Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir, 2021
★ 4.51 from 1.9m ratings on Goodreads
A science teacher wakes on a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there and a solar system to save. A brisk, funny problem-solving ride with a lonely, wondering edge, told in a wry first-person voice that keeps the science playful.
Feels like wonder, unease and joy. About ambition, society and solitude.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy puzzle-box science fiction, jokes under pressure, and stories about unlikely friendship. Some readers find the humor juvenile and the side characters thin or stereotyped, so the warmth may not land for everyone.
Why read it
It offers a tense, inventive survival puzzle and a friendship that gives the cold math a human center.
A page from the book
A knock at the door, twelve light-years from home.
Knock-knock-knockNo, that’s not creepy at all. Being in a spaceship twelve light-years from home and having someone knock on the door is totally normal. What readers say
Many readers found it fun, funny, and emotionally moving, especially the central friendship and ending; others found the humor juvenile and the characters thin or stereotyped.
Andy Weir.Andy Weir serialised The Martian free on his website, where readers caught math errors, before it became a bestseller; he was a software engineer.
Books that feel like this
More by Andy Weir
The Martian
Andy Weir, 2011
An astronaut stranded on Mars must science his way out, one log entry and improvised fix at a time; a survival thriller with gallows humor.
Artemis
Andy Weir, 2017
A broke porter in the moon’s only city takes a criminal job that might buy her a future—if the vacuum doesn’t collect first.
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is Project Hail Mary for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy puzzle-box science fiction, jokes under pressure, and stories about unlikely friendship. Some readers find the humor juvenile and the side characters thin or stereotyped, so the warmth may not land for everyone.
- What is Project Hail Mary like?
- A brisk, funny problem-solving ride with a lonely, wondering edge, told in a wry first-person voice that keeps the science playful. Feels like wonder, unease and joy. About ambition, society and solitude.
- What should I read after Project Hail Mary?
- If you liked Project Hail Mary, try Yesteryear (Caro Claire Burke), The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) and A Man in Full (Tom Wolfe).
A taste of the feed
The voice policing a woman's anger often wears her own face.
A voice in my head, echoing softly: America hates angry women. The Lord hates angry women. You hate angry women. Do not be an angry woman.
Yesteryear · Caro Claire Burke
The mirror is honest even when your colleagues are kind.
Langdon had little doubt. His books on religious paintings and cult symbology had made him a reluctant celebrity in the art world, and last year Langdon’s visibility had increased a hundred-fold after his involvement in a widely publicized incident at the Vatican. Since then, the stream of self-important historians and art buffs arriving at his door had seemed never-ending.
The Da Vinci Code · Dan Brown
A weapon so fast that hearing it means you survived.
Even on the radar it displayed its silent speed, more than two thousand miles an hour. It would not be heard at this station until some moments after it had passed. Then sonic booms would thunder through the air, reassuring the listeners that this bomb at least had passed them by. “If you hear it,” the sergeant explained to Mott, “it’s already gone.”
Space · James Michener
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed