After Ryland Grace wakes from a coma, he slowly starts to remember that he is millions of lightyears away from home on a suicide mission to save the human race. To make matters worse, he is completely alone in a spaceship that he does not recall how to command. Annnnd, that is about as much information as I can give you about the plot without ruining most of the book.
However, I will say one thing about the writing style before getting into some spoilers below. Since I’ve read the Martian, I knew that there would be a lot of science explanation in Project Hail Mary. I loved those parts in the Martian. My undergrad degree is in Neuroscience, so I relished the minor detours into science explanation. In that book, they were short, to the point, and definitely drove the plot forward. However, I felt that PHM used scientific jargon exponentially more than was necessary. It feels like every ten pages or so there’s a two page monologue about one of Ryland’s brain blasts. Most of these really don’t feel like they move the plot along at all and were confusing to me even though I have a background in science. By the end of the book, I wanted to scream “GET ON WITH IT.” I just didn’t care about the science of what was happening any more. It left me exhausted by the end, which is unfortunately when the scientific explanations are actually integral to the plot.
**SPOILERS BELOW**
However, I did enjoy the plot of the book in between the physics lectures. I always find the books that discuss first contact with alien lifeforms so interesting. I liked the way that Rocky and Ryland slowly started to communicate. I felt that part was great from a plot standpoint but it also gave me a lot to think about in terms of the universality of language. I fell in love with the character with Rocky and really liked the relationship between him and Ryland. The ending was a tad cheesy but I really cannot think of a way that I would rather the story had ended. We all need some cheese every once in a while.
TL;DR: In my opinion, this book is worth the read. However, if you haven’t read the Martian, I would read that first to get used to Weir’s writing style.
Dinosaurs and Blueberries 