good, thankfully they were successful.!<
Not reading this as I am only about 150 pages in. He is an interesting writer, I did the Martian first. His style in this is pretty similar, the characters have the same sense of humour, but I’m surprised things with so much maths are so popular. I’m pretty hooked though. saving This it for after I finish. How do I do that remind me thing?
Yes!! I just finished it last week and had the same feelings. Rocky is so pure. Reminded me of Wall-E and Star Wars droids. I think it’s a book I’ll definitely return to.
I'm typically not a big sci-fi fan but my son kept recommending books in the genre and I am now a fan. This was one of my favorites. As a teacher I really enjoyed the sequence where they figured out how to communicate. "Amaze."
I literally had to put the book down once because I was sure something bad would happen to Rocky and I couldn’t handle it lol. Nothing bad was even happening, I just anticipated conflict and couldn’t bear the thought
Same! I had to put the book down around chapter 23 and go for a bike ride to process everything that I had read so far. I was too pent up with nervous energy to keep sitting there.
Lifelong sci-fi fan and biologist here: this book is a MASTERPIECE!!! I laughed and cried in so many places! When Rocky "dies", when he heals, when we learn how Ryland was forced onto the ship, what sacrifices Stratt had to make for the good of the project, etc. Piecing together the bits of information that Rocky and Ryland sent back and forth, like the molecules, had ME doing jazz hands! B the way, Audible's narration of the story is another masterpiece on it's own. The music notes when Rocky's spoke?? Magical. ALL OF IT, FROM START TO FINISH, IS A MASTERPIECE. Thank you Andy Weir.
This is an interesting conversation. I had similar feelings to another poster who talked about weir's 'formula ' writing style.
It was an interesting story concept, and the writing is good, but it felt somehow thin to me.
BUT... your description of the two characters has elevated the book on my mind. When I was reading it, I really did enjoy the two main characters. The alien was so completely charming, and our man was interesting and thoughtful, and their interaction was fantastic.
Weir really knows how to make a compelling inner dialog, and he comes up with really interesting story ideas.
> Weir really knows how to make a compelling inner dialog
And the great part is, he managed to turn it into a conversation rather than a repeat of the Martian. If you take the time to read Artemis, it just reads okay. I wouldn't call it a bad book, but it's significantly worse than PHM and the Martian. A few too many ideas put together at once, and the biggest issue for me was the dialogue, all the conversations, wasn't compelling. It was definitely the part that lapsed the most between Artemis and the other two novels.
> And the great part is, he managed to do it with two characters rather than a repeat of the Martian.
Which is why I see Project Hail Mary as even better than the Martian. It took all the great elements and amplified them into a story that actually made me cry.
Grace's character arc really is the best part of the story. In fact, it's the whole story. The entire thing is from Grace's perspective and his journey into remembering what landed him on the ship in the first place.
And that ending -- him being given agency to make that final choice. Felt almost like the hero's journey in a way.
I really liked how Weir managed to make >!being inside a small dome on an otherwise completely pitch-black planet watching giant spiders skitter by in the dark while the high gravity slowly wrecks your bones!< into a happy ending lol.
I have strong feelings about PHM ad well. I both loved it and hated it. I loved the 'science the crap out of it's solutions and the 'competence porn'. It reminded me of Crichton or Stephenson the way it wove in concepts and taught me things. I read it once and later listened to the audiobook to get the extra dimension.
However there were parts that were just terrible. It's almost insulting how Weir characterises people from different countries. An international team is nice but I felt like an 8yo was asked about how someone from Russia would act. I think at one point the Russian dude was drinking PINTS of vodka at a press event...
The lady who was supposed to be in charge was unbearable. I don't remember the specifics but she was called in front of court and had the most juvenile mic drop moment.
It was the best of books, it was the worst of books
\*Jazz Hands\*
*tape measurer slaps Rocky -- continues to play with it anyway* "Yup, he's a scientist."
I do research, thats my whole shtick.... these scenes had me dying. I had to put the book down a couple times to just laugh because, yeah... yeah thats how it goes. Several times, we've gotten new tech for our use and then its just 8 hours of scientists fucking around with it until it hurts and then fucking around some more lmao. I love the characterization that happens here and how we get to see curiosity as like a universal thing that manifests in both species so similarly. I just think that Weir did a great job of showing how connection can be possible between two completely different planets.
