Project Hail Mary Was An Implausible But Engrossing Read

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On one hand I know that so much of this book is completely implausible. Not just the parts about making contact with alien life (first non-sentient and then sentient) so much as the idea that the world could band together to do this project. Given the world's increasing descent into fascism and tribalism, it's very unlikely in real life we could do this even if it were our only hope for survival.

That being said, my emotional reaction to the book was far better. I loved the interactions of Grace and "Rocky" and didn't really want anything bad to happen to them--plausibility be darned. I made time while on my exercise bike to listen to the last 3% just because I really wanted to know what would happen. That's the mark of a good book, despite implausibility, despite a lot of science that goes over my head, and despite a character who talks like Ned Flanders for...reasons.

A special criticism is one that has been leveled at some of my books: Grace cries way too much. In my books it's usually a man who's turned into a woman or something like that causing a lot of emotional reactions. I don't know what Grace's deal is that he's always crying. And other than his academic background, we really don't know that much about him at all.

Anyway, if you want a description of the plot, think if you mixed Interstellar, Arrival, and Danny Boyle's Sunshine and wrote it in the style of The Martian. What resulted was better than it really should have been.

But you have to wonder if Weir is typecasting himself by doing another heroic, lovable lone survivor in space book. Time will tell, I suppose.

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