Review: Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

“Project Hail Mary” is another harrowing and funny outer space adventure by Andy Weir, who also wrote “The Martian.” Like The Martian, Project Hail Mary will end up on the big screen, with Ryan Gosling rumored to play the lead. 

Fair warning: there are a couple of small spoilers in this review. 

The book opens as Dr. Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher, wakes from a coma. He has no idea where he is. He has no idea who he is. 

Person and place are just the first of many mysteries Grace must solve. 

Weir advances the narrative by having Dr. Grace work through mystery after mystery. Weir also works backwards, using flashbacks to fill in the backstory. Eventually, we come to understand the weight and urgency of Grace’s situation. 

It’s a great story. And here’s something I really loved about the book: Weir doesn’t use it to trash humanity.Contemporary literature and pop culture often reduce us to negative common denominators: we’re all racist, eco-destroying creatures.

It’s self-flagellation as art. But not this book.  

And while Weir doesn’t shy away from our shortcomings, he restores a sense of wonder to our accomplishments, and to the miracle of simply being human. Through the commentary of Rocky, an alien creature, Weir helps us rediscover the miraculous in the both the common (eyeballs are incredible!) and the complex (man’s technology and scientific knowledge is more advanced than the alien species.)

That’s unusual.

Dr. Grace’s character arc also illustrates our potential for growth and achievement. 

Grace grows from a man who always shrunk from life’s challenges to one who must selflessly, and singularly, address the greatest challenge in human history. 

In addition to telling a great story with humor, Weir reminds us to express gratitude for all humanity has accomplished, and to look, with some reverence and awe, at what we are.