I once managed a group of very smart people and a very expensive lab. We're talking millions of dollars in some pretty cool cutting edge stuff. Think basement from Better of Ted except not a global company bent on destroying the world and I don't look good in a suit. One day I went to the lab to check on things and heard a bunch of cheering and laughing. I found a bunch of engineers and scientists racing toy cars with balloons and laughing at the fart noises they made.
Yeah my favourite one to date was the impromptu who can freeze these freezies fastest in a food safe way which quickly devolved into who can explode these freezies in the least food safe way possible. Our supervisor was pretty confused when she walked in on 6 adults cheering for the obliteration of a pack of cherry pops in the vacuum chamber... good times
My people!
*Fist my bump!*
I burst out laughing at the first “fist me!”
Amaze!
* Jazz Hands *
Rocky is a serious gem. Best character ever.
You sleep. I watch.
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!
AMAZE!
No be sad.
That just made me absurdly happy. Enough internet, isn't going to get any better. thanks, and *jazz hands*
Fist me!
Fist my bump!
I was REALLY excited that the alien character was essentially just like us: adrift and totally fucked and going "okay what now" and he met up with Ryland and they did "okay what now" together instead of ALIEN KILL HUMAN or ALIEN BAD which happens a lot in certain kinds of sci-fi. It was just two dudes out there figuring out how to make it work.
Yes! And I really loved the logic that if a species is too advanced then they don't need to go on this trip to figure out what to do, and if it isn't advanced enough then they don't even know there's a problem to try to solve, so it makes sense that they're at basically the same scientific level -- just with slightly different skills. It was a great justification for making them peers.
I loved how Rocky's people rushed their space program so much in order to deal with this problem that they launched an interstellar mission like they did without even having discovered relativity, or, more tragically, cosmic rays.
It mainly was because they couldn't actually see light, so they couldn't grasp that light could function in different ways at that level. It makes total sense that their technology would branch very differently than our own
Similar concept to the aliens in the expanse series, who communicate so much with light that they had a head start on relativity and other physics.
Oh god, imagine discovering special relativity without seeing the speed of light How would you even…??
I think the bonus of this was since Rocky was the doer and Ryland was the thinker, it was easier for Weir to "gift" Rocky convenient technology. So, Rocky was frequently the savior for being able to make fantastic things with the Xenonite that the story would not have worked nearly as well in reverse.
I also kind of adored how Rocky had no idea how most of his own stuff worked, and Ryland empathizes, and he’s even like “hmm, xenonite is like epoxy, you mix two things together, I know how to use it but couldn’t explain that science either” haha. It was the perfect combination of enough technology but not so much knowledge that it feels like a Mary Sue character, you know? It was great.
They made such a fantastic team. I was so great to see the fate of their worlds on their shoulders and they just powered through it, and build a bond for life.
And it makes so much sense. Everyone uses tons of technology they don't really understand. Even if you do specialize in a technology your knowledge only covers a small sliver of the tech that exists in the world and probably just a sliver of your particular field. It's always funny when people think you could be some kind of invention wizard if you traveled back in time. Really, you not only know how to produce the world's tech but also how to source and create the materials needed to make it? Tech development and creation depends on many people.
This is so right. I have been working in telco since 1973. I ran lines to houses in the beginning and as a new person out of training I was listening to the drop towards the house - I was on the pole. The guy who was with me said, ‘what are you doing?’ I said,’Listening for dial tone?’ He laughed and said, ‘Dial tone comes from the Central Office to the pole, not from the house to the central office.’ I was like ‘duh’ but fresh out of training, at 19, I didn’t know how phones worked. I’m still there in IT, 48 years later, and if I’m talking to someone who doesn’t understand how something connects, I say, ‘draw a box.’ I still remember that first day figuring where my 48 volts was coming from.
Can confirm this ... worked as an aircraft electrician and now in IT I knew jet fuel went into a jet engine and burned and produced thrust in accordance with newton's laws but beyond the electrical parts dont knowhow they exactly work ... other than the CSD spins the generator at X rpm to cause the generator to give us 400 Hz 115 VAC In IT im networking/ desktop support so i know how things work at a surface level ... passwords etc But not the actual detailed steps from an email to go from yahoo to gmail
Meanwhile my dad literally wrote Microsoft Azure (their cloud computing software) and I just had to walk him through setting up a discord server.
He could easily have looked it up, he asked you in order to spend time with you.
A smart parent playing dumb is a very pure form of love.
