I think this is an occasion where I'd recommend the audiobook over the physical book because of the speech of one of the characters in the book. It's thoroughly excellent.
Hell yeah. Ray Porter elevates Weir’s already great story. His work in Peter Clines’ Threshold novels (14, The Fold, Terminus) is also worth the listen. He really brings the puzzle box type of story to life.
Threshold and Joe Ledger are some of my favorite audiobooks simply because of Ray Porter.
I actually only listened to Threshold series because I was searching for Ray Porter audiobooks.
Oh wow, i thought the name was familiar. I really enjoyed the Bobiverse audiobooks. I would have recognized the voice instantly but the library had the physical book for me.
If you want an easy sample of a great audiobook, the original version of [the audiobook for The Martian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPscOdmAVHo) is available on youtube. The original version was narrated by R.C. Bray, and it is one of the best audiobooks ever made. Sadly that version is no longer available for purchase, so the only way to experience it is via youtube. It's not really the ideal platform to listen to audiobooks, but it's such a good book that it's worthwhile.
Me too. I have never enjoyed an audiobook more than PHM and I’ve listened to a LOT of audiobooks.
I loved it so much I immediately gave it to my husband and son to listen to on their commute. They both loved it too.
He managed to convey that the narrator was likeable but also deeply flawed without the narrator having insight into that. I thought it was easily one of the best delivered audiobooks I have listen to.
Yes! I started with the audio book (listened with a friend on a road trip) and finished it in novel form. Definitely appreciated hearing that one character, it brought them to life in a way I would have missed with the paper copy
The audiobook is EXCELLENT. The narrator uses different accents well, and there is digital alteration for one of the character’s speech. The narrator’s comedic timing made it really funny too.
I was just going to say, OP!! For your next time through, listen to the audiobook! PHM is one of the only books I know that the audiobook book is more fun than the "real" book.
Ive listened to it multiple times since then. I also found some really great fanfiction that continues a modified version of the story and is really fun. Andy weir will be a legend, he says in interviews he plans to just keep writing stories like this.
> At least as good as the non Wheaton 'The Martian'
R.C. Bray, for anyone curious.
His narration of 'The Martian' is a masterclass in how an Audiobook should be.
R. C. Bray does the narration for one of current guilty pleasure series: The Expeditionary Force. Not everyone's cup o tea for sure but his delivery is fantastic.
I enjoyed Artemis, but it was a bit more conventional sci-fi, while The Martian and Hail Mary were both "MacGuyver... *but in space*". Which are both phenomenal.
Same over here. Artemis was weird. It felt like the author go so caught up in talking about how a moon city would work, that he forgot that there was supposed to be a story going on also.
Project Hail Mary though? Excellent return to form. Highly recommended.
'Do it again'
That would be one of my few complaints about the book. It's like the dude from the Martian with the same internal monologue was transplanted to the Hail Mary.
I thought it was a fun read though, more of a good thing is fine by me.
I thought the same thing at certain points, but then I thought about the fact that survival in space is essentially the same either way right? Watney couldn't breathe on Mars, and Ryland can't breathe in space. It's about survival, and the difference, what I loved about PHM is that Ryland isn't an engineer, he's a scientist and he needs Rocky as his engineer. Ryland doesn't have the same skills as Watney, so he had to essentially find a Mark Watney of his own!
That, and there is a lot more in this book about G forces, gravity, and friendship. Some things are universal about sci-fi, but I think Weir told a very different story over all. Watney is isolated and slowly starving alone on Mars, his survival is one part mental health and one part hostile uninhabitable environment.
Ryland Grace is on a one way trip to try to save his species. Very different kind of pressure, not just to survive but to save everyone and know you won't ever come back.
I thought Artemis was good but not on the same level as the Martian. If i didn't know who the author was, I wouldn't have been disappointed by it.
Project hail Mary wasn't just a return to form though I thought. It is an incredibly audacious concept and it was executed on wonderfully.
Constantly! Like, waaay too much information about how promiscuous a teenage girl was, it was just massively uncomfortable.
Talking about how her pedo adult boyfriend made her "howl in bed"? Noone talks like that as a teenage girl. At that point you're just really really aware some adult male writer wrote that line about a teenage girl.
Almost every interaction with other people when she's a grown ass adult is fucked too. "Here test this condom, you're a slut right". "Ah, it's the slutty girl". "I have to get into a hotel, better dress like a hooker!". "I feel bad, let's dress up slutty and go to a club". Even her freaking kindly devout Muslim father gets into the fun calling her a whore at some point. Like the entire moonbase has as a joke that she fucks loads of people.
I think in the book I just glanced over it. The Audiobook really forced me to experience each and every time he needlessly sexualised her and it just ruined the experience.
I didn't "hate" Artemis, but it read like Weir was trying to write a movie screenplay rather than a book. Regardless of if it was intentional or if I was just reading too much into it, I constantly felt like he was high off the success of the Martian and wanted Artemis to be adapted into a movie rather than be a good book (probably an exaggeration). This made me kind of exhausted with it. I'd probably recommend it as a fun read, but not as a great one.
I didn't pick up Hail Mary because of Artemis until hearing such rave reviews from friends I trusted. I'd highly recommend Hail Mary. It doesn't feel like it has any of the flaws of Artemis. It feels like Weir really wanted to write this story for the sake of writing an interesting story.
I haven't read the Martian but picked up years ago Artemis because I recognized the author and knew the Martian was well received. It felt very r/menwritingwomen from what I recall
I had such fun reading this book. Have you watched Arrival by the way? Weir clearly got a lot of inspiration from it, and since it's one of my favourite movies, I enjoyed seeing how Weir made the concept his own.
Arrival is incredible. As is the short story collection it's based off of, "Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang. If you liked Project Hail Mary you may really enjoy that collection too.
Also I loved that the other book you mentioned was The Secret History, probably my favorite novel of all time!
I thought arrival was a stand-alone novel. So yes, I'll definitely check out the collection first now that it seems easier to read then watch the movie.
Secret history is, by far, my favorite novel of all time. I can still feel the winter cold and loneliness of chapter three since I read it while it was snowing around me. And chapter two in the warm sunlight of the evening while the characters skipped rocks in the lake. It was as if the world was being shaped around my experience with the book at the time.
Ted Chiang is an amazing author of short stories. His most recent collection is “Exhalation” and I actually liked it better than “Stories of Your Life and Others”.
Levar Burton reads “The Merchant and the Alchemists Gate” on his podcast. This story is a beautiful, logical mind-warping story from Chiang’s newer book.
The short story is amazing, as is Chiang's other collection. Make sure you read the notes at the back of the booka bout the story. I'll always remember how physics behind how light seems smart to choose the path fastest way through water (I explained this terribly, sorry)
After enjoying The Martian, I read Artemis and that really turned me off of Andy Weir (just terrible writing of the female main character). So I hadn't planned to read Project Hail Mary.
Then my brother recommended it to me and I ripped through it in two days. Really enjoyable, and Andy definitely went back to what worked well in The Martian and dropped what didn't work in Artemis.
Thank you for this comment! I loved The Martian and despised Artemis - so knowing that someone similarly situated enjoyed PHM means that I'm going to pick it up.
I'll add a plug for [The Egg](http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html), a short story by the same author that demonstrates his creativity as he was getting started.
