This is a brilliant book. It’s so good that I can’t help but gush about it to everyone I know and tell them to do themselves a favour and read it. Of course, not everyone is interested in science-fiction, but if you are, this is a must read. Project Hail Mary is based on a couple of classic science fiction tropes, a threat to humanity, and first contact with an alien species. This is in no way a criticism. I love tropes, particularly huge, overarching themes like this.
First contact is a theme that has been explored over and over, but it doesn’t get boring because there is so much scope for imagination here. And Andy Weir delivers a unique and thoroughly refreshing take on it. He’s done a delightful job of exploring what an alien species might be like and how a human and an alien might interact.
Project Hail Mary is written in the first person, in the voice of Dr Ryland Grace, who in the beginning of the book, wakes up from a coma and has no idea who he is or where he is or what’s happening, really. He remembers things slowly; he explores his surroundings and begins to make sense of them and understand where he is and what he’s supposed to do. So, we learn things as he does, a bit at a time.
This is an excellent narrative device because we’re right there with him, feeling the shock and the surprise, the fear and the wonder as each new detail is revealed to him and to us. Not everyone can get the first-person narrative voice just right and do it a way that keeps the readers interested and invested in the character, but Weir does a brilliant job here.
Dr Grace is intelligent, ingenious, and funny, so he makes an engaging narrator. The other main character in the book, who I cannot tell you about, because spoilers, is utterly charming and the interactions between the two, human and alien are wonderful.
This book is plotted very well, and the narrative doesn’t flag even for a moment. Once you start reading, all you want to do is keep reading. The minute I finished the book, I wanted to go back to the beginning and start over.The book starts slow and it might take you a while to get into it, but if you stick with it, you will be well rewarded.
Project Hail Mary is destined to be a science fiction classic.