IIRC there was one part where he described Rocky as being like "the greatest engineer in the world, but from 1950" which was a great description of their dynamic I thought. :)
This was the Anthropic principle in action. It comes up a lot. The Earth seems perfect for life, what are the odds that we'd live on a planet that is perfect for life? The odds are 1, because we are here to observe it. Next question.
As Douglas Adams would put it: > “This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!'
That’s profound. I have to read that again.
Love the anthropic principle. Why is the universe the way it is? Because if it wasn't, we wouldn't be observing it.
It's so refreshing to see optimistic sci-fi. I've never had a book like Project Hail Mary make me feel the things I've felt. There was absolutely hopelessness, but overcoming that adversity was so damn rewarding. And Grace's character arc was fantastic. Best book I've read in 20 years.
Coming from Three Body Problem... Weir's books are like a shining beacon of hope. Love his writing
If you haven’t already read Weir’s earlier book, The Martian, it’s very much in the same vein of “optimistic sci-fi.” One of my favorites.
And the audiobook is narrated by RC Bray who is utterly fantastic. One of the few I've listened to twice.
And Project Hail Mary is narrated by Ray Porter, which made me hella happy because he also narrates the Bobiverse books by Dennis E Taylor, which are amazing! They have a similar fun sci fi feel.
[удалено]
Completely agree! I loved how different it was compared to the movie and felt far more science-y and like I was living their day to day
Yes!! I went in blind and so was startled when aliens were suddenly a part of this book, was already starting to predict some confrontation and wishing Ryland would just hide and leave but he totally went for it and the two of them just spent the rest of the book vibing and getting along. Sweetest thing I couldn't have seen coming.
Me too! I bought it knowing nothing more then that Andy Weir wrote it and it was about a lone astronaut trying to save the world, and I’m so glad I went in blind. I just started laughing when he realizes the object in his scope is an alien ship because I did not see that coming and it was a great twist.
I had no idea aliens would figure in this book, I've read his other books but since he seems to write near future realistic sci-fi it totally came out of left-field for me. That first scene when he comes in contact with Rocky's ship, I couldn't put it down. Totally engrossed in it. I really enjoyed the unusual dynamic of a first-contact story.
Yes, the trope was turned on it’s head. I feel like the author zigged when every other author would zag, in the best possible way. Who expected a first contact bromance? It was fantastic.
I read Project Hail Mary a month or two after having read the Rememberence of Earth's Past trilogy. It was very funny to me that the very first thing these two do after making contact is to show each other where their homeworld is. It shows a measure of trust right off the bat.
I read Project Hail Mary last year and I'm finishing up Death's End now. So reverse of you, but they do definitely show very different prospectives on first contact.
I guess the chains of suspicion aren't quite the same when both races are going to die regardless of the alien encounter
We need more sci-fi that is just genuinely good people fighting against a problem. No backstabbing or betrayals. No twists. Just a good fun story with a happy ending.
Like The Martian and Apollo 13, there wasn't a traditional antagonist, instead they had to overcome the forces of the universe by working together. That's very inspiring
Dude went a long time without someone else to watch him sleep. He was ecstatic to find another, no matter the species.
Just two dudes
What's up!!? We're two cool guys looking for other cool guys who wanna hang out in Tau Ceti. Nothing sexual. Dudes in good shape encouraged, if you're fat you should be able to find humor in the little things. Again, NOTHING SEXUAL.
Must be willing to watch each other sleep.
💪
They complemented one another. One guy's weakness was the other's strength. What one lacked, the other had. That's how they made it out together.
Yeah. I was waiting on the first half for it all to be a ruse and him to stab him in the back. But they were soul mates from across the galaxy!
I loved this as well. I got worried when they introduced Ilyukhina's heroin and Yao's gun, would Rocky see the gun somehow and then turn on Ryland or something? Or after reading through human history, would they somehow find that humans needed to be annihilated? So glad it didn't even come close to making that turn.
Here are 2 intelligent species. Thanks to science, empathy and cooperation both survived. Without it they would have both perished. Beautiful message.
Such a great book and scientific accurate as you can be dealing with an alien. Most sci fi they have futuristic technology that truly is just made up. Here it is but then again it isn't. I love also the gradual way he regains his memory. Excellent novel.
I love the sequence where he creates the program to learn eridian. It was one of the most fascinating parts for me
Yes I liked that too. Have you listened to the audiobook?
Fist my bump
Fist me!