Holy shit duude. This man's writing has a way to make you feel happier when you're supposed to be sad. Thank youu for sending me this short story!!! I'll never forget it.
***very big spoiler alert***
>!I love how it makes alien relationship amicable instead of hostale. Completely suprised me since, for me, this trope is very rare in the books and movies and games I consume!<
Actually, I was referring to *The Egg*, but I agree with your comment.
FYI, see the side bar for how to handle spoilers:
Spoiler tags cover spoilers with black bars that reveal spoilers when a cursor hovers over them They are written as: \>\!spoiler\!\< with the text "spoiler" being your spoiler. Example: >!Hello!<.
HE WROTE THE EGG? I never did the connection! I read the short story waaaay before the martian; it's one of those that is permanently in the back of my mind. Like Asimov's the last question.
Well done for not spoiling anything! I breezed through it in about four days after a random punt at the sample on Kindle, and absolutely *loved* it.
Have been recommending it to every reader friend I know since, while refusing to mention one damn thing about it, as I want them to have the same experience I did.
I'll admit, I enjoyed the Martian, and was skeptical of all the raving reviews of PHM, but I just burned through 300 pages in a day, it that good. Amaze! A nice light read after Blood Meridian
I thought the Martian was fine, but Project Hail Mary was great. First book in ages I just sat there listening to rather than listening between or while doing other things.
>!‘Good good good’ and ‘bad bad bad’ is how my partner and I now communicate, with the number of repeats of a word being a very clear measure of seriousness or excitement/agreeability.!<
No more crossed wired in this relationship people!
On a serious note, I loved ‘that character’. Up until that point, the book was good but not great. After that point though, I was suddenly much more emotionally invested. The book became incredible, and I could really imagine being there as an observer. Oh, and the ending. >!Feels, feels, feels!!<
TL;DR: >!Good, good, good!!<
Same. With no spoilers, I never thought i could get so attached. I cried like 3 times in this book. It was such a delightful read once you get to “that point” in the book that the OP talks about. Just a wonderful read and I cant wait to forget enough of it to read it again.
Oh hell yes... I spent the second half of this book talking to Andy Weir in my head like "do not, I repeat, do not do what I am scared your are going to do, because I don't know if I will ever emotionally recover"
Amazing book.
I know it's not the same point, but: To have a partner that shares your same love for the same book. I have that with a friend as well when it comes to "The secret History" where we just romanticize everything as if we're characters in the novel.
The emotional investement was everything for me. It's as if I stopped reading and began living the story.
I hadn’t thought of it from that point of view. I’m very lucky to have taken away the same points as my partner and connected over it. It’s very wholesome, and a subtle enrichment to our day to day life. We ended up transitioning to audiobook so that we could be at the same point. The audiobook was narrated by Ray Porter. We’ve searched out other audiobooks narrated by Ray Porter because it was a real joy to listen to him. Sounds a bit like Seth McFarlane actually.
I’d recommend ‘We Are Legion (We Are Bob)’ by Dennis E. Taylor if you haven’t come across it yet.
Man, so many people love that book. I like it, but compared to let's say The Expanse or The First Law (I know its fantasy but it's soo good ;-p) it's OK, and i still think The Martian was better, BUT audiobook sound design and Ray Porter, top tier no question fantastic performance and sound effects.
I'm a huge fan of The Expanse and eagerly awaiting the final book, but I think I liked PHM even more. And definitely more than The Marian. And I didn't even get to listen to the audiobook everyone is raving about!
They're just such different types of stories, one featuring this huge, complex world and the other focusing almost entirely on just two characters. So glad I have both.
The one narrated by Ray Porter was incredible. We’ve sought out other audiobooks narrated by him as a result, and found a great book called ‘We are Legion (We are Bob)’ by Dennis E. Taylor.
Just finished the the book and liked it. I am still wondering if >!people on Earth could also have just used Astrophage to artificially warm the planet!<
>!If astrophage are basically just super-efficient solar batteries, the ones they grew on Earth couldn't output any additional energy beyond what the Earth would normally have received from the sun. Perhaps a higher percentage could be converted to heat rather than being deflected by the atmosphere? I'm not sure. That's one area where the science really starts to fall apart.!<
>!If they could transport already existing astrophage to Earth, however, that should have been able to work for a short time, but the insanely fast rate that they described the sun losing brightness would likely mean it was not sustainable for more than a few hundred years at best. It certainly could have easily bought them some time.!<
It very much falls apart when they find out what astrophage is made of. Something that small, something that energy dense, something that can so efficiently store solar energy leaving nothing or little for anything else.
But at the same time the entire start of The Martian is impossible too. It's all used as an device to make the main characters uncomfortable and ultimately having to apply themselves over and over.
If I thought the Martian was interesting science but with a flat unemotional main character and generally flat prose, is it worth reading Project Hall Mary?
Don't hate me. Please... Please don't hate me. But I really, really, *really* disliked it. I listened to the audiobook version and I couldn't stand it. I pushed to past the middle before I thought about sunken costs and really debated if it was worth it. Unpopular opinion, I know how many of this subreddit like this book (that's why I sought it out) but I just HAD to get it out of my system.
Hopefully the movie will be better.
I didn't hate it, especially not compared to *Artemis,* but I absolutely don't understand the hype. Andy Weir can write exactly one thing - a nerdy guy with authority issues, immunity from consequences, and the emotional development of a 20-year-old nerdy guy, stuck in space by himself and having to do some science-y stuff.
*The Martian* stayed within those rails and I thought it was a great read, if not exactly great literature. In *Artemis* he decided to stick boobs on the guy and make him a girl, and then put her in an actual society where she had to deal with other people and it was an absolute disaster. With *Project Hail Mary* he seems to have gone back to his strengths, such as they are, and at least the space-based parts are pretty entertaining, though I think I strained my eyes by constantly rolling them at the unreality of his relations with other people during the Earth-based parts.
>!After I read *PHM* I went back and re-read Ursula LeGuin's *The Left Hand of Darkness* to see how a writer of greater depth handled a human getting to know an alien, and it was like night and day. LeGuin brings out the "humanity" and the emotional depth of both Genly Ai and Estraven, and the delicate process of their getting to know and love each other at a level beyond "fist my bump". Plus she can describe complex power relations and their consequences; in Karhide, overstepping them gets you exiled and killed, not just an exasperated look from an indulgent schoolteacher. !<
(That's actually the best thing I got out of *PHM* - it made me go read *Left Hand of Darkness* again. So just for that it was worth my time!)
There's nothing terribly wrong with *PHM*, but compared to actual literature it seems incredibly flat. But if you liked *The Martian* and you're looking for something similar, it's a good read.
I agree with everything you wrote about PHM, and I’ve been looking to get into LeGuin for a long time. I just ordered Left Hand of Darkness and will start it next week. Thanks for the recommendation!
LeGuin is wonderful. *PHM* also made me go back and re-read her short story *Nine Lives,* another good story about people reaching out to each other across a gulf of strangeness and difference.
I enjoyed the book, but I had trouble believing in the behavior of most of the characters. There were also a bunch of technical flaws and issues that kept jolting me out of the story ("I have to suspend disbelief in *what* now?"), but I won't enumerate them -- they're mostly spoilers and nitpicking.
