Synopsis:

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

Review:

This book was so much fun and I was not expecting that. There’s so much humour, lots of nerdy science and okay, a little bit of sad, but overall this was a fantastic experience.

I’m going to try and review this without giving much away because I truly think that the less you know about this one before going in, the better. I didn’t even read the blurb, let alone any reviews, and I think my enjoyment was increased because of it. So honestly, I won’t be offended if you stop reading now and pick up the book instead!

In Project Hail Mary we are with Ryland Grace, a scientist aboard a spaceship who has just woken from a coma-sleep. Why is he in space? He has no idea. We spend a while trying to figure it out, and it does take a while because at first Grace can’t even remember his own name.

Through flashbacks we discover who Ryland Grace is, how he ended up in space and the reasons for his mission. I really enjoyed the drip-feeding of this information as Grace explored the ship, the gradual learning of the wider world, the people and the predicament he left behind slowly added tension as we realised just how dire the situation is, both for Earth and for Ryland.

The story progresses with some very exciting twists and turns, lots and lots of science (well-explained, don’t worry!) and some nail-biting missions. I could not put this book down, always needing to know what was going to happen next.

This was my first book by Andy Weir. Somehow I haven’t read The Martian (though I have watched the film), and now I think I will have to. Even though I am holding the book here, I actually listened to this on audio, and it was fantastic. Ray Porter did a stellar job with this – the humour, the excitement and the occasional hysterical panic that Ryland goes through was perfectly captured. I highly, highly recommend listening to this one if you can.

All in all, an excellent read/listen. Even if science fiction isn’t your usual, I still think you should pick this one up. It’s an accessible, fun and well-crafted novel that I feel most will love.