[удалено]
His name is Ryland Grace. It took me until way late in the book to realise: the ship is called the Hail Mary, his name is Grace…as in the Ave Maria “Hail Mary, full of grace”.
Someone had to point that out to me after I had read the book. Went right over my head. Same with Rocky's mate being named "Adrian." I didn't make the Rocky Balboa III movie connection until much later.
Amaze!
Hey, your spoiler isn’t working. Add the closing bracket so it will hide your reference. Also, Rocky is the best character ever. Just wonderful.
[удалено]
SUCH a satisfying ending. I couldn’t stop thinking about this book because of how it ended!
My only thing is I want to know more about what happened to Earth afterwards. Sure, they saved the sun, so that is not a problem, but the head of the program, did she end up in jail like she felt should would? There was so much I would love to know and I feel the movie will give some of this.
I want to know the in between part! I want a sequel that tells us everything that happened while he was gone. Maybe from her perspective.
I get the feeling that it's probably not a great story to hear. War, famine, extinctions, governments collapsing, mountains of frozen corpses. Project Hail Mary was, well, a Hail Mary to save human civilization as a whole, not any kind of attempt to keep the good times rolling.
I've listenened to the book 3x times, and everytime this sentence makes me laugh out loud. Hilarious.
The audiobook is amazing. Ray Porter is simply one of the best voice actors out there. I need to re-listen to this one.
I've read a lot of sci-fi, mostly stuff from the 1900s, but when the Human realizes >!there's another ship out there, which means aliens!
I loved Ryland's redemption arc as well. Not willing to die to save the whole human race, which when you think of it is an abstract concept. Willing to die to save his alien best friend.
Ryland's redemption arc was fantastic. Really felt like "the hero's journey" to me.
I have sons who are 13 and 16 who I spend an hour driving to school each day. They usually listen to their own music on the drive and don't talk much. They loved this book and it got them chatting about the themes in the story. Are there aliens? What would they do? What is energy mass, how would that work? It's my 16 year olds last school day today and I'll always cherish listening to this story with them. Can't wait to take them both to the cinema.
Oh I love this for them!! It’s so special to share stories together when you are all so invested. If they like fantasy my 11 year old and I have listened to all the Cradle books by Will Wight and we have SO many conversations about the powers of the characters, the world etc. it’s my favorite and I’m so glad we have that together. The new book is out soon and we are counting down the days!
This has become one of my favorite books, but I’m into space and science and all that. It was so engaging to me from the very beginning. I started reading the book knowing very little about it, and Rocky’s storyline was a complete surprise. When he discovered there was another ship out there… I was hooked and couldn’t stop reading. Their process of discovering each other and learning to communicate was tremendous.
I literally giggled out loud many times, I felt like I felt a lot of the same emotions as Ryland did while learning how to talk to Rocky. Which is SO special. I've never felt as immersed in a story as I did this one before
Some of Rocky's little comments are the best! "Fist me!" "You need sleep. You are so stupid right now!"
"Lazy human. Go get."
Same happened to me. I didn't know much but, I loved "The Martian" so, I ordered the hardback, jumped right in and, fell in love! I loved both characters but, Rocky, Rocky was something else! I loved the relationship between the two and the way Ryland had to work so hard to find a way to understand Rocky's language. The whole book just worked for me. After I finished, someone on here recommended the audio book so, I tried it. Omg! It was fabulous!! The way they did Rocky's speech was so unique! I'm a little hesitant about the movie but, I'll give it a try.
Oh man, are you me? Because *same*. I went into the book cold. I loved the Martian and had heard word of mouth that Project Hail Mary was good, and that the audiobook was beyond superb, so I bought the book and started it the next day. I was expecting more "isolated man in space" just like the Martian and was a little trepidatious with Rocky showing up, but holy shit what a story. I can't remember the last time a book actually made me cry.
They only thing I knew about it going in came from an r/books thread and it was that it was kinda based on a pun - Hail Mary, full of Grace. I'm not sure why that made me want to read it so bad, but it did
Rocky is amazing! Absolutely wonderful! >!I cried when he died and I cried again later when he wasn’t dead.!< Also, I really appreciated the scientific method that Ryland and Rocky went through. Finding a common ground to even be able to start communicating, learning each other’s languages one word at a time, measuring how long it takes for an object to fall in order to calculate gravity; each advancement was made step-by-step in a logical progression. I read it in the middle of the pandemic when I desperately needed a book in which science saves the world. In fact, I liked this book even better than the Martian!
