1y ago

Book of the Month (August 2023)

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

We had a pretty good turnout for our first book of the month vote. To be honest I did not anticipate the problem of there being a tie. I took the liberty of flipping a coin which came out heads for Project Hail Mary. In the future I might have to come up with a better method of tie breaking. I'm figuring this out as I go and it is all just for the fun of it anyway so please don't take this too seriously.

I intend to read this book over the month of September and then near the end of the month I will create a discussion thread for it where people can discuss it without worrying about spoilers. Follow along if you want to.

👽🚀

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir - 20 votes
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky - 20 votes
Neuromancer - William Gibson - 17 votes
Hyperion - Dan Simmons - 13 votes
Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey - 13 votes
A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine - 11 votes
Wool (Silo Series Book 1) - Hugh Howey - 10 votes
Red Rising - Pierce Brown - 4 votes
22/11/63 - Stephen King - 1 vote

https://bookwyrm.social/user/ScienceFiction

60 comments

This book was my favorite read from last year. I love Weir's mixture of researched scientific detail and irreverent humor, which he also exhibited in my other favorite novel of his, The Martian. His protagonists are down to earth even while being literally anywhere else, problem solve while facing extreme and dire straights, and use humor as a defense mechanism in very non-humorous situations.
Though he writes in a similar style to The Martian in Project Hail Mary, the feel is very different. Without spoiling any details, unlike The Martian's straight forward survival story, PHM has a non-linear narrative, a slowly revealing mystery, epic stakes, and more classic pop sci-fi elements. My wife and I listened to this as an audiobook in the car together, enjoying the tension, the creative problem solving, and the witticisms throughout. If that sounds like something you're into or if you enjoyed The Martian, you should pick this one up.
- I felt that the protagonist in The Martian and Project Hail Mary were way too similar - both loveable science goofs making jokes while doing unreasonable math on napkins. But maybe that's the right formula to keep the science interesting for the reader.
  The stories were different enough, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Mark Watney was on this new mission.
  
  You're not wrong that Ryland and Mark feel very similar. But I can't blame the Weir for wanting to put a character with a similar archetype in a more epic story with a new format.
  He could obviously have made it a sequel and just had the character be Mark. And, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that that was the case in an early draft/outline. But doing so would have some unique consequences on the story and challenges to writing the story he wanted to. He would have to worry about precedent and character development from The Martian carrying forward into PHM, but making it accessible to those who didn't read The Martian. He'd have to justify why Mark has gotten himself in this new situation after barely surviving the last. Having a character we already know would fundamentally change the nature of Ryland's backstory reveals and the character flaws we learn about in this story (I don't know how those elements would work with the Mark we know). And making Mark into franchise character would be an odd choice in a story with such a different flavor of worldbuilding and with the consequences of events in this story.
  Using a character that is similar to one people loved from your other work may seem like a creative cop out, but I see it more as an iterative development on the archetype he is interested in. And I like the archetype. People write anthology-esque stories with similar themes, settings, subjects all the time. I have no qualms with a writer having a recurring character archetype that they tweak between entirely different stories, especially when they are written to be clever and endearing, but still flawed people. It's a matter of personal taste, but I resonate with that character type and find them compelling and fun to read. I don't mind that it's not a serialized story/character when the stories being told are each self-contained.
  
  Thank you for this comment. I read both The Martian and Artemis (both by Weir). I loved The Martian. My enjoyment of The Martian was equal to my disappointment in Artemis. I was guarded about giving another Weir book a chance.

Don't make the mistake of making this your first audio book, it will ruin all other audio books for you.
- Ray Porter (the narrator of this one and the Martian) is a freaking treasure. Easily the best I've stumbled across.
  
  After PHM I just listened to other Ray porter audiobooks for awhile, it was ok. And yes, the audio book is very very very good.
  
  There's 2 versions of the Martian, but IIRC Porter didn't do either. I think it's r c bray and the star trek kid, is it whedon?
- I only read the book, so I'm very interested: How does the audio book deal with the main foreign language?
  
  It's so good. It's mostly just little happy musical chords that are inserted into the dialog. The tones give Rocky a great depth of character.
  