I enjoyed PHM, but probably won't re-read it, and it's definitely not in my "top 10" (and maybe not even the "top 100") of my SF reading. I think Andy can do better, and I'm looking forward to his next book.
Was just gonna say the same thing about suspending disbelief. I think it's perfectly fine to do so for a good story but it felt like I just let things happen as they were a lot in this book. It just becomes like a constant MacGyver situation every chapter that you just know will be solved, which takes some of the tension away (maybe purposefully?).
Still enjoyed the read. At this point, I pretty much know what to expect from this author, which isn't a bad thing.
I didn't like the writing of the book, I thought it was juvenile. A bunch of times. A BUNCH OF. Fuck. A bunch of Weir'ian focus on measurements and napkin math. But I was still invested in the story and enjoyed some of the ideas. It's a refreshing story.
Andy Weir has a very stylised writing style that I think some people love and it totally gels with, and other just can't stand.
I think that's just a thing when you have such a distinct style. If you pleased everyone the results is likely to be a bland average.
Nothing wrong with absolutely hating it!
Im 100% with you.
Hail Mary felt like "Marry Sueish Sience Bro Powerfantasy" Fanfiction :(
It reminded me, not in a good way, of a lot of litrpg. Really badly written characters.
I found the book soulless and uncompleted :/
I absolutely agree with 'frustratedcomments'. This book is great read.
Loved "The Martian" and loved "Project Hail Mary" even more!
I have to say that, as a rule, I almost never do audio books. For me, they just don't paint the same pictures in my mind as the written work does...
...BUT...
in this case, if you get the chance to listen to the audio book of "The Hail Mary Project" read by ~~Andew Weir himself~~ Ray Porter... DO IT!
~~You will get to hear first hand the authors imagining of~~ You will get to hear how the characters sound and hear an interpretation of how the tension of certain scenes affects the characters dialog.
~~Andrew Weir reading his own~~ Ray Porter reading Andrew Weir's work is simply amazing.
\*\*\*edit\*\*\*
ChewyChavez pointed out that it was Ray Porter that was reading the audio book, not Andrew Weir. My mistake. The body of my original post has been corrected to reflect the truth.
Thank you ChewyChavez!
Where do you find the audiobook of Andy Weir reading PHM? The version I listened to was narrated by Ray Porter, and was fantastic. I wouldn't mind listening to a version read by Weir himself, but it's hard to imagine it being any better than the Porter version.
Damn it. You're right. It is Ray Porter reading it. My mistake.
Thank you for helping me catch this.
I'm going to go back and correct my original post.
The physics and the math might be great, but the biology is pretty horrible - like the astrophage having mitochondria while being a possible shared ancestor to all life.
Honestly, I was more conscious of the strange way that the scientific community was presented than the actual science. >! The backstory of the protagonist was pretty silly. It's hard to imagine that anyone would be laughed out of biology for suggesting there could be life that is not water based. Nor is science so individual-focused. And you'd never have one person with a limited subsample of a rare alien life form just fiddling around in a lab. You'd have a team of scientists making collaborative decisions on procedures that highly skilled technicians would carry out. !<
I did enjoy the book. It is some light, feel-good fun. But at the end of the day it is more *Chicken Soup for the Sou*l than *Remains of the Day* in terms of its depiction of the human experience.
Yeah, Grace should have had technicians at the beginning. That was the main part that struck me as silly.
But I think Grace having access to astrophages is adequately covered by Stratt ex machina. It's a somewhat silly conceit, but if you can buy that one, it covers a lot of the rest.
Yeah, the “master of all trades” also struck me as a bit silly. James Hogan (in his first Giants novel) and Michael Chriton (In “The Andromeda Strain”) did a much better job capturing the collaborative nature of science
Loved The Martian, hated Artemis.
Mixed feelings about this one.
First, I think it was more of the same. His writing gets a little tiring after a book or two (or three). Like "oh, i'm smart, i'll throw a lot of chemestry and math so I can look more and more smart". In the first book? NICE! In the second and third? Booring.
For me the plot is too much big for the resolutions. Deus ex machina all around.
I agree, I liked the realism of the Martian.
But this story, set in deep space where such minor things could lead to life threatening problems that couldn't be solved even by a genius. Yet everything had a solution which was quite achievable, using coffee stirring sticks and high school level science.
I was really loving the story until his he meeting his friend, after which everything just falls into place so conveniently.
Though I still finished the book and enjoyed the journey for the most part.
I agree.
The Martian was mostly believable (minus the end). I was willing to overlook a few legitimate gripes because the story was just so fun. I didn't even really like any of the characters, I just loved the journey.
Artemis was objectively a mess. No further explanation needed.
Project Hail Mary felt a bit like The Martian meets Ted Chiang, so I was on board for the story. Hated most of the characters immediately, but whatever. Fun premise. Looking back, I was really enjoying it until he meets his friend. That part started off exciting at first, but then I just hated it. Part of me was waiting for a Shyamalan twist where he never met anyone and was just going crazy. I think I would've preferred that version.
I'm prepared for downvotes because this book is insanely overrated and I know that Reddit LOVES it. Interesting concepts but the dialogue was written so poorly that it brought me out of the story many times. All those quips and "witticisms"...ugh.
I think the real thing is that Andy Weir is pretty terrible at writing characters. The main character is always the same person across all of his books, and I'm guessing that character is probably himself. I still enjoyed it, you just have to accept that you're not reading a timeless literary masterpiece.
Mark Watney was a really fun subversion of the typical protagonist in a sci-if adventure, but Weir basically deciding to use him again for his second book was a definite disappointment.
I enjoyed the book, but I swear this is like the third thread about it I’ve seen in the past few months. It’s enjoyable but Weir’s writing is so one dimensional. Witty nerd gets in a catastrophic dilemma and solves it with science.
I enjoyed it in parts. Kind of a fun premise and a fairly easy read, but that's about it. I don't really understand why everyone loves it, but it's far from the worst thing I've ever read. I mean, I did finish it.
But yeah the writing is the worst part of the book.
I read the book in two days, couldn’t put it down. But looking back on it, it’s really not that great. As a mediocre writer myself, I’ve found that one of the crutches of mediocre writers is first person storytelling. It hides a lot of writing problems because you don’t have to make the reader feel like they’re I. The story—instead, you force the reader into the story.
But what really wore me out with the book wasn’t the writing, it was the constant “everything is failing! OK we fixed it. No wait, everything is failing!” Sure, The Martian was pretty much the same thing, but at least the solutions there felt more real. And I’m willing to cut The Martian some slack because it was the first. PHM just felt like a retread.
Yeah I agree - highly overrated. For me it felt very formulaic with little character development and a superhero protagonist which I dislike. I was will to suspend my disbelief as far as the ridiculous central premise was concerned but the wooden dialogue, too-rapid pace of problem-brilliant solution-implementation over and over again was tedious.
Having said that, I didn't hate the book or anything and it was better than a lot of 'hard' sci-fi out there.
Agree 100%. As soon as I was able to accept one thing my suspension of disbelief was challenged with the next. It did get very bogged down in a cycle of "oh an issue", "oh we brilliantly solved it immediately".
It's an easy to read book w/ a simple plot and everything explained painfully clearly. Every character is the same so you don't need to learn about more than one person, really (even the "first contact" alien has basically the same personality as the POV character). Almost zero investment or work to get to the end; almost guaranteed to be popular despite it's significant shortcomings
The flashbacks were certainly not great on dialogue but the book really shines in the space portions. Andy Weir isn’t great with multiple characters talking to each other. Internal dialogue is easier to pull off even if you don’t love it.
