Book #54: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A book that I'd been meaning to read for some time. The plot put me in mind of The Martian (or at least what I know of the plot, having not seen the film), which shouldn't been a surprise, as author Andy Weir wrote that book too.
The main character is Dr. Ryeland Grace, who wakes up on board a spaceship, with no memory of how he got there, and with two dead bodies beside him. This did seem at first like a space murder mystery, but the explanation for how his crewmates died ends up being very brief.
Instead, the narrative focuses on Grace's mission, which is revealed through flashbacks as he gradually remembers things. In brief, he is on a mission to stop a process called "solar dimming", whereby a species called "astrophage" threatens to make the sun lose some of its light, with the likely result being another ice age, and the extinction of humanity.
This is really a McGuffin that sets off a plot that mostly revolves around the friendship between Grace and an alien being, "Rocky", who shows up early on in the book. At first, Rocky only communicates using musical notes, but eventually Grace learns how to translate what he says.
Despite the fact that there was an obvious climate change-related message to this book, and a large amount of scientific language that went a little over my head (very long-winded descriptions of the experiments and other work that Grace ended up doing), I quite enjoyed this. The relationship between the two main characters felt like the main point of the book, as well as it feeling like a story of self-sacrifice, and putting the needs of others first.
The book's denouement was unexpected, but very enjoyable; it made for a satisfying ending.
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