ANDY WEIR
Del Rey Books
$14.99 ebook editions, available now
Rating: 4.5* of five
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 2021 BEST BOOK FOR ADULTS RECOMMENDATION!
WINNER OF THE SCIENCE-FICTION NOVEL 2021 DRAGON AWARD!
The Publisher Says: Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.
Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: There is absolutely no chance that I will not write something, I can't be sure what, that will piss off some delicate fleur of a spoilerphobe. This entire review is herewith declared to be a SPOILER ZONE
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SERIOUSLY
SPOILERS AHEAD
SERIOUSLY
SPOILERS AHEAD
On your own head be it from here on. You've been warned and I do not want to hear a peep from you.
Okay. We're in media res with a man who has amnesia and, blessedly, is a scientist capable of working out that he's on a space ship. He isn't at all sure why he is where he is, has no idea who he is, and is in wherever this spaceship is with two dead people. That, my olds, is a fine, fine way to start a book.
The man is being tended by machinery. The machinery is hooked to a computer that wants to know his name, and asks him things like "What is two plus two," and won't *tell* him anything! He needs to remember stuff, to work on what the problem of his self-ness presents in the space he find that self-ness. As he moves through his space, as he eats and drinks and eliminates, he recovers himself bit by bit.
The Earth is dying. Like, overnight the Earth is dying...and it isn't humanity's doing. The Sun is dimming. A lot. And really, really, really fast...in less time than it takes to raise a kid, the Sun will fall below the energy output needed to sustain the ecosystems we need to eat and breathe properly.
Quite the conundrum, no? And this is no way resembles the present climate-change crisis! Nay nay nay! This is science FICTION, y'all.
So, as those who read The Martian will recall, there is hope for a good outcome until the very very last second...and even then there's always someone who can MacGyver up some-damn-thing that ain't elegant but it'll work. In this case, it's a woman named Stratt (she has a first name, and she's a doctor, but call her Stratt from the beginning because believe me it fits) who is given the powers of what the Roman Republic called a Dictator and the Greeks called a Tyrant to extra-politically cope with solving this unprecedented and way-beyond-urgent crisis. That's the simple truth: Working inside a political system would doom us to extinction. So Stratt sets about finding the people who can do the job of solving the Earth's terminal diagnosis.
Enter Ryland Grace—a name! he's remembered his name! He's a former rising star turned enfant terrible of evolution science...his "kiss-my-ass" paper about how "The Goldilocks Zone is for Idiots" ensured no August Academic Institution ever hired him...and now Stratt wants him to work on the subject of the apparently living thing that is somehow or another ?eating? the Sun.
Him. Dr. Failed Grace, the unemployable bad, bad boy, is the one and only person Stratt wants to figure out the life cycle of what we're now calling "astrophage." And what the hey, it's an Andy Weir book, let's make sure he knows the entire future of the planet relies on his success. So, no pressure, you know?
There's a sweet spot in science fiction, really we need to stop calling it that, where its fantasy roots (there is no FTL and there can never be; also, "gravity" ain't happenin' on space stations and the like) drop so far behind it just doesn't matter any more. Disbelief is suspended like a sacrificial god on a tree (real or artificial). Slightly more fun than that is a book that accepts science, does only a little violence to it (more about this anon) and makes the reader accept the author's expertise by simply overwhelming us with checkable details. (Have Google open, boomers and Xers; tap frequently, young'uns.) This is, like the aforementioned Martian, one of those cases.
Much hard work for Grace results in his cracking the problem of what the hell is eating the Sun, figuring out what it can do and how to make that part of the solution to the problem of what it's doing, and then teaching some astronauts with a rare genetic marker (that Grace also remembers he was tested for...does he have it?) how to use the information he's so incredibly lucky as to be able to learn so they can go to the closest star Earthlings can see where this stunningly awful thing is NOT happening to the star.
Again...Andy Weir book...the monkey wrenches arrive clutching monkey wrenches. A Truly Horrible Thing happens and there needs to be a truly terrible solution enacted, which Stratt does. This does not get told until almost the end of the book. I won't spoiler it. But it is a TRULY TERRIBLE SOLUTION and you will be rocked to your foundations.
