‘Project Hail Mary’ is science fiction novel with emphasis on SCIENCE 

By Sophia Monastra

“Project Hail Mary”, software engineer and self-proclaimed space nerd Andy Weir’s third novel, released in 2021. Since its release on my local online library service, it has been constantly checked out with a two-month wait…for the past four years. 

Clearly, he’s doing something right.

“Project Hail Mary” follows Dr. Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher and former molecular biologist, as he wakes up from a coma and finds himself in the Hail Mary, a spaceship on a one-way mission to another solar system. The rest of the crew is dead. Back in Earth’s solar system, alien microorganisms are eating the sun’s energy. The star he’s at holds the solution, and if Grace can’t find it, Earth will face a catastrophic ice age within the next thirty years. 

But he’s not the only one looking for a solution. There’s another ship in the solar system, and it’s not from Earth.

Weir’s science background is incredibly clear–the story focuses on alien microorganisms (herein dubbed “Astrophage”) eating the sun’s energy. The organisms sound like an average sci-fi disaster movie plot until combined with scientific reasoning for why this is a problem. Partnered along with this are scientifically plausible reasonings for alien biology, spaceship engineering, using said alien biology as rocket fuel (it makes sense in context), and problem solving (of which there is a lot). 

Normally, the presence of this much science and scientific conjecture would make for a difficult, textbook-like read, but “Project Hail Mary” balances it incredibly well. Part of this balance is Grace, a science teacher who explains concepts through his natural narrative voice. It’s also remarkably understandable; I’m allergic to math, but I was able to follow along with 86% of the book. Necessary scientific knowledge is communicated at an understandable rate without overwhelming the reader, despite Grace’s memory problems that slowly reveal information about the Astrophage and how he ended up in a different solar system as humanity’s last hope. 

“Project Hail Mary” tells two stories–the first is Ryland Grace doing science in space, and the second is how he ended up in space in the first place. Since scientists and governments from all over the globe are scrambling to solve the Astrophage problem and launch the Hail Mary, the Earth plotline has a lot more characters and is made up of disconnected memories in loose chronological order. The Space plotline has the opposite problem–Grace is alone in space, and while his voice is engaging, the plot does drag until a third of the way through the novel, when Rocky shows up.

Yeah, there’s another ship, and in that ship is an alien from another solar system (the 40 Eridani System, specifically). For lack of pronunciation, his name is Rocky, and he is an engineer and sole survivor of his own crew. 40 Eridani has the same Astrophage problem as Earth, and Grace and Rocky partner together to find a solution. 

The friendship and lab partnership between Grace and Rocky is easily the strongest feature of “Project Hail Mary”. Both of them work through each other’s language, units of measurements, biology, and culture to conduct science–the universal connector. Rocky gives a unique character balance as a grounded perspective to Grace’s more academically induced craziness. His biology is unique compared to most other fictional aliens, with scientific reasoning behind how the biology works. 

“Project Hail Mary” is a very optimistic book. Scientists from all over Earth work to launch a last-ditch spaceship. Scientists from two different solar systems work together to solve a problem affecting them both. And the ending is hopeful, too. 

The movie version of “Project Hail Mary”, starring Ryan Gosling, is set to come out in March, and I’m going in with trepidation and hope. I can already tell there’s a slight aesthetic change, but hopefully the story’s themes are preserved.

If not…well, I do own the book.

Sophia Monastra is a Senior Professional Writing and Information Design major. She mourns the Oxford comma every day. 
Images Courtesy of Ballantine Books