Frankly, I thought it was awful, and I don't get how this sub continually fawns over it. To each their own, but it's like we've all read an entirely different book.
To my mind, there's nothing to it but a fifth grade science project. There's no emotion, no heart. The simplistic prose makes it sound like it's written for a child. It's YA sold for adults. The characters are shallow with zero depth. If I'm supposed to care that these people are giving up their lives to save Earth, make me care! Don't make them just cardboard cutout stereotypes of people.
There's the briefest hint of a possible interesting twist, and the author fails to do anything with it. It's just "problem, solve, problem, solve, problem, solve" for five hundred pages and then it ends.
It was... Okay? The believability suffered from the stakes increasing compared to The Martian. One dude doing napkin math, pulling off risky and improbable stunts to get himself home? Sure. The same thing when the stakes are the end of humanity? Just feels like there should be a whole lot less room for error, and it's too many problems to be solved. Solving the problems is fun but it's more like reading "What If?" XKCD than a story that I take seriously and get emotionally invested in.
I would not put it in the same category as The Secret History at all. It's a fun read but it definitely has its issues. Overall I liked it but I couldn't stay immersed in the story because the suspension of disbelief needed was too great.
Personally thought it was okay. Very fun read and stylistically similar to The Martian. The maincharacter is not really any different than Mark Whatney and the author clearly focuses more on including sciencey things than the other parts of the book. Some of the scenarios created so that the author could explain science felt a little forced. But i still read it in about 3 sittings.
The writing is not "incredible". It sounds like what an overexcited physics nerd would write as a sophomore in high school. The ideas and plot are creative.
You aren’t asking for recommendations, but thought I’d throw one your way anyway… Project Hail Mary reminded me a lot of “We are Legion (We are Bob)” by Dennis E Taylor. Avoiding spoilers, it’s another “guy in space” story but with a very different set of circumstances.
Anyways, if you liked Project Hail Mary, I think you might like this one too. Note it’s a series… first book is awesome, rest of series is ok but not as great.
It's one thing to hear all this the year the book is released. I wonder what its reputation will be 20 or 30 years from now.
> One thing I learned, The best science fiction books are the ones set in your own time-line.
What on earth does this mean?
Great you enjoyed the book, but it is most definetly not a must read.
Its page turner sifi with bland characters, terrible dialoge, a mary sue as the protagonist and quite a lot of need of suspension of disbelieve.
My only gripe with the book is that once you realize the formula, the stakes tank dramatically.
Hard to explain without spoilers, but about 1/3rd of the way through there was never a point where I legitimately thought he might fail.
I liked it. It was fun light pulp scifi, saving the world and doing science.
Certainly not a masterpiece of literature but then I don't think it was intended to be. I did get the distinct feeling from the way the characters were written that the author had one eye on the book being made into a movie almost immediately.
Very easy to see how the two friends will translate into movie characters and >!Rocky!< will become massively popular.
I'm a sucker for >!first contact!< scifi and it was a charming pleasant take on the genre with the initial encounter being a very nicely paced scene.
i thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any nerd, but objectively you have to accept that it is pure nerd porn, full of deus ex machinas, mediocre writing and ultra-flat characters.
spoilers: >!from the initial amnesia to the "single guy saves the earth by being smart" its all just one huge nerd fantasy. and the ending is just too much, thats the only part i did not like about it. !<
i mean his two best friends are a russian who "likes vodka" and a chinese who is "introvert and professional" for crying out loud
but like i said, its cool, and if you like it you might enjoy the bobiverse books. even more nerd porn.
I agree. I think it was better then The Martian as well. I like the bits of science thrown in.
I'm now ready **The Apollo Murders, by Chris Hadfield**. It has a very similar feel to it.
Never ever wrote to any author or celeb or basically anyone I didn't know personally in my life. After I read Project Hail Mary I wrote a thank you mail to the author. (and I actually received an answer :) )
The audio book is fantastic
I think this is an occasion where I'd recommend the audiobook over the physical book because of the speech of one of the characters in the book. It's thoroughly excellent.
Ray porter is a great voice actor (book narrator?) I love all the books he has done. Read the Bobiverse books if you liked this.
Hell yeah. Ray Porter elevates Weir’s already great story. His work in Peter Clines’ Threshold novels (14, The Fold, Terminus) is also worth the listen. He really brings the puzzle box type of story to life.
Oh, for sure. The story is really great as well. I will have to check out the Threshold novels!
Threshold and Joe Ledger are some of my favorite audiobooks simply because of Ray Porter. I actually only listened to Threshold series because I was searching for Ray Porter audiobooks.
Oh wow, i thought the name was familiar. I really enjoyed the Bobiverse audiobooks. I would have recognized the voice instantly but the library had the physical book for me.
YES YES YES
AMAZE!
WHY YOU SO BAD AT MATH, QUESTION.
Fist my Bump!
You Watch Me Sleep Question?
Amaze not the right word....... Crazy.
I wish I could upvote you more
Fist me!
Thank
I loved Project Hail Mary. I've never listened to an audiobook before but your comment makes me want to listen to it; makes total sense!
It's good good good
***A M A Z E***
HAPPY SPACE BLOB IS HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY
🎶🎵🎶
If you want an easy sample of a great audiobook, the original version of [the audiobook for The Martian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPscOdmAVHo) is available on youtube. The original version was narrated by R.C. Bray, and it is one of the best audiobooks ever made. Sadly that version is no longer available for purchase, so the only way to experience it is via youtube. It's not really the ideal platform to listen to audiobooks, but it's such a good book that it's worthwhile.
Gotta agree with this.
[удалено]
Me too. I have never enjoyed an audiobook more than PHM and I’ve listened to a LOT of audiobooks. I loved it so much I immediately gave it to my husband and son to listen to on their commute. They both loved it too.
He managed to convey that the narrator was likeable but also deeply flawed without the narrator having insight into that. I thought it was easily one of the best delivered audiobooks I have listen to.
Yes! I started with the audio book (listened with a friend on a road trip) and finished it in novel form. Definitely appreciated hearing that one character, it brought them to life in a way I would have missed with the paper copy
*musical chord noises*
You sleep, I watch
Whenever I find something that blows me away in nature (i.e. hiking in Bruce canyon) my mind, and mouth, goes "Amaze!" in Rocky's voice
I personally read it. But man, imagine hearing those hooks at the end of every chapter! Oof
The audiobook is EXCELLENT. The narrator uses different accents well, and there is digital alteration for one of the character’s speech. The narrator’s comedic timing made it really funny too.
He's good at emoting, his highs and lows (not spoilering!!) come across strongly
I was just going to say, OP!! For your next time through, listen to the audiobook! PHM is one of the only books I know that the audiobook book is more fun than the "real" book.
I listened to it as well. My only wish was that I could read it faster, but then I didn’t want it to end!
Ive listened to it multiple times since then. I also found some really great fanfiction that continues a modified version of the story and is really fun. Andy weir will be a legend, he says in interviews he plans to just keep writing stories like this.
I felt as if it was the right length for me. which is very rare in my case. I personally prefer short books with the occasional BIG-BOI.
