Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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I Finally Got There—I Finally Read Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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Caution, mild spoilers ahead. I have tried not to explain too much beyond the blurb in this review, but I don’t think I can talk about Project Hail Mary properly without pulling back the curtain—just a little—on one of the major plot points. It probably won’t be a huge deal as this book has been out a while, and I suspect most people are probably already conscious of the little point I want to reveal, even if they haven’t read the book. But I just […]

Lost in space, above all drifting…

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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Official book description: 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 […]

Full of grace

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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Project Hail Mary is a science fiction novel about, you guessed it, the end of the world. The novel begins with a man in a room, hooked up to a machine. He is disoriented and unaware of his own name. Through scientific discovery – trial and error – he discovers that he is on a spaceship and is the lone survivor of a mission to another star system. Gradually, his memory returns and he recalls that is name is Ryland Grace and he is on […]

Determined Optimism

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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Project Hail Mary was a real interesting thing to read in April of 2022. I struggled with Weir’s premise that the world would come together to save Earth. I switched back and forth between this and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Eyes of the Void (review coming soon), and I think that helped me appreciate Weir’s optimism. Do I think it’s realistic? No. Do I think it’s necessary? Yes I do. This is going to be less of a review and more of me back on my bullshit […]

“If you want to play life safe, don’t live on the moon.”

Artemis by Andy Weir

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I have gotten woefully behind in posting reviews, so welcome to the lightning round! Let’s see if I can get 10 reviews written and posted in the next 10 days, shall we? Artemis is an interesting departure from The Martian. And while it has a lot of the same elements that made The Martian work for me, ultimately, Artemis was not quite as successful. Jazz Bashara is a petty criminal living on the moon. Artemis is a city, or a space station, depending on how […]

Recaptures most, but not all, of the magic of The Martian

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

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I, like most, loved Andy Weir’s debut The Martian. Maybe it helps that I don’t have a firm grasp on the vast majority of the science in it, but it felt grounded in reality in a way that lots of science fiction isn’t. Naturally, then, I knew I had to read Project Hail Mary as soon as I learned of its existence. I couldn’t not return to that well with Weir; I watched the Matt Damon-led Martian film without hesitation for that very same reason. With […]



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