a lonely astraunaut who was a highschool science teacher....

Prefer to listen to the review? Click here. 

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir

 A lone man, set out to save humanity… deep in space… the last hope of humanity… woke up from the medically induced coma….forgot who he was and couldn’t remember why he was in a metal tube heading to some unknown destination… accompanied by two dead bodies and a computer that is programmed to irritate the hell out of him… he’s lost and alone…. But wait… is he? Alone? Truly?

 Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary is a novel of its own calibre. This was my first time reading anything by him. He’s known for his The Martian… which was adapted into a brilliant movie by the same name, starring the talented Matt Damon. I hadn’t seen or read that either. A book group I’m part of on a social media platform was all abuzz with excitement about Project Hail Mary. It was like, no matter where I turned to, either Project Hail Mary or The Martian was there. Funny book recommendation, Geeky book recommendation, strong character, great story, light read, sci-fi, lone struggle, space stuff…. You name it, and these two were suggested by everyone. Now, in my defence, I get super sceptical when some book gets rave reviews. It kind of raises my defences. Coz I’ve been burned by these recommendations in the past. So I was weary to get on the Andy Weir train.

Then one day, Audible said, that Project Hail Mary was available on the Audible Plus catalogue. For those who don’t know what the Audible Plus catalogue is…. Basically, when you buy an audible membership, you get access to a load of books. With your membership, you get one credit every month, which you can redeem against a book…. Like, buy a book with credit. And in addition to that you get access to Plus. Where a boatload of books are available, for free to listen to. Most of these books are old or older or classic one’s. some are new authors. And some are authors who are popular. Then sometimes new or famous books are in plus for a limited time period. Kind of like a trial or taste for the author. So Project Hail Mary was in Plus for a few days. And I said…. Why not? Let’s give it a try.

I don’t usually read Sci-Fi these days. There was a time, when I was younger when sci-fi was my thing. Isaac Asimov, Michael Crichton were particular favourites of mine during that time. The possibilities of human ingenuity and nature’s resilience were my fav struggle. It’s been a long time since I picked up a novel which was listed as Sci-Fi. So, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Project Hail Mary. But 5 mins into listening to the audiobook, and all my apprehensions melted away. The narrator, Ray Porter has a great voice. And Andy Weir has a flair for witty dialogues. Even when in this case, our protagonist, Rayland Grace is all alone and is mostly talking to himself… you can’t miss the satirical and at times sarcastic undertones in his speech.

 Like I said earlier, we wake up with Ryland… who’s just opening his eyes…. We don’t know it yet, but he’s just waking up from a chemically induced coma, designed for a deep space mission. We start learning of the surroundings and situations through Rayland’s eyes. We learn that he’s lost his memories. Whether permanent or not, is yet to be seen. Then soon enough we learn that there’s a computer onboard that is trying to check if he’s truly up n about… and in one piece. We learn that Rayland is in space, on a mission to save the Earth. And we slowly start realising how enormous a mission it is.

We learn of the history and past events in bits and pieces, as and when Ryland is regaining his memories. And we soon enough realise that the mission is a suicide mission. A one way trip to far end of the universe, in a last ditch effort to save our home planet…. A hail mary of a sort…

There’s a lot of science in the book. I mean… it’s a sci-fi book… what else can you expect? And I have a sneaky suspicion that most of the science in the book, is make belief. May be it’s based on some known facts. Still, the entirety of the novel is based on an imaginary threat, that came from the space, and the hero is trying to solve the imaginary issue IN the space… so obviously, the science isn’t all real. But Ray Porter makes it all believable. He’s a believable Ryland. And we soon start taking the science in our own stride without questioning it too much. The out of the world scenarios, are truly that…. Out of this world. And when you meet the “other” character …. The novel just crosses from sci-fi into pure fantasy.

If you are an ardent fan of scientifically correct, sci-fi novels, then I think it’s better that you stay away from Project Hail Mary… it isn’t for the scientifically correct minds. It is however for everyone else, who enjoys a little mystery and a lot more fun make believe. The discovery of “what is a highschool science teacher doing working for Nasa”….. is equally as delightful as realisation “There are aliens out there”…

Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary is a wonderful piece of scientifically embellished fiction and I think every inquiring mind out there, should listen to this beautifully written and performed novel.