He also learns to communicate with the alien, a spider-like creature without eyes but with a heightened sense of hearing, and together they set about working together to save their respective worlds. Grace slowly recovers his memory in flashbacks that provide back-story. Lo and behold, though, an alien ship has arrived in the system with a sole survivor and the same mission. However, to complicate matters, when Grace arrives at his destination, he wakes up from a four-year coma with amnesia, and his crewmates are dead. To accomplish this, he is sent on an interstellar mission to the Tau Ceti system Tau Ceti is the only nearby star that has not been infested by the space plague, and he and his crewmates need to find out why. A single-celled space creature has begun to feed on the sun’s energy, and first-person protagonist Ryland Grace must figure out a way to stop the invading pests before the Earth and the rest of the solar system freezes. The fate of the entire planet is at stake. In Project Hail Mary, the stakes are far greater. In The Martian, stranded astronaut Mark Watney must use his scientific knowhow to learn how to survive on Mars until he is rescued. In Project Hail Mary, Weir returns to the perspective and focus that made The Martian such a hit: an emphasis on science, or at least pseudo-science, as the hero that saves the day. The main character is unsympathetic she is a petty smuggler who is willing to sabotage expensive industrial equipment just so she can improve her living conditions. On the strength of that story, I read Artemis, which is entertaining but ultimately a disappointment. I never read The Martian, but I watched the film several times. Weir’s first novel, the one that catapulted him to international literary fame, was, of course, The Martian, which was turned into a major movie that received numerous awards and accolades.

That’s because I was so disappointed by Weir’s second novel, Artemis.

I saw this book on the library shelves for several weeks before I decided to give it a read.

Project hail mary book review