By Terra Luft
Project Hail Mary is the latest science fiction novel from author Andy Weir. If you loved Weir’s first book, The Martian, I think this latest novel is even better. It has the perfect balance of exciting plot, interesting characters, and fascinating science set in space.
Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spacecraft, his crew mates dead, millions of miles from home with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. As his memory slowly returns, he must puzzle out a scientific mystery and save mankind from extinction.
What makes this book different? It’s all about how the story unfolds. Immediately thrust into literally the middle of the story, the book is told in first-person as the character uses math and science problem-solving and slowly gets his memories back. The whole book feels like going on an adventure of scientific discovery, led by your favorite quirky high school science teacher who explains everything along the way. Plus, it has just enough realistic space aspects and accessible and easy-to-understand science concepts that readers can follow along without having a science degree. This is a book I believe any reader would enjoy.
As a writer, I found this book a fantastic example of effective tension on every page. Weir gives the reader just enough information to raise questions that keep the pages turning. So many writers struggle with this concept and end up with information dumps that result in a lack of tension. The way Weir does it is like exploring a vast room with a flashlight instead of turning on all the overhead lights.
As the reader, you can’t see into every corner, and you may not even know how big the room is, but you are also less likely to be overwhelmed with everything thrown at you at once. A story built this way is like only being able to see what’s in the immediate vicinity with the perfect just-in-time information being shared in the scene as it is being developed and at exactly the time you need to know it.
The current action is unfolding in the present time, but sporadically Rylan will have flashes of memory that give context to what happened at the beginning of the story and fill in information that is relevant. This feels like exploring deeper in that dark room with your flashlight, stumbling into a giant object that you didn’t know was there until you got to it, and realizing the space you’re exploring is also much bigger than you knew. The buildup of tension this way, where developments are discovered through the plot unfolding, is the key to keeping the reader invested in the story. It is the difference between books you can easily put down and the ones you can’t stop reading until you look up and realize it’s 3:00 a.m. and you have serious regrets about your choices.
For main character, Rylen Grace, it happens for the reader as it happens for him and is told through a fantastic character voice:
This is real. The sun is dying. And I’m tangled up in it. Not just as a fellow citizen of Earth who will die with everyone else—I’m actively involved. There’s a sense of responsibility there.
I still don’t remember my own name, but I remember random bits of information about the Petrova problem. They call it the Petrova problem. I just remembered that.
Chapter 2, pg 26
I stand to get a better look at things.
The lab has smaller equipment bolted to the table. I see an 8000x microscope, an autoclave, a bank of test tubes, sets of supply drawers, a sample fridge, a furnace, pipettes—wait a minute. Why do I now all those terms?
I look at the larger equipment along the walls. Scanning electron microscope, sub-millimeter 3-D printer. 11-axis milling machine, laser interferometer, 1-cubic-meter vacuum chamber—I know what everything is. And I know how to use it.
I’m a scientist! Now we’re getting somewhere! Time for me to use science. All right, genius brain: come up with something!
Chapter 1, page 16
By giving the reader an ever-expanding field of vision instead of the giant picture of what is at stake for the overall plot, the tension is always tight. By the end of the book, the complexity of the plot and all the problems the character has had to overcome are bigger than anyone could have imagined at the onset. More importantly, if Weir had tried to give all that background and information from the beginning in a linear fashion, it would not have achieved the must-turn-the-page tension. Instead, Weir wove a complex plot slowly, in a compelling way that anyone could follow, and had me turning page after page long into the night. The tension holds strong all the way to the end with a surprising twist, just when you think Rylan has gotten all his memories back.
Add Project Hail Mary to your reading list on GoodReads and purchase a copy (or pick up the Audiobook) on Amazon.