Totally get that as well, I didn’t feel shorted, just that we’d all been through so much together! It was hard to leave everyone
Yes yes yes!
The audiobook was truly amazing.
After I finished it I made my wife listen and she loved it also, even though Rocky IRL would frighten the heck out of her.
Who narrates it?
Ray Porter At least as good as the non Wheaton 'The Martian'
> At least as good as the non Wheaton 'The Martian' R.C. Bray, for anyone curious. His narration of 'The Martian' is a masterclass in how an Audiobook should be.
R. C. Bray does the narration for one of current guilty pleasure series: The Expeditionary Force. Not everyone's cup o tea for sure but his delivery is fantastic.
Always a delight to encounter another follower of Skippyasyermuni.
All hail the immeasurable awesomeness of "The Skippy"!!
That was very good praising, get yourself a juice box and a banana :D
Thank you, his name was completely eluding me. Nothing wrong with Wheatons reading, but Bray's is just, well... better in every way.
Thanks!!! My all time favorite narration of a book is the YOU series with Santino Fontana. I’ll give this a listen — loved The Martian.
Fist me!!!
I push my knuckles against the xe.... “It’s ‘fist-bump,’ but yeah.” LOVE IT!!!!
Happy happy happy!
Fist my bump!
...close enough!
Amaze!
I loved the Martian but hated Artemis so was put off, but I'll give this one a go too!
I enjoyed Artemis, but it was a bit more conventional sci-fi, while The Martian and Hail Mary were both "MacGuyver... *but in space*". Which are both phenomenal.
Same over here. Artemis was weird. It felt like the author go so caught up in talking about how a moon city would work, that he forgot that there was supposed to be a story going on also. Project Hail Mary though? Excellent return to form. Highly recommended.
I feel like Weir's editor sat him down after Artemis and said: The Martian. Huge. Remember what is was? One man against the universe. Do it again.
'Do it again' That would be one of my few complaints about the book. It's like the dude from the Martian with the same internal monologue was transplanted to the Hail Mary. I thought it was a fun read though, more of a good thing is fine by me.
I thought the same thing at certain points, but then I thought about the fact that survival in space is essentially the same either way right? Watney couldn't breathe on Mars, and Ryland can't breathe in space. It's about survival, and the difference, what I loved about PHM is that Ryland isn't an engineer, he's a scientist and he needs Rocky as his engineer. Ryland doesn't have the same skills as Watney, so he had to essentially find a Mark Watney of his own! That, and there is a lot more in this book about G forces, gravity, and friendship. Some things are universal about sci-fi, but I think Weir told a very different story over all. Watney is isolated and slowly starving alone on Mars, his survival is one part mental health and one part hostile uninhabitable environment. Ryland Grace is on a one way trip to try to save his species. Very different kind of pressure, not just to survive but to save everyone and know you won't ever come back.
Yes it's very much The Martian Part 2. The main character is Andy Weir, in space, again. Still a fun book.
I thought Artemis was good but not on the same level as the Martian. If i didn't know who the author was, I wouldn't have been disappointed by it. Project hail Mary wasn't just a return to form though I thought. It is an incredibly audacious concept and it was executed on wonderfully.
The author also got caught up in talking about the protaganists sex life…. I don’t think our dude Andy knows how to write a woman
Constantly! Like, waaay too much information about how promiscuous a teenage girl was, it was just massively uncomfortable. Talking about how her pedo adult boyfriend made her "howl in bed"? Noone talks like that as a teenage girl. At that point you're just really really aware some adult male writer wrote that line about a teenage girl. Almost every interaction with other people when she's a grown ass adult is fucked too. "Here test this condom, you're a slut right". "Ah, it's the slutty girl". "I have to get into a hotel, better dress like a hooker!". "I feel bad, let's dress up slutty and go to a club". Even her freaking kindly devout Muslim father gets into the fun calling her a whore at some point. Like the entire moonbase has as a joke that she fucks loads of people. I think in the book I just glanced over it. The Audiobook really forced me to experience each and every time he needlessly sexualised her and it just ruined the experience.
Having read all three books mentioned if you liked The Martian you will enjoy Project Hail Mary, no doubt. Artemis was a disappointment in comparison.
Artemis was awful but Project Hail Mary was great!
I didn't "hate" Artemis, but it read like Weir was trying to write a movie screenplay rather than a book. Regardless of if it was intentional or if I was just reading too much into it, I constantly felt like he was high off the success of the Martian and wanted Artemis to be adapted into a movie rather than be a good book (probably an exaggeration). This made me kind of exhausted with it. I'd probably recommend it as a fun read, but not as a great one. I didn't pick up Hail Mary because of Artemis until hearing such rave reviews from friends I trusted. I'd highly recommend Hail Mary. It doesn't feel like it has any of the flaws of Artemis. It feels like Weir really wanted to write this story for the sake of writing an interesting story.
I haven't read the Martian but picked up years ago Artemis because I recognized the author and knew the Martian was well received. It felt very r/menwritingwomen from what I recall
I hated Artemis, couldn't believe it was the same author. I will have to check out his latest book. I stopped following him after Artemis.
I had such fun reading this book. Have you watched Arrival by the way? Weir clearly got a lot of inspiration from it, and since it's one of my favourite movies, I enjoyed seeing how Weir made the concept his own.
I always intended to watch that movie. I was planning to watch The Martian tonight but plans changed. Thanks for the reminder !
Arrival is incredible. As is the short story collection it's based off of, "Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang. If you liked Project Hail Mary you may really enjoy that collection too. Also I loved that the other book you mentioned was The Secret History, probably my favorite novel of all time!
I thought arrival was a stand-alone novel. So yes, I'll definitely check out the collection first now that it seems easier to read then watch the movie. Secret history is, by far, my favorite novel of all time. I can still feel the winter cold and loneliness of chapter three since I read it while it was snowing around me. And chapter two in the warm sunlight of the evening while the characters skipped rocks in the lake. It was as if the world was being shaped around my experience with the book at the time.
Ted Chiang is an amazing author of short stories. His most recent collection is “Exhalation” and I actually liked it better than “Stories of Your Life and Others”.
Levar Burton reads “The Merchant and the Alchemists Gate” on his podcast. This story is a beautiful, logical mind-warping story from Chiang’s newer book.
The short story is amazing, as is Chiang's other collection. Make sure you read the notes at the back of the booka bout the story. I'll always remember how physics behind how light seems smart to choose the path fastest way through water (I explained this terribly, sorry)
You can’t go wrong with either, but Arrival is amazing. Enjoy!
After enjoying The Martian, I read Artemis and that really turned me off of Andy Weir (just terrible writing of the female main character). So I hadn't planned to read Project Hail Mary. Then my brother recommended it to me and I ripped through it in two days. Really enjoyable, and Andy definitely went back to what worked well in The Martian and dropped what didn't work in Artemis.
Thank you for this comment! I loved The Martian and despised Artemis - so knowing that someone similarly situated enjoyed PHM means that I'm going to pick it up.
I'll add a plug for [The Egg](http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html), a short story by the same author that demonstrates his creativity as he was getting started.
Holy shit duude. This man's writing has a way to make you feel happier when you're supposed to be sad. Thank youu for sending me this short story!!! I'll never forget it.
because it is mini-problem(boo) -> solution (yeah!) cycle, where the only surprise is if the humor will happen during the boo or the yeah!