  Major spoilers for anyone that hasn't read the book. >!It does it all with what sounds like a synthesizer. It really, really brings the character to life. You get used to short notes for quick things he says, but then the longer expressions are amazing.!< If you loved the book and haven't heard the audio book, I highly recommend giving it a shot.
- Haha, I made this exact mistake when I started with audiobooks recently.
  Went with The Martian as #2, and currently on the Bobiverse books, but so far they just aren't as amazing.

Great read. Probably my favorite book Weir has put out so far.
Not technically a sequel to The Martian but it kinda feels like it in a way. That’s not a negative for me though, Martian is a great story
- I love both the top two choices. Children of Time that series is awesome and I recommend everyone read them. I own both physical copies and audiobooks of all three.
  Project Hail Mary is also excellent book but I only have the audio version. Love to get a copy of the actual book because I do understand it diffrent in one way from the audio version.
  I read few of the others the Hyperion series is also a great read should have been higher up. I own the ebooks, audiobooks, and hardack copies of that series. A great series.
  Definitely will read rest of what's on this list soon.

jazz hands
- AMAZE!
  
  ♪♫♩♪♩♫

Just to echo what others have said, the audiobook version is amazing. It adds a ton of depth to the book that you can't get without reading alone.

Ok so as soon as I saw that the book was called Hail Mary, I was said to myself "OK so there will be a main character called Grace or something"
My buddy (fairly religious guy) read the whole book without noticing that same pun. He's usually the one who points this kind of joke out to oblivious me.
It's such a "I started with this joke and worked backwards" kind of great name lol.
- Is the joke that both are a type of prayer?
  
  The Hail Mary prayer in catholicism begins "Hail Mary, full of grace, ..."

Project Hail Mary was fucking excellent!

Book ordered! Thanks for running this Izzy!
- I hope it will turn out fun and engaging. I have also ordered the book. 😀

It's a decent book, but there were some things which bothered me.
The hero is similar to the Martian, all-knowing MacGyver type, always optimistic, likely author's alter ego. The character seems hollow. This unending optimism and humour spoils the atmosphere for me. Universe is a dark, dangerous place, I want some of that in sci-fi books ...
I also disliked the easiness with which the hero was able to learn to communicate with Rocky. I guess it was necessary to progress with the story, but figuring out a communication with aliens might be way more challenging because their whole way of thinking would be likely different (e.g. Arrival).
Out of the rest of the books, my favorites (roughly in this order) are Hyperion, Wool, Neuromancer, Children of Time.
Red Rising is IMHO rather a YA fantasy than sci-fi.
- The hero is similar to the Martian, all-knowing MacGyver type, always optimistic, likely author's alter ego. The character seems hollow
  I haven't read this one yet, but I read another one by Andy Weir (Artemis) and I thought the exact same thing despite the character being female. At this point, I think Weir only writes one type of protagonist, which is disappointing because I loved The Martian.
  Edit: also, you didn't mention Leviathan Wakes in your rundown of the other books. If you haven't read it yet and you enjoyed the others on your list, I'd highly recommend finding a used copy, because I've thoroughly enjoyed all of The Expanse novels (although I haven't started the last two yet)
  
  Yeah, I've watched The Expanse, and it's kinda weird for me to read what I've already watched. I prefer to read first, watch later, otherwise the TV imagery influences the reading too much and there isn't so much space for imagination.

All of these books have a 3 month wait on my Libby. Oh well thanks for the list!
Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite reads this year and I recommend it to anyone that's even a little sciencey.
- Since the list is generated from the monthly reading post it isn't surprisingly to me that it ended up being some of the most popular mainstream books. As time goes on and these books get picked over the months I believe the list will become more niche as I won't allow a winner to make it back on the list.

Love the outcome of the poll. Project Hail Mary is simply my favorite book

Oh yea definitely. I missed the voting (didn’t even know about this community before) but I had never read a book such as this one. I bought it because I really had enjoyed The Martian and especially the style of the author as I’m an engineer (Artemis was alright) but then it stayed on the shelf for a few months.
One day I pick it up and it basically didn’t last a week total and this included my girlfriend reading it as well (I think she took like 2 days). And we’re definitely not power readers.
Literally couldn’t put the book down.
His next book can’t come quick enough.
If anyone else has recommendations on similar books let me know. We really like that he goes through the thought process of the characters when solving the problems, even with some equations and math mixed it. So if you have recommendations based on that ping me.