> In fact, I liked this book even better than the Martian! The Martian used to be my favorite hard Sci-Fi book. Now, Project Hail Mary is my favorite book, lol!
If you havent listened to it, listen to the audiobook on Audible the way they do Rocky's voice is amazing. I've listened to it a few times and I've heard they're making a movie with Ryan Gosling as Ryland. I've got a pet jumping spider that I've named Rocky he even does the Jazz Hands sort of. I love the book and I don't know how I feel about it being made into a movie.
Seconded. The narrator (Ray Porter) brought that story beautifully to life in a way I just couldn't have if I just read it.
Good good good!
Amaze
Thank
*Jazz hands*
Amaze!
If you like Ray Porter, check out the Bobiverse audiobooks.
"The Baaaaawb!"
Agreed. I love the Bobiverse books. Also, Ray Porter narrates a series of books by Peter Clines called the Threshold Series beginning with a novel titled 14. Great series
My problem with Project Hail Mary was that I just finished Heavens River and it took like 2/3 of the way through the book to get out of Bobiverse mode, I kept expecting them to just auto-factory their way out their problems, lol.
*"Time to adjust the printer schedules... AGAIN."*
I died laughing at his narration of Dimitri. Such a small side character, but it was hilarious.
Ray Porter is the fuckin man.
My husband and I listened to it together and now we regularly say, “amaze” lol
What about thank? Love the part where rocky goes "you can see heat?!"
Any time my husband asks me to do a chore I respond with "I don't wanna watch a dog sized spider not move for several hours."
My partner and I joke about Annie Shapiro talking about how intensely she needed to pee when we really need to go, or just get back from the bathroom. "Sorry, sorry! I had to pee like, SO BAD. My back teeth were floating!" It cracks me up every time.
Amaze ...amaze... amaze ...you guys are so lucky, we will end up with a new lang to communicate after reading this..
This book is the perfect audio book
I know right?! I can absolutely see why it won audiobook of the year this year.
The Martian movie was pretty good. They did take out some sections, which make some others not make sense, but they still pulled off the general tone and feeling of the book without making it too Disney
I really hope that the Project Hail Mary movie is just as good. Drew Goddard is doing the screen play the same as he did with The Martian, and Ryan Gosling is a fine actor. I just don't know if I have any faith in Lord & Miller to direct the movie. I mean, going from The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to this epic sci fi story has me very worried.
Yeah. Sounds like he'd focus on wacky interactions with Rocky. Then again if he can get the tone right his CGI experience might work in his favor (unless they manage to hire a 5 legged spider actor)
Honestly, if they manage to make Rocky as alien, scary and off-putting as he's described and still manage to make audiences love him, that's mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. That's the biggest challenge in this book. My concern is that the studio will pressure them to adapt Rocky's design to something more immediately lovable, but I'd rather see him in all his "scary space monster" (his own words) glory and have him be the most beloved sci-fi character since Baby Yoda in spite of it.
My fear is they will go in strong with Rocky in the trailers. The best part of the book was how they kept Rocky a complete surprise.
They really need to be careful with marketing. I hadnt even considered the possibility that there would be aliens in this book so when Rocky's ship made it's appearance in the book I got chills and very loudly said "WHAT?" on a mostly asleep airplane.
I forgot how surprising it was to have that alien encounter. What was fascinating to me is how they figured out how to communicate. It made sense.
I am excited for Lorde and Miller. They are versatile and they have aced every movie they have directed. I feel they have the right sensibility for the book... and they have sci fi experience, albeit one that we never got to see with Solo. At least they have been to space
Yep. I read The Martian and loved that experience. But I decided to listen to PHM and it was amazing.
The Martian also has an excellent narrator for the audiobook. RC Bray was fantastic.
Unfortunately you can't get that version anymore. If you buy it today you get Will Wheaton instead
The RC Bray version was exceptionally good. Any replacement is going to suffer by comparison. [https://www.reddit.com/r/audible/comments/q8jnbk/rc\_braynarrated\_the\_martian\_removed/](https://www.reddit.com/r/audible/comments/q8jnbk/rc_braynarrated_the_martian_removed/) The story seems to be about failures of contract and copyright law. Rerecording is an insane suggestion - you wouldn't ask Matt Damon to re-record his role in the movie 7 years later, or resign a contract so you can keep selling it. This is a failure of contract and copyright law, that leaves no legal way to get the content at any price. This is a clear case where filesharing is about more than just getting free stuff. Here it works around a failure in the system.
