Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir
Completed 11/23/2025, Reviewed 11/25/2025
5 stars

Like The Martian, this book was an exercise in using science to solve problems in space.  While The Martian was engineering-based solutions, this book was based on pure science.  It’s perhaps the reason that I absolutely loved this book.  It was thrilling and fast-paced.  The characters were multi-dimensional.  And it was a book of hope.  It’s a first contact novel where both the human and the alien person cooperated to solve an apocalyptic problem affecting both their home planets.  It didn’t follow the trope of the alien being superior or inferior.  Instead, the human was better at pure science and the alien was better at engineering the solutions.  I found it an exhilarating experience.  This book was nominated for a 2022 Hugo Award.

Ryland Grace wakes up with almost total amnesia.  He doesn’t know who or where he is.  His two companions are dead, desiccated to mummy-like remains.  In the first 50 or so pages, he wanders around trying to piece together what’s going on.  Through a long series of sudden flashbacks, he finds out his name and that he is on a spaceship to figure out how to stop tiny organisms from feeding off the sun, which is causing quick cooling on Earth.  Once he gets close to the destination star, a star that seems to have those organisms without suffering any loss, he spots an alien craft.  He approaches the craft and sees a creature inside.  Through a series of gestures, he approaches.  The alien builds a tunnel between the crafts.  When they meet, they do so between a wall to separate their atmospheres.  The alien lives in an ammonia heavy atmosphere twenty-nine times that of Earth.  They slowly learn to communicate.  The alien speaks in music and uses touch and perhaps something sonar-like to see.  Grace uses a spreadsheet and music software to create a rudimentary dictionary as they communicate with music and touching through the wall.  Once they’re successful, Grace discovers the alien, whom he names Rocky, is there for the same reason.  Together they try to find the solution, Grace with his superior science background, and Rocky with his excellent engineering skills.  But as Grace’s memory continues to return, he finds out the devastating truth of his involvement in the mission.

The progress of the relationship between Grace and Rocky is amazingly well-crafted.  Weir wrote a near perfect first contact story.  They find a way to communicate despite the vast differences in their makeup and senses.  They are nearly equal in intelligence.  Each knows some things the other doesn’t.  And both are willing to give their all to find the solution that will save their home planets.  It was interesting that both are in similar circumstances.  The other two crew members on Grace’s ship died during the journey while in medically induced comas.  Rocky came with 23 other crew members and all of them died for unknown reasons.  Grace figures out why they died, having more knowledge of the dangers of space travel.  Rocky, on the other hand, is the better engineer, having the knowledge and equipment to create the solutions Grace proposes.  Rocky also is the better linguist, figuring out how to speak in idiomatic American English through his musical language.  It’s all quite remarkable and believable how they come to a partnership with a common goal and eventually become friends.

I also found the use of the amnesia to justify the flashbacks to be masterful.  It spread the info dumps over the course of the plot with Grace and Rocky, eventually revealing an amazing twist that could completely derail Grace’s motivation to succeed.   Flashbacks can be clunky.  Here, they were perfect.  They also introduce other characters from Earth, from the early days of the discovery of the organisms to the launching of the Project Hail Mary spacecraft.  The major character handling the crisis was named Stratt.  She was basically made a god-like program manager by the UN, forcing the project to move forward regardless of the cost in money, resources, and lives.  She has a great statement later in the book that when this is over, she’s probably going to jail for her iron fist approach and reckless spending.  However, it’s all justified in that she has to make this happen to save the Earth.  

I give this book five out of five stars.  I was completely sucked into Grace and Rocky’s psyches.  Though the book is narrated in first person by Grace, Rocky was just as loveable.  And the ending is incredibly uplifting.  I won’t give it away, but it’s awesome.  This book is very readable, with easy prose and science told in layman’s terms.  I CLEP’ed out of college biology 45 years ago but still understood everything that was going on.  I read this for online book club and it had 100% agreement on liking the book, which is very unusual.  Some people pointed out some flaws, but I thought they were far overshadowed by the spirit and execution. 2022 was a year with some excellent nominees for the Hugo Award.  I wouldn’t have minded at all if this book had taken the award.