Project Hail Mary

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.

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.

A fascinating book that, like "The Martian", contains a few specific 'hand wavy' parts, but for the rest, strictly follows the rules of physics as we know it, and features a protagonist (or two) that can science (and engineer) the heck out of things to solve problems.

The book starts with Ryland Grace waking up on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there, along with fellow dead crew members. As he explores the ship and his memory of recent events starts to return, we learn that Earth is in trouble. A lifeform that is literally breeding on the energy of the sun has been discovered. As it multiplies (exponential growth), the sun gets dimmer, with catastrophic consequences for the Earth. Ryland learns that other nearby stars are also dimming, except for one: Tau Ceti. And he's on a mission to that star to discover why it's not affected before it is too late for Earth to survive.

At that star, he will make a voyage of discovery as he uses his wits and scientific knowledge to make deductions and test them by making experiments. He will encounter problems and solve them with intellect and skill, only to move on to the next one. But by the end of the story, just when you thought all the problems have been solved, one final one is presented that will require him to make a decision that may well end his life, for the sake of friendship.

This is a story of solving problems with science and engineering, yet not forgetting that you sometimes have to put them aside to do what seems to be the right thing.