Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
We had a pretty good turnout for our first book of the month vote. To be honest I did not anticipate the problem of there being a tie. I took the liberty of flipping a coin which came out heads for Project Hail Mary. In the future I might have to come up with a better method of tie breaking. I’m figuring this out as I go and it is all just for the fun of it anyway so please don’t take this too seriously.
I intend to read this book over the month of September and then near the end of the month I will create a discussion thread for it where people can discuss it without worrying about spoilers. Follow along if you want to.
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- Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir - 20 votes
- Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky - 20 votes
- Neuromancer - William Gibson - 17 votes
- Hyperion - Dan Simmons - 13 votes
- Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey - 13 votes
- A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine - 11 votes
- Wool (Silo Series Book 1) - Hugh Howey - 10 votes
- Red Rising - Pierce Brown - 4 votes
- 22/11/63 - Stephen King - 1 vote
It’s a decent book, but there were some things which bothered me.
The hero is similar to the Martian, all-knowing MacGyver type, always optimistic, likely author’s alter ego. The character seems hollow. This unending optimism and humour spoils the atmosphere for me. Universe is a dark, dangerous place, I want some of that in sci-fi books …
I also disliked the easiness with which the hero was able to learn to communicate with Rocky. I guess it was necessary to progress with the story, but figuring out a communication with aliens might be way more challenging because their whole way of thinking would be likely different (e.g. Arrival).
Out of the rest of the books, my favorites (roughly in this order) are Hyperion, Wool, Neuromancer, Children of Time.
Red Rising is IMHO rather a YA fantasy than sci-fi.
The hero is similar to the Martian, all-knowing MacGyver type, always optimistic, likely author’s alter ego. The character seems hollow
I haven’t read this one yet, but I read another one by Andy Weir (Artemis) and I thought the exact same thing despite the character being female. At this point, I think Weir only writes one type of protagonist, which is disappointing because I loved The Martian.
Edit: also, you didn’t mention Leviathan Wakes in your rundown of the other books. If you haven’t read it yet and you enjoyed the others on your list, I’d highly recommend finding a used copy, because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of The Expanse novels (although I haven’t started the last two yet)
Yeah, I’ve watched The Expanse, and it’s kinda weird for me to read what I’ve already watched. I prefer to read first, watch later, otherwise the TV imagery influences the reading too much and there isn’t so much space for imagination.
I agree completely, and I made the same mistake. However, in this case, I took a chance on a cheap used copy of book 1 from a thrift store and I still enjoyed reading the books. Sure, it’s a bit annoying that the character voices are already occupied in my brain, but the casting and writing for the show was done pretty well, so there’s not too big an issue there.
Reading the books after seeing the show did mean that some parts were a bit of a slog, but there are a few major deviations that make the books worth reading if you liked the show (mostly the show cutting good but unnecessary exposition as well as combining some characters for continuity and messing with the timeline to fit the actors’ ages). Plus, getting chapters written from the different characters’ perspectives is a nice insight into their personalities and it’s done pretty well. I thought the characters were pretty one-dimensional in the show, but IMO they are much more believable and well-rounded in the books.
Also, the show left some significant dangling plot threads, so I’m looking forward to reading the conclusion of the book series. I just finished book 7 (which is the first one where the premise was only hinted at in the show) and I’m glad I took the time.
If you wanted to jump straight into book 7 from the show, there’s probably a recap or something out there to cover the gaps in what you missed (or DM me, I guess, and I can give you a few paragraphs to get you started)
While this wouldn’t be as bad for the Expanse than some other series, skipping would miss out on a lot of little things and characters that either didn’t exist or were combined with others for the TV show. Either way it is still worth reading, but reading them all is superior.
The books are FAR FAR better than the TV show (which was better than most adaptations). It is WELL worth reading in my opinion. Edit: Forgot to mention that there is a lot more story in the books as well. The closest point where the show ends, there are one or two more books and they are bangers.
Waiting on the library copy of phm. I’m something like 32 in line
Project Hail Mary was fucking excellent!
I’m listening to the Audiobook of Project Hail Mary. Great listen.
All of these books have a 3 month wait on my Libby. Oh well thanks for the list!
Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite reads this year and I recommend it to anyone that’s even a little sciencey.
Since the list is generated from the monthly reading post it isn’t surprisingly to me that it ended up being some of the most popular mainstream books. As time goes on and these books get picked over the months I believe the list will become more niche as I won’t allow a winner to make it back on the list.
Love the outcome of the poll. Project Hail Mary is simply my favorite book
[off topic?]
I’d like to mention two books worth reading.
Author Daniel Suarez is hit and miss for me. Two great ones are ‘Daemon’ and ‘Delta-V.’
Daemon posits a dying billionaire who comes up with a way top rebuild society from beyond the grave.
Delta-V is old school ‘hey, kids, let’s start ming the asteroids!’
Thank you.
Also, I think #6 is the best on the list, but ‘Project Hail Mary’ was very good, too.
Im listening to the audio version of Project Hail Mary right now and am about half way through and Im not seeing the huge draw that it has on so many people. Im hoping it gets better
I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t great. It’s the only Wier book I’ve read so I can’t comment if it’s that book in particular or the author’s style.
Would I bother to read it again? No.
jazz hands
AMAZE!