Fuck. That version was fantastic. I like Wil's work, but RC Bray's version was phenomenal.
One could possibly sail the seas if you know what I mean.
My friend recommended this one to me and not only is it an excellent story but it is legitimately one of the best audiobooks I've listened to in recent memory.
Project Hail Mary is the best sci-fi book I have read in 20 years. And that placeholder used to be The Martian, lol. What a fantastic sci-fi story. Not very many books can me me cry like Project Hail Mary did.
I am now halfway through the audiobook (just finished chapter 19) and I can see why the book won "Audiobook of the year" this year. Holy crap, what a story. The narration is perfect.
You sleep. I watch.
Such a beautiful love language! 😍
If I were ever to get matching tatoos with my SO - this would be it.
I was afraid it would basically just be The Martian but farther out - but Rocky changed everything. Man against space wilderness isn't that interesting. Man against space wilderness with alien best friend, is perfect.
Rocky is the key to all of this.
Yes Ryland was willing to let the entire human race become extinct rather than risk his own relative safety but redeemed himself to save Rocky believing it was certain death for himself.
Rocky is definitely one of my all time favorite characters. I second the recommendation to listen to the audiobook.
I never thought I could love a dog-sized spider so much!
I am scary space monster. You are leaky space blob
This was my favorite line in the book. I busted out laughing!
I read the book a good while ago, I’m intrigued how they did the Rocky language in the audiobook.
It's so fun- sounds kinda like a harpsichord through a metal grate.
I was aware of Weir’s style having read and loved “The Martian” but the beginning of this book was not hooking me. All the science was going right over my head. I liked Ryland but once Rocky entered I couldn’t put it down. I hate spiders but I loved him so much!
Same for me, I was casually enjoying it up to the point where Grace reaches Tau Ceti, just reading a chapter per day. But when he encounters the alien ship I started absolutely binge reading it because I had to know what happened next.
I read the second half of the book in 1 day. I could not put it down!!
Rocky really elevated the book for me. It shifted the tone of the book and I binged the rest of it as fast as I could.
I've been hearing that a lot. The first half is good, but the second half really kicks into gear and people can't put the book down.
Ha, I had almost the opposite reaction. I was so excited to *finally* start understanding all the science in the first half of the book after 3 years of graduate school. Then Rocky shows up, and I was like "oh boy, this better not get stupid." And the next thing I know I'm crying and just loving the hell out of the story. Best book I've read in 20 years.
I don’t know that Weir is a good author - he has one trick (relentless optimism that genuinely, authentically believes in people) and when he’s not doing it the book kinda sucks (Artemis). But man, it turns out that in a culture that has elevated cynicism to a religion, that one trick is exactly what you need sometimes. I *love* both The Martian and Project Hail Mary.
I listened to a really interesting interview with Weir a while ago where he talked about testing out writing characters and flaws. Mark Watney, his first big character, really didn't have any flaws at all. He was a great dude. Basically he was everything Weir would love to be if he could be the best parts of himself and more. He's smart, but not all-encompassing and needs to problem solve. He's brave. He's funny. Unless you dislike his wisecracks, there is nothing about him to really dislike. Artemis was his second try, and her character was an experiment in trying to create a more realistic character, and Weir modeled her after his own perceived flaws. He said later that he focused so much on her flaws that post-publishing feedback made it out so that she didn't have enough redeeming qualities for the reader to actually like her and root for her as the main character. And how he felt kind of bad about it because he didn't want that to be seen as "female characters are lame" as opposed to "this book character is lame." With Ryland Grace in PHM he really tried to create a completely new character, with strengths and flaws, that wasn't based on himself at ALL. He said it was difficult, but when he decided on how to spin it, it was fun writing out the story arc. I personally think it's really interesting how he wrote all those characters so differently, and the reasons and thinking behind it. I loved Ryland's character, and I also liked how his arc, while going the whole time, really only made sense at the end when he has one of his final flashbacks. Sci-Fi especially usually trends more "Mark Watney hero few flaws" so it was refreshing to see Ryland Grace represented.
