Reading and listening to books are among my favorite hobbies. I want to start posting occasional book reviews on Hive, and I think Project Hail Mary is a good one to begin with.
There are two main reasons I've chosen to write a review of Project Hail Mary. First, it's one of my top 10 favorite science fiction books I've listened. Second, it's been made into a movie which will be released on March 20, 2026. I really enjoy it when there is an opportunity to both read a good book and see the film version, which is almost always not as good 😂. "The book was better" is almost an automatic quote after seeing a movie based on a book.
About the Author
Project Hail Mary was written by Andy Weir. He is probably most well known for writing The Martian, which was also made into a movie starring Matt Damon. I have not read The Martian or any of his other works, but I did watch the film (The Martian) and enjoyed it.
About the Book
At the time of this post, Project Hail Mary has 961,894 ratings and 125,423 reviews on Goodreads, with a total rating of 4.5. As you can see, it's quite a popular book, and it's no surprise that it has been made into a movie.
Here is a brief description of the book from the publisher.
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?
That is a perfectly concise description of the book and I don't think I could do any better in writing a short summary. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page if you want to read more.
My Thoughts
To get straight to the point, my wife and I both absolutely loved this book. We listened to it on Audible during a couple of road trips to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It seems like we just finished the book last year, but looking at my Goodreads history, it was October 2022! Wow, how the time flies by!
To bring up an opposing viewpoint, @holoz0r did not like this book, according to his review. So, perhaps this book is not for everyone.
Although most of the "science" is not meticulously explained the way it might be by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park), it is mostly plausibly believable as opposed to something like Star Wars (which I also like), which has a lot more fantasy included. Sometimes I am in the mood for something with more depth, but this is more of an "easy" listen and was enjoyable for both me and my wife.
Similar to The Martian, most of the book is centered on one person, Ryland Grace. It's written from a first-person perspective, and I really felt like I was right there with him on the journey into space.
The audiobook is narrated by Ray Porter, who is a fantastic and talented narrator and is one of my absolute favorites, along with Scott Brick. When I'm on the fence about buying an audiobook and I see it's narrated by one of these two, it will usually sway my decision towards a yes.
Without giving any spoilers, the story is highly entertaining and has a satisfying ending. A lot of interesting things happen along the way for a man "alone" in space.
I strongly recommend getting this as an audiobook or reading the physical copy, and I rated it a 5/5 on Goodreads and Audible.
The Film
If you're interested in the upcoming film release of Project Hail Mary, here are some links and the trailer. Note: the trailer does have some spoilers for the book, so only watch it if you don't mind some minor spoilers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08TxIsFTRI
Closing
Thanks for reading my review!
Have you read or listened to Project Hail Mary? What did you think about it? I'm curious to know your thoughts and if you have any other recommendations. If you liked this book, I recommend checking out the Bobiverse Series on Audible.