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Great book, I’m looking forward to the movie adaptation as well
Just to echo what others have said, the audiobook version is amazing. It adds a ton of depth to the book that you can’t get without reading alone.
Some humble proposals for a few other sci-fi options for the next round that are a bit fresher than Gibson and Asimov (not that I don’t love the old guard!):
- Venomous Lumpsuckers by Ned Beuman - winner of this years Arthur C Clark award for science fiction, a dark satire environmental disaster page turner touching on cryptobros, greenwashing, carbon credits and short selling late stage capitalism. Hilarious, but be warned: optimistic, it ain’t.
- Terraformers by Analee Newitz - another extremely welcome breath of fresh air by Newitz, a sci fi epic spanning millenia also focused on environmentalism and capitalism with her refreshing approach to non-human sentience and fluid sexuality (Check out her “Autonomous” too if you haven’t already!)
- A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - beautiful prose and descriptions of a colorful and diverse cast of misfits on a worker class intergalactic highway construction ship. Some of the best descriptions of characters I’ve seen lately and some really interesting aliens.
- Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi - imo MUCH improved offering from Scalzi over Red Shirts but still his characteristic pop-culture drenched page turner. One of the most face-punchingly terrible antagonists in recent memory.
- Exhalation by Ted Chiang - incredibly evocative and thoughtful collection of short stories
I don’t know. Am i crazy for feeling like Weir is just rewriting The Martian (again)? Another engineer survivor porn story where the very smart man needs to very smart man way out of the escape room.
It didn’t feel like a rewrite, it felt like just a story set in that writing style. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the dialogue and attention to detail is great.
Mhm. He very obviously has a style and voice that he enjoys and works well for him. At this point if I’m reading a Weir book it’s because that’s the vibe I want
Haven’t heard of Project Hail Mary or A Memory Called Empire, I guess I’ll have a look :)
If you read/heard The Martian, it’s similarly themed and detailed. If you haven’t, then what are you doing! You need to go read the martian.
Know of it, but the description does not speak to me.
Honestly I tried both these books, the writing style is unbelievably irritating.
It reads like “Woo science is cool isn’t science cool?!?” Constantly. Yes we get it, you’re from a deeply religious country and you’re now entering the 20th century ffs
You won’t regret Project Hail Mary. One of the most fun books I’ve ever read.
Memory Called Empire is a new favorite of mine. The sequel, A Desolation Called Peace, is also incredible.
The sequel even won the Hugo, so yea, I can’t wait to read it.
I felt the sequel was good but not on par with the first one. A Memory Called Empire just weaves the story using so many colors!
That’s probably fair, I read them back to back so they kind of blur together for me haha.
This book was my favorite read from last year. I love Weir’s mixture of researched scientific detail and irreverent humor, which he also exhibited in my other favorite novel of his, The Martian. His protagonists are down to earth even while being literally anywhere else, problem solve while facing extreme and dire straights, and use humor as a defense mechanism in very non-humorous situations.
Though he writes in a similar style to The Martian in Project Hail Mary, the feel is very different. Without spoiling any details, unlike The Martian’s straight forward survival story, PHM has a non-linear narrative, a slowly revealing mystery, epic stakes, and more classic pop sci-fi elements. My wife and I listened to this as an audiobook in the car together, enjoying the tension, the creative problem solving, and the witticisms throughout. If that sounds like something you’re into or if you enjoyed The Martian, you should pick this one up.
I felt that the protagonist in The Martian and Project Hail Mary were way too similar - both loveable science goofs making jokes while doing unreasonable math on napkins. But maybe that’s the right formula to keep the science interesting for the reader.
The stories were different enough, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Mark Watney was on this new mission.
Thank you for this comment. I read both The Martian and Artemis (both by Weir). I loved The Martian. My enjoyment of The Martian was equal to my disappointment in Artemis. I was guarded about giving another Weir book a chance.
Yeah, I attempted Artemis. I couldn’t get into it. I was disappointed as well. Project Hail Mary is far better, in my opinion.
You’re not wrong that Ryland and Mark feel very similar. But I can’t blame the Weir for wanting to put a character with a similar archetype in a more epic story with a new format.
He could obviously have made it a sequel and just had the character be Mark. And, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that that was the case in an early draft/outline. But doing so would have some unique consequences on the story and challenges to writing the story he wanted to. He would have to worry about precedent and character development from The Martian carrying forward into PHM, but making it accessible to those who didn’t read The Martian. He’d have to justify why Mark has gotten himself in this new situation after barely surviving the last. Having a character we already know would fundamentally change the nature of Ryland’s backstory reveals and the character flaws we learn about in this story (I don’t know how those elements would work with the Mark we know). And making Mark into franchise character would be an odd choice in a story with such a different flavor of worldbuilding and with the consequences of events in this story.
Using a character that is similar to one people loved from your other work may seem like a creative cop out, but I see it more as an iterative development on the archetype he is interested in. And I like the archetype. People write anthology-esque stories with similar themes, settings, subjects all the time. I have no qualms with a writer having a recurring character archetype that they tweak between entirely different stories, especially when they are written to be clever and endearing, but still flawed people. It’s a matter of personal taste, but I resonate with that character type and find them compelling and fun to read. I don’t mind that it’s not a serialized story/character when the stories being told are each self-contained.