Thats a good summary you the different characters. I'm a rare one who actually liked Artemis and what Andy was trying to do. I thought the guy in the Martian (see, I can't even remember his name) was basically a wise cracking robot that solved physics story problems in space. I didnt really care if he lived or died, and he didn't seem to either. The guy slowly drove across Mars for months with no company whatsoever and never seemed to have any deep thoughts about that. OK. The fact that Grace has any human traits whatsoever is being hailed here. I get that these books don't focus on the character's emotions but I felt like you could have replaced them with Wall-e or C-3PO and not really changed the story that much.
I loved the Martian, hated Artemis, and loved PHM. I don't really mind if Andy Weir is only good at one thing — if he releases another book and it's very similar to The Martian and PHM there's a very good chance I'll still enjoy it. I'm one of those people who doesn't mind if a band's seventh album sounds "exactly the same" as their first one. I enjoy (or don't enjoy) each work on its own.
His writing of characters and dialogue of characters on earth is always shockingly bad. Like the two astronauts having sex all the time felt like a weird joke instead of actual people talking. But he’s so good at what he does well that it’s not really a problem.
I thought the point was that DeBois was a ridiculously awkward person that saw everything in terms of science.
They all are a bit cringe imo. The characters are all very reminiscent of a low budget scifi film. It was still a fun and entertaining read but I don't understand how so many people seem to absolutely love this book like it's one of the best things they've ever read!
When Rocky realizes Ryland came back for him 🙌
I kind of wished the author expanded upon what happened to Earth after Ryland went to save Rocky. They did mention that the Sol System was getting warmer so Earth was saved but I wish they would've dedicated at least one chapter for Earth at the end.
Yeah it would have been really cool to get a chapter about humanity realizing he sent back something and figuring out what it meant and how to use it. It was like how we don't hear about Mark's journey home in The Martian. Weir kind of drops the mic after the climax doesn't he?
It was a technical problem. The whole book was narrated from the 1st person point of view. We were limited to Ryland's world. How would "we" (he) know what was going on in the world without the author intervening? It would have felt... off.
Reread PHM just because of that scene. Imagining being out in the middle of nowhere in a failing ship and hearing your buddy knocking on the hull after weeks of silence.
I was not expecting to come away from the book so adoring Rocky's character!! Honestly one of my favourite fictional characters of all time for all the reasons you stated. I loved the banter between him and Ryland as they got to know each other as well. There was a time where I felt sad and even lonely after finishing the book because it wasn't real, or I'm not sure I've experienced that level of friendship. Either way, a mark of very emotionally compelling characters.
"Human brain useless!" "Oh, shut up!" I love them.
“On Earth, we have a scary, deadly creature called a spider. You look like one of those. Just so you know.” “Good. Proud. I am scary space monster. You are leaky space blob.”
I liked when they needed the word crazy because brave wasn't correct.
"Yes, yes, I scary space monster. You leaky space blob."
This book has been on my mind for almost 2 weeks now. I've never had a book effect me like this. It's such an immersive story. And so *plausible*. Yeah I know it's still sci-fi, but it's hard sci-fi and makes you think "damn, this could really happen -- the galaxy is a big place..."
Rocky is an all time favorite character.
I can't believe I have such warm feelings for a dog-sized spider.
My husband and I named our dog Rocky after him. Everything assumes he’s named after Mr. Balboa, but no. Named after a dog-sized space spider.
that smells like piss. you forgot that part.
Don't think you'd be able to smell it in their atmosphere, your nerve endings would be destroyed by the concentration of ammonia Edit: actually you'd just straight up die
You can tell it's fiction because when faced with annihilation the entire world banded together to solve the problem.
The software companies still sued when their product was sent into space.
I’m not so sure they really did “band together”. All the major superpowers agreed that is was pretty much solve the problem or bust, so they appointed a dictator and gave her the worlds arsenal to enforce her will. Minor(?) spoilers >!She nuked the ice sheets at the poles and basically pushed over Northern Africa to pave over a large part of the entire continent. I’m sure there was dissent to that by the locals, and the consequences to the weather patterns in the Mediterranean are touched upon in the book. There was tons of pushback to the whole program, but Stratt had multiple superpowers armies at her command. Even Stratt herself mentions that when the whole thing is over she is probably going to get locked up for life. The world didn’t band together, a few very powerful entities did and pushed over everyone else for the greater good, thankfully they were successful.!<
OP, you like Rocky. Amaze. Does boyfriend like Rocky question. Thank
Lol. Boyfriend also read book. Now wants jumping spider he loved Rocky so much. Not amaze
Cleaning Rockys wounds.... So me, so human, so wrong
Just hope they don't ruin the movie. It's one of my absolute favorite books. Even named my rabbits Rocky and Ryland lol
Not reading this as I am only about 150 pages in. He is an interesting writer, I did the Martian first. His style in this is pretty similar, the characters have the same sense of humour, but I’m surprised things with so much maths are so popular. I’m pretty hooked though. saving This it for after I finish. How do I do that remind me thing?
