In some ways, Weir's protagonist, Ryland Grace, is an everyman archetype - an unassuming middle school teacher with no real drama or intrigue in his life. But in other ways, he's the smartest, luckiest, most well-equipped human in the universe. If you can get past all of that (and I think Weir is able to get us to that point) then PHM is a great story.
We open to Grace waking up and not remembering where he is or even who he is. But he seems to be in space, which is a problem when you have amnesia...aaaaand have never been in space before. Grace slowly regains his memory through snapshots of his life back on earth. So we get the alternating timelines as a way to reveal why Grace is in a spaceship trying to save the world. To complicate things, there is an unknown vessel near grace's ship that he isn't sure is from earth. But he has to make contact with it in order to complete his mission.
Weir is great at giving us so many scientific details in an easy to understand and relatable way. And Ryland Grace is a smart, funny, and entertaining narrator. And the story itself, about how the sun is dying and what is causing it, is thoughtful and interesting too.
For more information about Weir and his work, here is his website. And here is a link to the trailer for the movie, coming out next year, added bonus - it stars Ryan Gosling.
