I found myself thinking many times throughout this very long book (clocks in at 500 pages, if you’re wondering) that the author stretched himself creatively in ways he didn’t attempt in The Martian. At any point, if Rhyland gives up, the book will take an incredibly dark turn, so it was a relief to have a narrator who doesn’t seem have that in his DNA. His optimism was a necessary vehicle in this book because the plot always carries the end of the world on its shoulders, even in lighter moments. As a reader, I was so charmed by him and his quirks, like his insistence on not swearing and his enjoyment of space food, despite his dire situation. An optimist, an elementary teacher, and an absolute genius scientist. Project Hail Mary’s main character, Ryland Grace, is just the kind of person you’d want to be stuck in space with. I know I’m not the only one who lost a bit of faith after his sophomore novel, Artemis, (actually, it’s pretty well known that this is one of the most notable sophomore slumps of the last ten years) so I was really glad to hear he went back to a male lead and shot them back into an EVA suit. I am so happy to report that Weir’s latest foray into space is the latter.

Space books tend to go one of two ways- utterly fantastical and ridiculous or scientific to the note and absolutely epic. As the sun loses its brightness at an alarming rate and the planet hurtles towards uninhabitable, Rhyland finds himself the last man standing on a manned mission to space with an impossible goal and an unlikely partner. until he’s suddenly a top scientist on a mission to save planet Earth. Rhyland Grace is a sixth grade teacher ….

Books like hail mary