I haven’t read Andy Weir since The Martian came out – I enjoyed it but I remember the reviews of Artemis were a bit lukewarm and with so many other novels to read, I wasn’t in a rush. But then there was a movie preview for the adaption of Project Hail Mary, his third novel, so I figured why not (I read with my eyes but I have heard that the audiobook version is great, narrated by Ray Porter – for some reason every time I saw people rave about Ray Porter, I pictured the actor that played Cyborg as the voice narrator but that’s Ray Fisher).
Despite having seen the preview for Project Hail Mary before reading this novel, I quickly started seeing Matt Damon in my head instead of Ryan Gosling. The narrative voice just sounded exactly the same to me in this novel as The Martian. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – a science-savvy and sarcastic main character is a good thing but if you didn’t like The Martian, you likely won’t enjoy this one.
The novel begins when Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship with amnesia problems, the sole survivor of the unknown mission. The novel then breaks into alternating timelines, the “present” day on the space ship with Ryland trying to puzzle out why is where he is and what he needs to do, and the past, giving the context of what happened, from when humans discovered alien life in our Solar system to realizing it was a threat to human life and finally the creation of the worldwide mission or Project Hail Mary to save Earth and humanity.
The flashback scenes helped quite a bit in keeping the novel engaging though between Covid and Trump 2, Weir was likely overly optimistic about mankind’s ability to get it together for the greater good in the face of an existential threat.
Overall it was a fun ride (even if I started glossing over the science talk towards the end) that also found time to explore topics like connection and loneliness. I didn’t love one of the things we found out later in the novel but I know that point actually hit much better for other readers. 3.5, rounded down. I probably would have rounded up if I had rated and reviewed right after reading but it just didn’t quite stick with me enough for more.