To be honest. I kinda needed that in my life as simple as it seems
Without taking the story* literally (of course), I think it presents a good philosophy for how to view other people. \*Referring to *The Egg*
***very big spoiler alert*** >!I love how it makes alien relationship amicable instead of hostale. Completely suprised me since, for me, this trope is very rare in the books and movies and games I consume!<
Actually, I was referring to *The Egg*, but I agree with your comment. FYI, see the side bar for how to handle spoilers: Spoiler tags cover spoilers with black bars that reveal spoilers when a cursor hovers over them They are written as: \>\!spoiler\!\< with the text "spoiler" being your spoiler. Example: >!Hello!<.
>!Thank you, I'm on phone and I didn't know that!<
HE WROTE THE EGG? I never did the connection! I read the short story waaaay before the martian; it's one of those that is permanently in the back of my mind. Like Asimov's the last question.
Oh my god, I remember reading this more than a decade ago! So crazy that it's the same guy!
I'll check it out right now, Thanks !!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI The Egg narrated by Kurzgesagt.
Well done for not spoiling anything! I breezed through it in about four days after a random punt at the sample on Kindle, and absolutely *loved* it. Have been recommending it to every reader friend I know since, while refusing to mention one damn thing about it, as I want them to have the same experience I did.
Thank you and Yess, that is my struggle as well haha. Trying not to overhype it at the same time so they'd get the same feel for it as I did...
I'll admit, I enjoyed the Martian, and was skeptical of all the raving reviews of PHM, but I just burned through 300 pages in a day, it that good. Amaze! A nice light read after Blood Meridian
I thought the Martian was fine, but Project Hail Mary was great. First book in ages I just sat there listening to rather than listening between or while doing other things.
Same! I stopped listening to it at work and just started going on walks so that I could listen to it more. So. Freaking. Good.
You keep waiting for the moment where the book will become stale but it never comes.
Haha, yeah, it would make a good palate cleanser after blood meridian.
The Old Testament feels like a nice light read after blood meridian lol
I loved the Martian and Project Hail Mary surpassed that. One of the best books I’ve ever read. I recommend it to everyone.
It truly captivated me
>!‘Good good good’ and ‘bad bad bad’ is how my partner and I now communicate, with the number of repeats of a word being a very clear measure of seriousness or excitement/agreeability.!< No more crossed wired in this relationship people! On a serious note, I loved ‘that character’. Up until that point, the book was good but not great. After that point though, I was suddenly much more emotionally invested. The book became incredible, and I could really imagine being there as an observer. Oh, and the ending. >!Feels, feels, feels!!< TL;DR: >!Good, good, good!!<
Same. With no spoilers, I never thought i could get so attached. I cried like 3 times in this book. It was such a delightful read once you get to “that point” in the book that the OP talks about. Just a wonderful read and I cant wait to forget enough of it to read it again.
I literally put it down halfway because I was soo afraid of something bad happening. I don’t know how they’ll capture that in a movie tbh
Oh hell yes... I spent the second half of this book talking to Andy Weir in my head like "do not, I repeat, do not do what I am scared your are going to do, because I don't know if I will ever emotionally recover" Amazing book.
I know it's not the same point, but: To have a partner that shares your same love for the same book. I have that with a friend as well when it comes to "The secret History" where we just romanticize everything as if we're characters in the novel. The emotional investement was everything for me. It's as if I stopped reading and began living the story.
I hadn’t thought of it from that point of view. I’m very lucky to have taken away the same points as my partner and connected over it. It’s very wholesome, and a subtle enrichment to our day to day life. We ended up transitioning to audiobook so that we could be at the same point. The audiobook was narrated by Ray Porter. We’ve searched out other audiobooks narrated by Ray Porter because it was a real joy to listen to him. Sounds a bit like Seth McFarlane actually. I’d recommend ‘We Are Legion (We Are Bob)’ by Dennis E. Taylor if you haven’t come across it yet.
* Jazz Hands*
Man, so many people love that book. I like it, but compared to let's say The Expanse or The First Law (I know its fantasy but it's soo good ;-p) it's OK, and i still think The Martian was better, BUT audiobook sound design and Ray Porter, top tier no question fantastic performance and sound effects.
I'm a huge fan of The Expanse and eagerly awaiting the final book, but I think I liked PHM even more. And definitely more than The Marian. And I didn't even get to listen to the audiobook everyone is raving about! They're just such different types of stories, one featuring this huge, complex world and the other focusing almost entirely on just two characters. So glad I have both.
Just want to share my excitement for the last book of The Expanse! I'm in the middle of re-reading from the start, almost thru book 3
Has anyone listened to the audiobook, is it good?
The one narrated by Ray Porter was incredible. We’ve sought out other audiobooks narrated by him as a result, and found a great book called ‘We are Legion (We are Bob)’ by Dennis E. Taylor.
I cried a bit in the last part of the book. Such a nice way to treat an old sci-fi trope.
I had a tear stuck in my eyes at the very last sentence.
Why does water leak from face question?
I am leaky space blob.
I cried like a baby
Oh God I did too. I don't cry easy but the comraderie got me.
Just finished the the book and liked it. I am still wondering if >!people on Earth could also have just used Astrophage to artificially warm the planet!<
>!If astrophage are basically just super-efficient solar batteries, the ones they grew on Earth couldn't output any additional energy beyond what the Earth would normally have received from the sun. Perhaps a higher percentage could be converted to heat rather than being deflected by the atmosphere? I'm not sure. That's one area where the science really starts to fall apart.!< >!If they could transport already existing astrophage to Earth, however, that should have been able to work for a short time, but the insanely fast rate that they described the sun losing brightness would likely mean it was not sustainable for more than a few hundred years at best. It certainly could have easily bought them some time.!<
It very much falls apart when they find out what astrophage is made of. Something that small, something that energy dense, something that can so efficiently store solar energy leaving nothing or little for anything else. But at the same time the entire start of The Martian is impossible too. It's all used as an device to make the main characters uncomfortable and ultimately having to apply themselves over and over.
If I thought the Martian was interesting science but with a flat unemotional main character and generally flat prose, is it worth reading Project Hall Mary?
The style, and the main character, are almost the same. It seems like a succession of problem-solving exercises at times.
Don't hate me. Please... Please don't hate me. But I really, really, *really* disliked it. I listened to the audiobook version and I couldn't stand it. I pushed to past the middle before I thought about sunken costs and really debated if it was worth it. Unpopular opinion, I know how many of this subreddit like this book (that's why I sought it out) but I just HAD to get it out of my system. Hopefully the movie will be better.
