Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

If you liked Andy Weir's first novel, The Martian, then Project Hail Mary won't disappoint as another witty, funny, creative sci-fi adventure. Suspend your belief for this one, as moments of sudden clarity, synchronicity, and serendipity abound. But in order to save the world, everything has to fall perfectly into place, and I was here for it!

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.

The Martian by Andy Weir

This is an old review, and it will probably show. What I remember about this book is really more of what I remember from the move, tbh. One thing I CAN tell you is that I was turned on to this book by my husband who recently got his Kindle and was only reading free or 99 cent books, 'cause he's cheap. Anyway, The Martian was one of them. That's OG, y'all. 'Cause I can tell you right now this book 'aint free no mo.

That also tells you how overdue this review is.

Basically, if you haven't heard, The Martian is about an astronaut who is stranded on Mars and has to science his own survival. We're talking shelter, food, and water, for over a year. So a single guy on a desolate planet for over a year....seems like a snooze fest, I know. But think about this, Weir's book was initially published a chapter at a time for free on his website, then published for kindle due to popular demand for 99 cents, then things...then a movie starring Matt Damon. As my boss likes to say in otherwise routine emails, boom!

So what's the deal? Weir's writing is witty and humorous. Not to mention meticulously researched. Although there is a lot of science and technology involved in the story, Weir, through his character Mark Whatney, brings it down to human level in a funny and understandable way. It's one of those books with a lot of read-out-loud and quotable lines, none of which I can either read out loud or quote right now. But just another reason why you should read this book (now on Kindle for $8.99, suckers).