- You won’t regret Project Hail Mary. One of the most fun books I’ve ever read.
- Memory Called Empire is a new favorite of mine. The sequel, A Desolation Called Peace, is also incredible.
  
  I felt the sequel was good but not on par with the first one. A Memory Called Empire just weaves the story using so many colors!
  
  The sequel even won the Hugo, so yea, I can't wait to read it.
- If you read/heard The Martian, it's similarly themed and detailed. If you haven't, then what are you doing! You need to go read the martian.

Glad the coin flipped head, I’ll be joining for the read!

Ahh Hyperion. I've reread three books/series ever: Dhalgren. Lord of Light and the Hyperion/Endymion cantos. Simply wonderful.
Red Rising is good. Memory Called Empire was ok. Project Hail Mary is quietly waiting on my to read shelf.

Some humble proposals for a few other sci-fi options for the next round that are a bit fresher than Gibson and Asimov (not that I don’t love the old guard!):
Venomous Lumpsuckers by Ned Beuman - winner of this years Arthur C Clark award for science fiction, a dark satire environmental disaster page turner touching on cryptobros, greenwashing, carbon credits and short selling late stage capitalism. Hilarious, but be warned: optimistic, it ain’t.
Terraformers by Analee Newitz - another extremely welcome breath of fresh air by Newitz, a sci fi epic spanning millenia also focused on environmentalism and capitalism with her refreshing approach to non-human sentience and fluid sexuality (Check out her “Autonomous” too if you haven’t already!)
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - beautiful prose and descriptions of a colorful and diverse cast of misfits on a worker class intergalactic highway construction ship. Some of the best descriptions of characters I’ve seen lately and some really interesting aliens.
Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi - imo MUCH improved offering from Scalzi over Red Shirts but still his characteristic pop-culture drenched page turner. One of the most face-punchingly terrible antagonists in recent memory.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang - incredibly evocative and thoughtful collection of short stories

I don’t know. Am i crazy for feeling like Weir is just rewriting The Martian (again)? Another engineer survivor porn story where the very smart man needs to very smart man way out of the escape room.
- It didn't feel like a rewrite, it felt like just a story set in that writing style. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the dialogue and attention to detail is great.
  
  Mhm. He very obviously has a style and voice that he enjoys and works well for him. At this point if I'm reading a Weir book it's because that's the vibe I want

I'm listening to the Audiobook of Project Hail Mary. Great listen.

I'm really late to this whole thing but this book is one of my favorite comfort reads. Idk, I think it feels weirdly wholesome where it's just 2 people(a guy and a huge scary space spider?) trying their best to save everyone and even though it didn't have an antagonist, it still felt like there was one in the form of space bacteria(?). One of my favorite reads

[off topic?]
I'd like to mention two books worth reading.
Author Daniel Suarez is hit and miss for me. Two great ones are 'Daemon' and 'Delta-V.'
Daemon posits a dying billionaire who comes up with a way top rebuild society from beyond the grave.
Delta-V is old school 'hey, kids, let's start ming the asteroids!'
Thank you.
Also, I think #6 is the best on the list, but 'Project Hail Mary' was very good, too.

One of my favourites. Weir's style may put some people off but he's definitely one of the best contemporary sci fi authors according to me.

Great book, I'm looking forward to the movie adaptation as well

Damn. Didn't expect the expanse to be so far down

Waiting on the library copy of phm. I'm something like 32 in line

Having read both, The Martian was very much a book I just simply put down (I lost so many hours of sleep because of it) whereas this one seemed decent.
If you liked the Martian, you'll like this one probably. There definitely was some weak moments, and the science portion, while crunchy sometimes, didn't hold up consistently.
Worth a read.

Im listening to the audio version of Project Hail Mary right now and am about half way through and Im not seeing the huge draw that it has on so many people. Im hoping it gets better
- It's a good book. Entertaining, insightful, emotionally human. Just not a great book. I would have expected Children of Time to blow it out of the water.
- I enjoyed it, but it wasn't great. It's the only Wier book I've read so I can't comment if it's that book in particular or the author's style.
  Would I bother to read it again? No.

60 comments