Book Club Monday: Project Hail Mary

Author: Andy Weir Title: Project Hail Mary Publisher: Ballantine Books Date Published: 05/04/2021

Read Dates: 03/01/2026- 03/07/2026
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

This was my library book club pick for March.

Project Hail Mary is a single POV science-fiction novel about a scientist, Ryland Grace, on a suicide mission to try to save Earth. He’s the sole survivor of his crew, and wakes from his induced coma missing a large chunk of his memories, somewhere in space with no idea what he’s supposed to be doing. All he has to do is recover his memory (learning his own name would be a start!), figure out what the threat to life on Earth is, and then solve it on his own. No problem!

I’m not generally a science fiction fan but I enjoyed the humor and writing style in this one. It definitely took some unexpected twists and turns, and I liked the dual timeline storytelling (some in present day and some in the past as recovered memories). Definitely worth the read!

A LONE ASTRONAUT.
AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION.
AN ALLY HE NEVER IMAGINED.

RYLAND GRACE is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and 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?