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
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.
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.
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 took the right path. I read it to the end hoping it would get better. It didn’t. Nearly all of the characters were kinda horrible people. There was none of the main characters I cared about at the end. There’s no enjoyment or tension when any of the main characters “winning” is still a loss for the reader.