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MY ⭐️ RATING: 5/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
MY REVIEW
With the movie releasing in a week, I had to make sure I read this before I went to go see it, since I didn’t do it with Weir’s last adaptation, The Martian. Project Hail Mary is a phenomenal end of the world, first contact, sci-fi thriller from a first-person pov, that had me from the moment I started it to the final page. Ryland is easily my favorite character so far this year and Rocky comes in at a close second.
To be honest, I’m not sure I have a single critique about this book, everything worked perfectly. From the well researched science per the acknowledgements to how it felt very cinematic, as if Weir had written this for the very purpose of an adaptation. I’m not sure where he drew from, but I could see many likely inspirations like Interstellar, Passengers and Ad Astra, where it’s an epic journey into the unknown, racing against time to save the world, and self-discovery with a little bit of humor thrown in.
Where this differs from those is the back and forth story-telling of present tense in space and the past filling in gaps of who he is, how he got there and what he did along the way. Doing this opens up the story by adding more characters so it’s not just a quiet, introspective voyage through the solar system to save the world. I love Ryland and Rocky, their chemistry worked so well together, making the space scenes fun and emotional. While on earth, Weir does this same sort of thing with Stratt and a few other characters that help add more humor and realism to the world.
With an easy to read prose, and some musical note language Weir definitely made this accessible to all, even making sure the science was easy to understand. But Ray Porter’s narration is probably what makes this book 10 times better. My favorite thing about a narrator, is one who gets into their performance. It’s not just an intellectual reading of words, but a true performance that helps you feel the personality of the character but also the highs and lows of the situation. When Ryland was angry, sad, frustrated, happy or excited, Porter took you on that journey too.
It’s only mid-March but this is easily y favorite read of 2026 so far. I highly, highly, highly, recommend reading or listening to this whether you see this review before or after the movie has come out. Project Hail Mary is going to take you on a journey with characters that you won’t soon forget.
Wolfmantula.com 