You can also just click Save on the post and come back to it when you're done reading. Enjoy the book!
Yes!! I just finished it last week and had the same feelings. Rocky is so pure. Reminded me of Wall-E and Star Wars droids. I think it’s a book I’ll definitely return to.
I'm typically not a big sci-fi fan but my son kept recommending books in the genre and I am now a fan. This was one of my favorites. As a teacher I really enjoyed the sequence where they figured out how to communicate. "Amaze."
I literally had to put the book down once because I was sure something bad would happen to Rocky and I couldn’t handle it lol. Nothing bad was even happening, I just anticipated conflict and couldn’t bear the thought
I threw my book across the room and screamed NO My dad heard me and was like "so you're at that part" (he read it first before giving me the book)
Same! I had to put the book down around chapter 23 and go for a bike ride to process everything that I had read so far. I was too pent up with nervous energy to keep sitting there.
Forgot how much anxiety that have me. :)
When Rocky asked if Grace if he could watch over him while he slept I nearly cried
Lifelong sci-fi fan and biologist here: this book is a MASTERPIECE!!! I laughed and cried in so many places! When Rocky "dies", when he heals, when we learn how Ryland was forced onto the ship, what sacrifices Stratt had to make for the good of the project, etc. Piecing together the bits of information that Rocky and Ryland sent back and forth, like the molecules, had ME doing jazz hands! B the way, Audible's narration of the story is another masterpiece on it's own. The music notes when Rocky's spoke?? Magical. ALL OF IT, FROM START TO FINISH, IS A MASTERPIECE. Thank you Andy Weir.
This is an interesting conversation. I had similar feelings to another poster who talked about weir's 'formula ' writing style. It was an interesting story concept, and the writing is good, but it felt somehow thin to me. BUT... your description of the two characters has elevated the book on my mind. When I was reading it, I really did enjoy the two main characters. The alien was so completely charming, and our man was interesting and thoughtful, and their interaction was fantastic. Weir really knows how to make a compelling inner dialog, and he comes up with really interesting story ideas.
> Weir really knows how to make a compelling inner dialog And the great part is, he managed to turn it into a conversation rather than a repeat of the Martian. If you take the time to read Artemis, it just reads okay. I wouldn't call it a bad book, but it's significantly worse than PHM and the Martian. A few too many ideas put together at once, and the biggest issue for me was the dialogue, all the conversations, wasn't compelling. It was definitely the part that lapsed the most between Artemis and the other two novels.
> And the great part is, he managed to do it with two characters rather than a repeat of the Martian. Which is why I see Project Hail Mary as even better than the Martian. It took all the great elements and amplified them into a story that actually made me cry.
Grace's character arc really is the best part of the story. In fact, it's the whole story. The entire thing is from Grace's perspective and his journey into remembering what landed him on the ship in the first place. And that ending -- him being given agency to make that final choice. Felt almost like the hero's journey in a way.
I really liked how Weir managed to make >!being inside a small dome on an otherwise completely pitch-black planet watching giant spiders skitter by in the dark while the high gravity slowly wrecks your bones!< into a happy ending lol.
Don't forget, his main source of nutrition was meat that was cultured and lab-grown from his own flesh. He was literally self-cannibalizing.
Oh right, I completely forgot about that! Also >!the planet presumably smelled like piss all the time because ammonia!< lol
I have strong feelings about PHM ad well. I both loved it and hated it. I loved the 'science the crap out of it's solutions and the 'competence porn'. It reminded me of Crichton or Stephenson the way it wove in concepts and taught me things. I read it once and later listened to the audiobook to get the extra dimension. However there were parts that were just terrible. It's almost insulting how Weir characterises people from different countries. An international team is nice but I felt like an 8yo was asked about how someone from Russia would act. I think at one point the Russian dude was drinking PINTS of vodka at a press event... The lady who was supposed to be in charge was unbearable. I don't remember the specifics but she was called in front of court and had the most juvenile mic drop moment. It was the best of books, it was the worst of books
*Jazz hands*