Project Hail Mary (2021)
Andy Weir (1972)
478 pages
Former software engineer turned author Andy Weir caught lightening in a bottle in his debut novel The Martian, creating a character whose resourcefulness captures readers’ imaginations, as he overcomes a series of problems in order to survive after being left behind on Mars. Like children’s movies that have a rich subtext for adults, Weir’s story provides plenty of exciting action and suspense to attract a general audience, while also allowing engineers and scientists geek out as one of their own becomes a hero by doing engineering and science galore. And, with the main character played in the movie version by Matt Damon, so much the better!
Weir has built his new novel, Project Hail Mary, around another highly resourceful main character, scientist Ryland Grace. Grace, however, finds himself on his own much farther from home than Mars, and comes to discover that he faces much greater stakes than his own survival.
Awakening on a spaceship, he finds he has amnesia, and so no idea who or where he is, or why. As his memories begin to return, however, he comes to realize that he is the sole survivor on a last-ditch effort to find a way to save Earth. Though help arrives for him from a most unexpected quarter, will his memories return soon enough to give him a chance to complete his work?
Grace’s amnesia plays a key role in the story, as Weir has him experience sudden flashbacks that reveal, bit by bit, his own background, and the origins and goals of his mission. The technique can feel a bit artificial, as Grace’s flashback are rather surprisingly opportune and detailed, but it has the advantage of leaving readers feeling the same uncertainties and mysteries Grace himself faces; we only learn the details of the situation as Grace himself does.
Perhaps cynically, one could argue that this approach of repeated flashbacks – through to the end of the story – also brings in a whole set of characters that will make for a more interesting film adaptation of the book. Such a conclusion is reinforced by the extent to which the story’s dialogue has the feel of being written with an eventual screenplay in mind; the one-liners and repartee often seem targeted at a theater audience. It’s not a bad thing, per se, but it does have a tendency to distract from the flow of the story, a bit like the breaks for the laugh-track during exchanges in a sit-com.
More critically, Weir’s novel strikes one significant discordant note when, late in the story, the origins of Grace’s amnesia are finally revealed. The explanation seems so out of character for the Grace we’ve come to know that it feels like a purely manufactured plot device, written in to justify constructing the story around the flashbacks that reveal to Grace his mission and its history.
But, such minor quibbles aside, Weir has again created a rip-roaring tale that is hard to put down once you start – I found myself so eager to find out what would happen next that I had to constantly force myself to slow down as I read it. And the discoveries Grace makes in his desperate mission to save Earth will surely fire the imagination of any reader remotely intrigued by what may be out there among the stars.
Bits and pieces:
My review of The Martian linked to at right.
Have you read this book, others by this author, or even similar ones by other authors? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Other of my book reviews: FICTION Bookshelf and NON-FICTION Bookshelf
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