{"id":428,"date":"2021-11-05T09:49:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T16:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/?p=428"},"modified":"2025-07-21T21:15:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:15:40","slug":"book-review-project-hail-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/05\/book-review-project-hail-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: “Project Hail Mary”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I read Project Hail Mary faster than anything else I\u2019ve read in quite a while. Weir\u2019s storytelling just drew me in and I could not put it down! I\u2019ve read both of his previous works (The Martian and Artemus) and I would rank this up with the level of The Martian in regard to a fun and engaging read! Artemus was interesting, but I would say this is the better of Weir’s two books after The Martian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The storytelling method Weir uses to revel the current story, and the connected backstory, is very clever. He reveals things \u201cjust in time\u201d by alternating back and forth to the main character\u2019s recall of his forgotten past. This keeps the backstory hints closely connected to current story solutions. The \u201cah-ha\u201d connections this creates for the reader are very satisfying. I found myself constantly assuming things about the character\u2019s past which the character himself was assuming, to only later learn of a twist or new revelation about his assumptions. This made the story a fun walk along side the main character which felt very much like I was living it out with him in real-time. Project Hail Mary has a similar \u201cproblem\/try again\/find a solution\u201d feel to The Martian. I really loved that about his first novel and loved it here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the characters are terrific. I love the humor in some of the two main character\u2019s interactions as they get more established and get to know each other better. The main alien character is wonderful! He\u2019s definitely very non-human in appearance and thought patterns – very strange at first – but I started getting a feel and love for his character as the story progressed. I think readers will easily learn to understand his personality and reactions quickly and even empathize with him in spit of his very in-human appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The action and pacing is great. There are more than a few times when I thought, \u201cgood, they\u2019ve solved that problem\u201d when another seemingly insurmountable problem comes up. In this way it is very much like the beats of The Martian. The fun is in seeing how the problems are resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few minor things here and there that I felt it were a little too TELLING – characters explaining things that maybe they would not really do in real life – but these are minor and few and far between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s one thing (I won’t give any spoilers here) that I did feel were kinda\u2026 unresolved\u2026 or maybe I just missed it, but the tying up of promises\/problems and answers\/solutions is handled very well. The one thing I still wonder about is maybe not really in need of an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, I loved this book and think Andy Weir has hit a home run again. I’m not sure if this would translate as well into a movie like The Martian did, but it made for an excellent novel and a very fun read!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read Project Hail Mary faster than anything else I\u2019ve read in quite a while. Weir\u2019s storytelling just drew me in and I could not put it down! I\u2019ve read both of his previous works (The Martian and Artemus) and I would rank this up with the level of The Martian in regard to a … Continue reading “Book Review: “Project Hail Mary””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennfrank.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}