Back to Dr. Grace. He's awake, bits of himself are floating back into his head, and while I'm usually against heavy use of flashbacks because if they were that important why the hell didn't you start the book there to begin with? I was a little hmmf-y about the structural choice for a while. I realized, though, as we were moving forward in the story as it is, that these moments did not *just* slow the narrative momentum (though they did do that), they also gave me insight into Ryland Grace that wouldn't have been as clear in any other structure.
But now it is anon. The scientific violence begins when Grace detects another ship around his target. It isn't a backup Earth ship. It is an ALIEN ship.
I was willing to skip gaily past astrophage...every story needs an antagonist. The way Grace came to be a failed academic was by positing that Life does not need liquid water, so SOMEthing was going to arise that made this relevant. Fine fine fine, I got it, this is a *really* cool speculation and the waterless life hypothesis makes at least some sense given the extremeophiles we already know exist on Earth now. Plus it meant there was a reason to have this funny exchange between Grace and Stratt:
"How did you do it? What killed {the astrophage}?" {Stratt asked}
"I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe." {Grace replied}
"You poked it with a stick?"
"No!" I said. "Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick."
This is why I enjoy Andy Weir's books. Say what you like about the science, say what you will about the plots and characters and mechanics...this is a writer with full command of the Absurd and the resulting perspective in how to deploy it to best advantage.
But aliens. Sentient aliens. Alive right now in our galactic neighborhood. Like us; so like us that we can, with some work communicate and understand what is being communicated. And yet enough UNlike us that we haven't had so much as a whisper of a hint as to their presence, nor they of ours.
Yeah...no.
But then! Then!! There comes the "are-you-effin-kidding-me-with-this" moment: The alien he meets is a brilliant engineer (which Grace is not) and possesses some miracle material that withstands stunning pressures, heats, etc etc and doesn't ever fail! Or, as I've always called it, "handwavium"—"no no, Bob, as you know your puny titanium is no match for my indestructible handwavium, so we will use its enormous superiority to do the thing."
Ugh.
Well, okay, it's not my favorite item on the menu...but I shall go with it and trust that the story Author Weir is telling me will make my occasional headache worth it. (Unlike what happened in Artemis of which least said, soonest mended.) And you know what? It was worth it. I invested in the character of Rocky the Eridian (from an exoplanet super-Earth close to 40 Eridani, hence the demonym...toponym?) from the get-go. Yes yes yes, aliens aren't real, at least not ones near us in time and/or space or the Fermi Paradox would already be answered, roll with it! Rocky is, without exaggeration, the coolest guy in Known Space, and if all the other Eridians are anything like him, I hope their Party Bus is on the way already. Their handwavium is awesome!
These two Boy Scouts get on the job of figuring out why the star they're at isn't being eaten, unlike Sol and 40 Eridani; they do the job; they make a breakthrough that, let me tell you, had me on the edge of my seat. Cool science stuff bursts from the pages...Grace does a lot of biological fun stuff (though I confess that parts of me clenched at the words Krebs cycle) and even does my blood pressure the favor of eliding the serious math bits. There is enough of the good ol' info-dumping about it to keep me happy, but nowhere near enough to cause eyegraines.
We're treated to several pulse-pounding disasters that Rocky and Grace fix together, and the boys...we have no Earthly analogue for how Eridians reproduce, the subject of Rocky's gender gets solved by Grace calling him male and (in an appropriate moment) his mate back on Erid (Grace's name for Rocky's homeworld; a great deal more euphonious than "40 Eridani b" innit?) the human genderfluid name "Adrian," and merrily we roll along...seem to have the salvation of Earth and Erid solved. Parting is now the hard thing they will need to do. You don't work closely with someone who has saved your life and your species without feelings of strong friendship developing!
Andy Weir book, remember?
I won't go into the ending. I will say that I was absolutely riveted and deeply invested in the solution, because there was a deeply, deeply revealing character flaw foregrounded within Grace that made his actions in this new and unpredictable situation uncertain...and while I was certain they would turn out more or less as they did, I was also unsure if it would be a bitter, bittersweet, or simply too sweet ending.
I really strongly encourage you to go and get this book even if you don't like science fiction or even science. If I can get past my allergy to handwavium applied by sentient aliens, you can set aside a little genre prejudice.
Whether at a bookery of your choosing or a library near you, get yourself this tale into your mind and let it make its story-pearls for your pleasure.