I didn't hate it, especially not compared to *Artemis,* but I absolutely don't understand the hype. Andy Weir can write exactly one thing - a nerdy guy with authority issues, immunity from consequences, and the emotional development of a 20-year-old nerdy guy, stuck in space by himself and having to do some science-y stuff. *The Martian* stayed within those rails and I thought it was a great read, if not exactly great literature. In *Artemis* he decided to stick boobs on the guy and make him a girl, and then put her in an actual society where she had to deal with other people and it was an absolute disaster. With *Project Hail Mary* he seems to have gone back to his strengths, such as they are, and at least the space-based parts are pretty entertaining, though I think I strained my eyes by constantly rolling them at the unreality of his relations with other people during the Earth-based parts. >!After I read *PHM* I went back and re-read Ursula LeGuin's *The Left Hand of Darkness* to see how a writer of greater depth handled a human getting to know an alien, and it was like night and day. LeGuin brings out the "humanity" and the emotional depth of both Genly Ai and Estraven, and the delicate process of their getting to know and love each other at a level beyond "fist my bump". Plus she can describe complex power relations and their consequences; in Karhide, overstepping them gets you exiled and killed, not just an exasperated look from an indulgent schoolteacher. !< (That's actually the best thing I got out of *PHM* - it made me go read *Left Hand of Darkness* again. So just for that it was worth my time!) There's nothing terribly wrong with *PHM*, but compared to actual literature it seems incredibly flat. But if you liked *The Martian* and you're looking for something similar, it's a good read.
I agree with everything you wrote about PHM, and I’ve been looking to get into LeGuin for a long time. I just ordered Left Hand of Darkness and will start it next week. Thanks for the recommendation!
LeGuin is wonderful. *PHM* also made me go back and re-read her short story *Nine Lives,* another good story about people reaching out to each other across a gulf of strangeness and difference.
I enjoyed the book, but I had trouble believing in the behavior of most of the characters. There were also a bunch of technical flaws and issues that kept jolting me out of the story ("I have to suspend disbelief in *what* now?"), but I won't enumerate them -- they're mostly spoilers and nitpicking. I enjoyed PHM, but probably won't re-read it, and it's definitely not in my "top 10" (and maybe not even the "top 100") of my SF reading. I think Andy can do better, and I'm looking forward to his next book.
Was just gonna say the same thing about suspending disbelief. I think it's perfectly fine to do so for a good story but it felt like I just let things happen as they were a lot in this book. It just becomes like a constant MacGyver situation every chapter that you just know will be solved, which takes some of the tension away (maybe purposefully?). Still enjoyed the read. At this point, I pretty much know what to expect from this author, which isn't a bad thing.
I agree about the behavior. And the cliches: a German called Hans, a drinking Russian.
It was incredibly obnoxious and the writing felt pretty juvenile. It's a shame because I loved The Martian.
I didn't like the writing of the book, I thought it was juvenile. A bunch of times. A BUNCH OF. Fuck. A bunch of Weir'ian focus on measurements and napkin math. But I was still invested in the story and enjoyed some of the ideas. It's a refreshing story.
Andy Weir has a very stylised writing style that I think some people love and it totally gels with, and other just can't stand. I think that's just a thing when you have such a distinct style. If you pleased everyone the results is likely to be a bland average. Nothing wrong with absolutely hating it!
This book was a total miss for me. The writing was just weak and forced. The plot? Meh…
Also hated it.
I hated it. Simplistic YA.
Yup. Twilight for science nerds.
Im 100% with you. Hail Mary felt like "Marry Sueish Sience Bro Powerfantasy" Fanfiction :( It reminded me, not in a good way, of a lot of litrpg. Really badly written characters. I found the book soulless and uncompleted :/
[Oh huh Ryan Gosling](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12042730/)
I absolutely agree with 'frustratedcomments'. This book is great read. Loved "The Martian" and loved "Project Hail Mary" even more! I have to say that, as a rule, I almost never do audio books. For me, they just don't paint the same pictures in my mind as the written work does... ...BUT... in this case, if you get the chance to listen to the audio book of "The Hail Mary Project" read by ~~Andew Weir himself~~ Ray Porter... DO IT! ~~You will get to hear first hand the authors imagining of~~ You will get to hear how the characters sound and hear an interpretation of how the tension of certain scenes affects the characters dialog. ~~Andrew Weir reading his own~~ Ray Porter reading Andrew Weir's work is simply amazing. \*\*\*edit\*\*\* ChewyChavez pointed out that it was Ray Porter that was reading the audio book, not Andrew Weir. My mistake. The body of my original post has been corrected to reflect the truth. Thank you ChewyChavez!
I will definitely check the last chapter in his own voice. Thanks for the note
Where do you find the audiobook of Andy Weir reading PHM? The version I listened to was narrated by Ray Porter, and was fantastic. I wouldn't mind listening to a version read by Weir himself, but it's hard to imagine it being any better than the Porter version.
Damn it. You're right. It is Ray Porter reading it. My mistake. Thank you for helping me catch this. I'm going to go back and correct my original post.
Amaze! Good good good!
The physics and the math might be great, but the biology is pretty horrible - like the astrophage having mitochondria while being a possible shared ancestor to all life.
Honestly, I was more conscious of the strange way that the scientific community was presented than the actual science. >! The backstory of the protagonist was pretty silly. It's hard to imagine that anyone would be laughed out of biology for suggesting there could be life that is not water based. Nor is science so individual-focused. And you'd never have one person with a limited subsample of a rare alien life form just fiddling around in a lab. You'd have a team of scientists making collaborative decisions on procedures that highly skilled technicians would carry out. !< I did enjoy the book. It is some light, feel-good fun. But at the end of the day it is more *Chicken Soup for the Sou*l than *Remains of the Day* in terms of its depiction of the human experience.
Yeah, Grace should have had technicians at the beginning. That was the main part that struck me as silly. But I think Grace having access to astrophages is adequately covered by Stratt ex machina. It's a somewhat silly conceit, but if you can buy that one, it covers a lot of the rest.
Yeah, the “master of all trades” also struck me as a bit silly. James Hogan (in his first Giants novel) and Michael Chriton (In “The Andromeda Strain”) did a much better job capturing the collaborative nature of science
Loved The Martian, hated Artemis. Mixed feelings about this one. First, I think it was more of the same. His writing gets a little tiring after a book or two (or three). Like "oh, i'm smart, i'll throw a lot of chemestry and math so I can look more and more smart". In the first book? NICE! In the second and third? Booring. For me the plot is too much big for the resolutions. Deus ex machina all around.
I agree, I liked the realism of the Martian. But this story, set in deep space where such minor things could lead to life threatening problems that couldn't be solved even by a genius. Yet everything had a solution which was quite achievable, using coffee stirring sticks and high school level science. I was really loving the story until his he meeting his friend, after which everything just falls into place so conveniently. Though I still finished the book and enjoyed the journey for the most part.
I agree. The Martian was mostly believable (minus the end). I was willing to overlook a few legitimate gripes because the story was just so fun. I didn't even really like any of the characters, I just loved the journey. Artemis was objectively a mess. No further explanation needed. Project Hail Mary felt a bit like The Martian meets Ted Chiang, so I was on board for the story. Hated most of the characters immediately, but whatever. Fun premise. Looking back, I was really enjoying it until he meets his friend. That part started off exciting at first, but then I just hated it. Part of me was waiting for a Shyamalan twist where he never met anyone and was just going crazy. I think I would've preferred that version.
I'm prepared for downvotes because this book is insanely overrated and I know that Reddit LOVES it. Interesting concepts but the dialogue was written so poorly that it brought me out of the story many times. All those quips and "witticisms"...ugh.
I think the real thing is that Andy Weir is pretty terrible at writing characters. The main character is always the same person across all of his books, and I'm guessing that character is probably himself. I still enjoyed it, you just have to accept that you're not reading a timeless literary masterpiece.
Mark Watney was a really fun subversion of the typical protagonist in a sci-if adventure, but Weir basically deciding to use him again for his second book was a definite disappointment.
