Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
Reading Time: 4 minutes
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My Favourite Quote
“However desperate things were, someone still had to deliver milk. And if Mrs. McCreedy’s house got bombed in the night, well, you crossed it off the delivery list.”
The Book Oversimplified
Project Hail Mary follows the space adventure of Rayland Grace as he tries to save the world from a bacterium able to absorb the sun’s energy at an apocalyptic rate. Most of all, though, it is a novel about friendship.
Full Review
When an alien micro-organism later called “astrophage” appears in the solar system dimming the sunlight enough to trigger human extinction, every country in the world joins forces to create a spaceship for interstellar travel. Their mission, Project Hail Mary, is to get to Tau Ceti, the closest star infested by astrophage whose light is still healthy, to understand how to stop their uncontrollable reproduction.
Ryland Grace, renewed biologist turned high-school teacher, doesn’t remember any of this when he wakes up after 4 years of chemically induced coma on board of the Hail Mary.
The narrative structure is split in 2; the bulk of the action happens in the present, with Grace trying to remember what he’s supposed to do in his new role as astronaut—and, indeed, humanity’s saviour—while the reader discovers with him the events that led him to be there in the first place as his memory strengthens.
If you’ve read the Martian, and you’ve liked the intricacies of technological survival on another planet, but you also like aliens, you will love this book—and should stop reading this review now.
BEWARE! SPOILERS AHEAD
In fact, especially at the beginning, the discovery of the astrophage and the quick development of a new space technology based on the very threat humanity is trying to defeat is quite entertaining. Life on the spaceship, on the other hand, not so much, until the real twist of the story is revealed.
Seriously, if you want to read the book, stop here. Last chance.
Ryland encounters an intelligent alien in the proximity of Tau Ceti trying to solve Earth’s same problem with astrophages.
From this point onward, I wasn’t really interested in the flashbacks. I knew humanity would build the ship, I knew Grace would end up on it—whatever—but the interaction between the protagonist and the alien, a 5-legged, spider-like rock called “Rocky,” was what kept me reading. Forget about evil green men brandishing laser-guns. Grace and Rocky become friends. Bonded by their common goal of saving their world from astrophages, they overcome anything that the universe throws their way to find the answer they search for.
Only toward the end, when the personal arc of Rayland Grace is coming to completion, his backstory finds its role in the narration again, allowing us to fully appreciate the internal journey of the protagonist, just as monumental as his external one.
My rating: 4/5
Takeaways for Writers
1. How to write a good story about friendship
While reading the book, I cared for the safety of Rocky, the friendly alien with a talent for building and fixing equipment, much more than I cared for the future of humanity.
Andy Weir tells the story of this friendship from the very beginning, and we get to experience every single struggle the two cosmic travellers have to overcome together, from finding a way to communicate to fixing the ship while risking a disastrous crush on an alien planet. A good friendship story needs the two protagonists to be exceptionally incompatible but willing to find their point of contact throughout the narrative.
Well, Grace and Rocky can’t even share the same atmosphere, but have the same exact goal. They both experience grief, they’re both isolated from their species, and the exploration of how they face the same emotions makes the book compelling.
There is no recipe in creative writing, but “Project Hail Mary” teaches us that you only need 3 ingredients to craft a good “bro-mance”
Insurmountable differences
Common goals
Relatable pain
2. Details matter
The premise of Hail Mary is highly entertaining for a reader like myself, an engineer with a keen interest in space, though the story in itself (plot, twists, character development) is not that great. What makes it great are the details.
And I don’t mean the details of how Rocky’s carapace is composed or what type of biology the astrophages use—though it is a plus. I mean the details about how Grace, or Rocky, get to the conclusions/discoveries they need to. Details Grace’s problem-solving process are impressive, so easy to follow, and make perfect sense even if you’re not an astronaut with a PhD in biology. They even make sense when he makes mistakes.
It almost works like an excellent murder mystery novel, in which you’re right into the detective’s head, and you know something is aloof only when things go wrong.
As long as the reader can follow and understand the consequential steps of the plot easily, there’s no jump too high.
Alla prossima.
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