Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2021 Del Rey softcover 479pp)
Andy Weir found fame, fortune and critical acclaim when a book he initially self-published, “The Martian”, was picked up by a major publisher and became a runaway best-seller. Soon it was made in a movie by no less than Ridley Scott. “The Martian” was something special and I counted myself as a fan. His second novel “Artemis” failed to take off quite the same way and found less favour with the critics. To me it seemed like a good setting (a future moon settlement) in search of a decent plot (he decided on a heist/caper storyline). In recent months Weir has been doing the rounds of podcasts, radio shows and magazines touting his new book “Project Hail Mary”. It has been acclaimed as a return to form for the writer and has had some glowing reviews. It is better than “Artemis” but that’s about it, for me I felt a sense of disappointment when I recently finished the book.
Told entirely in first person, the book starts strongly. The protagonist wakes up with no knowledge of who he is or where he is. With a slow process of deduction and his knowledge of science he determines he’s on a spacecraft approaching another solar system. The reader discovers things along with him and this works well. Less welcome are the exposition-heavy flash-backs which start to flesh out Rylan Grace’s (for that’s who he discovers he is) back story and how he ended up on the mission. We learn all life on earth is under threat due to the arrival of the “Astrophage”, microscopic creatures whose life cycle will dim the sun to dangerously low levels within a few years. Other neighbouring stars are suffering the same fate except for one, Tau Ceti and this is where Rylan has been sent to find answers. The “Astrophage” also very conveniently provides interstellar propulsion and near unlimited power. After arrival in the new system, Grace, makes contact with a member of another alien race and ends up working with them to solve the mystery. Of course, along the way very many things go wrong and need a not insubstantial amount of science and engineering to put right. Weir is at his best doing that stuff and, on the whole, its successful as part of the story.
Unfortunately, I found the writing style to be weirdly flat and middle-of-the-road. Its almost if the editor reined Weir in whenever he tried to really geek out or follow his ideas to their logical conclusions. I was waiting for some really big ideas to take fruit and concepts to be fully explored. But no such luck. It all stays at a fairly mundane and predictable level. It’s written at a level that perhaps a 10-year-old could enjoy without being challenged. Somehow contact with an alien intelligence gets boring and predictable. He did surprise me with where the book ended instead of what I was half expecting so that’s one thing. The flashbacks don’t provide much value after the initial few – they are full of cardboard cut-out cliched characters doing cliched things and basically intrude on the present-day action.
So, in the end I felt a bit let down by the book. It could have been so much more. Its basically entertaining fluff with a few novel ideas that might make you think.
