Project Hail Mary
““Humanity isn’t alone in the universe. And I’ve just met our neighbors. “Holy fucking shit!””
NO SPOILERS
Who’s this for: If you read and loved The Martian, or even loved the movie, I think this is Andy Weir’s best work yet. Easy to follow, and read, and a great way to education people in science while being entertained.
Firstly, I’ll be biased for my enjoying this book because I’m a huge science fiction, and a science nerd in general. I love Star Trek over Star Wars just because of the use of actual scientific principles to help drive the story. Now I’m not saying that the entirety of Star Trek or Andy Weir’s books are completely factual when it comes to their use of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), but they definitely play an essential role to help drive the story.
I’ve also only read Weir’s The Martian and now Project Hail Mary, but both use somewhat of a detective-esque and escape room kind of narrative. You have the protagonist alone trying to figure out how to accomplish the mission. For Mark Watney in The Martian (Matt Damon’s character), it was to survive long enough for a rescue mission to come. For Dr. Ryland Grace, it’s…. well I can’t really share much without spoiling the story.
Like I said earlier, what Andy Weir does is something I’ve long thought about through my academics. I’ve had terrible science professors that will just provide scientific principles in monotone recitation, and I’ve had fantastic science professors that applied those principles in practice in a way that stuck.
Side note: I’ll never forget my Organic Chemistry II professor coming in the first day of class and telling everyone 50% of the class will fail, and don’t bother him outside of the classroom. That class is f’n hard enough. I got a C… barely.
I long thought that a way to educate the masses is to slip actual scientific principles into an entertaining story that people want to read, and that’s exactly what Andy Weir does.
Examples:
“Sometimes gamma rays, when they pass close to an atomic nucleus, will spontaneously become an electron and a positron. It’s called ‘pair production.’”
Or
“Neutrinos routinely pass through the entire planet Earth without hitting a single atom – they’re just that small.”
And even a discussion between Newtonian and Relativistic math. Don’t worry, you won’t have to fully understand these principles to enjoy the story, just pretty cool that Andy researched, educated himself, and used this kind of information in the plot. Of course, there are plenty of liberties taken to help fill gaps in the story by simply stating the main character doesn’t understand what’s happening to help drive it. That’s all I can say about that, because no spoilers.
My one gripe with the book is that the dialog is pretty ‘PG.’ It seems a tad awkward at times, and could use more realistic dialog. However, I have met high STEM academics that do not cuss, like the main character, Dr. Ryland Grace. Grace also teaches elementary school kids, so maybe it does fit the character. However, if I woke up alone in space with amnesia, I think that’d be enough to change my demeanor into something a bit more adult.
All-in-all, the book was a fantastic, and easy read with a great plot. I can’t wait for this to become a movie; not that one is in the works, or at least I haven’t seen anything official.
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