Then again, just because Gates has a lot of money and Obama was once president does not mean they have good taste in fiction. Weir wrote ‘The Martian’, which became a popular science fiction film of the same name, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon.
In ‘Project Hail Mary,’ the sun is dying. Alien microorganisms are consuming the star. Ryland Grace, our protagonist, and a former science teacher, is on a mission to the Tau Ceti solar system (12 light years from Earth) to find a solution. But there’s a problem. Ryland just woke up on a spaceship hurtling through space to the Tau Ceti system, and he does not know who he is, where he comes from, or why he is there. The only other astronauts on the ship are dead.
What hope does Ryland have of saving his world from extinction when he can’t even remember his name?
If you are new here, I typically gravitate towards fantasy. I love swords and horses and magic and medieval settings. I have not necessarily hated my recent journey through the science fiction arena. I liked the Murderbot books, but they were okay at best. They couldn’t deliver the thrilling experience I associate with fantasy.
My hopes for ‘Project Hail Mary’ were high because the book is an award winner with many positive reviews. Also, Weir wrote ‘The Martian,’ and the movie is highly entertaining. Many readers have compared ‘The Martian’ and ‘Project Hail Mary,’ and for a good reason.
Like ‘The Martian,’ the protagonist in ‘Project Hail Mary’ is alone in space. He must rely on his extensive scientific knowledge to engineer solutions to an ever-evolving series of problems. But unlike ‘The Martian,’ which flashes between Watney’s activities on Mars and the efforts on Earth to rescue him, ‘Project Hail Mary’ keeps jumping to the past to show us how humanity discovered the alien threat and what they did in the subsequent years.
This is where the book won me over. Every chapter is a mystery. First, Weir presents a complex puzzle. Then, his characters systematically attack the challenge from scratch, testing various theories until they attain a conclusive answer.
The science is complicated but also surprisingly engaging. I kept stopping to Google all the concepts and terms Ryland would casually mention. You can learn so much from this novel. So, what went wrong? Like I said, I kept stopping to Google the concepts Ryland and his team were applying to stop the alien threat. After a while, it got tiresome.
To be fair, you don’t have to know the science explained in the book to understand the story. Each scene provides enough clues to explain what is happening and why. But here’s the thing. Weir clearly did extensive research for ‘Project Hail Mary,’ and you can see the fruits of his labour on every page.
Unfortunately, after a few chapters, the novel felt less like a nail-biting adventure through space and more like a long science lecture. Why would I read ten pages showing how Ryland methodically scanned a quadrant of space to locate a ship?
Weir included details that killed the momentum and ruined my enjoyment. Ryland made things worse because we spent too much time with him, and he is such a bland protagonist.
Rocky was the only bright spot. He was simply delightful. But I won’t say more about him because it would ruin the surprise. Overall, I wanted to love ‘Project Hail Mary.’ It had a promising start. But in the end, it became a chore. I think I will give science fiction a break for now.
I have been away from fantasy for far too long.
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