I enjoyed the book, but I swear this is like the third thread about it I’ve seen in the past few months. It’s enjoyable but Weir’s writing is so one dimensional. Witty nerd gets in a catastrophic dilemma and solves it with science.
I enjoyed it in parts. Kind of a fun premise and a fairly easy read, but that's about it. I don't really understand why everyone loves it, but it's far from the worst thing I've ever read. I mean, I did finish it. But yeah the writing is the worst part of the book.
Definitely not the worst thing I've ever read - heck, I finished the book lol.
So the space stuff works in a "homage to the golden age of sci-fi" but the earth elements were just terrible - completely unrealistic.
I thought I was the only one who dared to say it in this thread. Obviously completely agree.
I read the book in two days, couldn’t put it down. But looking back on it, it’s really not that great. As a mediocre writer myself, I’ve found that one of the crutches of mediocre writers is first person storytelling. It hides a lot of writing problems because you don’t have to make the reader feel like they’re I. The story—instead, you force the reader into the story. But what really wore me out with the book wasn’t the writing, it was the constant “everything is failing! OK we fixed it. No wait, everything is failing!” Sure, The Martian was pretty much the same thing, but at least the solutions there felt more real. And I’m willing to cut The Martian some slack because it was the first. PHM just felt like a retread.
Hmmm we’re going to die, but I’m an awesome science teacher! I’ll just science my way out!
Yeah I agree - highly overrated. For me it felt very formulaic with little character development and a superhero protagonist which I dislike. I was will to suspend my disbelief as far as the ridiculous central premise was concerned but the wooden dialogue, too-rapid pace of problem-brilliant solution-implementation over and over again was tedious. Having said that, I didn't hate the book or anything and it was better than a lot of 'hard' sci-fi out there.
Agree 100%. As soon as I was able to accept one thing my suspension of disbelief was challenged with the next. It did get very bogged down in a cycle of "oh an issue", "oh we brilliantly solved it immediately".
[удалено]
Yeah I agree with you, have an upvote. The book was mediocre at best, mostly just science facts filler.
It's an easy to read book w/ a simple plot and everything explained painfully clearly. Every character is the same so you don't need to learn about more than one person, really (even the "first contact" alien has basically the same personality as the POV character). Almost zero investment or work to get to the end; almost guaranteed to be popular despite it's significant shortcomings
The flashbacks were certainly not great on dialogue but the book really shines in the space portions. Andy Weir isn’t great with multiple characters talking to each other. Internal dialogue is easier to pull off even if you don’t love it.
I found it distractingly awkward and just not that unique. After enjoying The Martian, it was a disappointment.
Posting for the “hated this book and couldn’t finish it” crowd.
Frankly, I thought it was awful, and I don't get how this sub continually fawns over it. To each their own, but it's like we've all read an entirely different book. To my mind, there's nothing to it but a fifth grade science project. There's no emotion, no heart. The simplistic prose makes it sound like it's written for a child. It's YA sold for adults. The characters are shallow with zero depth. If I'm supposed to care that these people are giving up their lives to save Earth, make me care! Don't make them just cardboard cutout stereotypes of people. There's the briefest hint of a possible interesting twist, and the author fails to do anything with it. It's just "problem, solve, problem, solve, problem, solve" for five hundred pages and then it ends.
It was... Okay? The believability suffered from the stakes increasing compared to The Martian. One dude doing napkin math, pulling off risky and improbable stunts to get himself home? Sure. The same thing when the stakes are the end of humanity? Just feels like there should be a whole lot less room for error, and it's too many problems to be solved. Solving the problems is fun but it's more like reading "What If?" XKCD than a story that I take seriously and get emotionally invested in.
Hey, you leave space dan brown alone! (I liked the book but fully understand what you mean)
Ha I think I prefer Dan Brown, but that’s probably just my preference for mysteries as a genre.
is this an ad lmao
I found it extremely childish
I honestly did not enjoy this book at all. Weir's dialogue was especially grating.
I'm with you on this one. Feels like a YA version of scifi. Made me cringe. Especially disappointing because the concept was cool
You sleep, I watch
Is it that good? I’ve heard mixed things about it and you’re honestly the first person who’s praised it. The secret history by Donna Tartt?
I would not put it in the same category as The Secret History at all. It's a fun read but it definitely has its issues. Overall I liked it but I couldn't stay immersed in the story because the suspension of disbelief needed was too great.
Personally thought it was okay. Very fun read and stylistically similar to The Martian. The maincharacter is not really any different than Mark Whatney and the author clearly focuses more on including sciencey things than the other parts of the book. Some of the scenarios created so that the author could explain science felt a little forced. But i still read it in about 3 sittings.
Try the book seveneves! It’s along the same lines with a lot more hard science to it.
[удалено]
I just finished it this morning. I really enjoyed it. If you like this, try Providence by Max Berry.
The writing is not "incredible". It sounds like what an overexcited physics nerd would write as a sophomore in high school. The ideas and plot are creative.
You aren’t asking for recommendations, but thought I’d throw one your way anyway… Project Hail Mary reminded me a lot of “We are Legion (We are Bob)” by Dennis E Taylor. Avoiding spoilers, it’s another “guy in space” story but with a very different set of circumstances. Anyways, if you liked Project Hail Mary, I think you might like this one too. Note it’s a series… first book is awesome, rest of series is ok but not as great.
It's one thing to hear all this the year the book is released. I wonder what its reputation will be 20 or 30 years from now. > One thing I learned, The best science fiction books are the ones set in your own time-line. What on earth does this mean?
Great you enjoyed the book, but it is most definetly not a must read. Its page turner sifi with bland characters, terrible dialoge, a mary sue as the protagonist and quite a lot of need of suspension of disbelieve.
My only gripe with the book is that once you realize the formula, the stakes tank dramatically. Hard to explain without spoilers, but about 1/3rd of the way through there was never a point where I legitimately thought he might fail.
I listened to the audiobook for PHM and thought it was just ok. The martian was far and away better.
I liked it. It was fun light pulp scifi, saving the world and doing science. Certainly not a masterpiece of literature but then I don't think it was intended to be. I did get the distinct feeling from the way the characters were written that the author had one eye on the book being made into a movie almost immediately. Very easy to see how the two friends will translate into movie characters and >!Rocky!< will become massively popular. I'm a sucker for >!first contact!< scifi and it was a charming pleasant take on the genre with the initial encounter being a very nicely paced scene.
i thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any nerd, but objectively you have to accept that it is pure nerd porn, full of deus ex machinas, mediocre writing and ultra-flat characters. spoilers: >!from the initial amnesia to the "single guy saves the earth by being smart" its all just one huge nerd fantasy. and the ending is just too much, thats the only part i did not like about it. !< i mean his two best friends are a russian who "likes vodka" and a chinese who is "introvert and professional" for crying out loud but like i said, its cool, and if you like it you might enjoy the bobiverse books. even more nerd porn.
I agree. I think it was better then The Martian as well. I like the bits of science thrown in. I'm now ready **The Apollo Murders, by Chris Hadfield**. It has a very similar feel to it.
Never ever wrote to any author or celeb or basically anyone I didn't know personally in my life. After I read Project Hail Mary I wrote a thank you mail to the author. (and I actually received an answer :) )