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A review by isabellarobinson7
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
3.5
Forewarning: this review is a mess. This review is an absolute mess. This review is a dumpster fire. You thought I rambled before, get ready. This is what 18 days in the draft folder does to a review.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Aha! I readeded the book! Yeah! This one! The Catholic one!
I have had this book on my radar from before it came out, but was finally convinced to actually read it when one of my Goodreads friends said it was his favourite sci fi book of all time. Plus, 29 of my friends on here have read it and only two have given it below 4 stars (which makes their average rating 4.52, the same as the book’s average rating. Huh. My friends know what's up.)
My history with Andy Weir is actually quite long. I don't remember the first time I read The Martian (it was before I started cataloguing my reading in depth), but I'm pretty sure it was either before or around the time the movie came out (though looking at it now, the book was traditionally published only a year before the movie released, so I am not entirely sure on that fact. And I read it first through the library with my old card so I can't look up when I borrowed it. Grrrrr). Weir's next book, Artemis, I read only a month and a half after it came out, and I am aware barely anyone else did, but I liked it. And yes, as well as that, I am a female (I know it gets a lot of flack for its female characters). Though, I haven't reread it since then so I can't say if I would feel the same today.
Ok, enough background. Review the Catholic book, Isabella. Well, of course I know it's not Catholic, it's f**king Andy Weir for goodness sake, but where do you think "hail Mary" comes from? But in terms of Andy Weir, this was quite tame. This is the author of The Martian where there are (as a quick google search has just told me) over 160 profanities, the first of which is (as a quick flick though my copy has just told me) the fourth word. I made a note when I was 25% in to Project Hail Mary and there had only been two f words. I know, who would have thought Andy was capable of such restraint. Plus, I don't think there was many more after that... yep, I have the ebook from the library and there were only 4 total f-bombs in the entire book. Oh, it was also kind of cool because I had the audio as well as the ebook, and where the ebook just had different notes (like ♫♩♪♫ ♫♪♫♩ ♫♪♫) the audio made music noise. (Now I'm kind of annoyed because I just got the audio for free from Audible. The same one I waited ages for my library reserve to come to fruition with. If I had just been patient for a couple more weeks...) So yeah, the audio was pretty good. Except the “New Zealand” accent sounded more Australian.
I love how I've already said The Martian's title more than this book's. It's Project Hail Mary people. That's the book I'm supposed to be reviewing. Shows my tangential susceptibility. Let's try to get back on track (key word: try) and start by summarising this book. This book. Project Hail Mary. That's what you came for anyway. Not all these (brackets) and italics and sin/cos. (Come on, who did trigonometry and who's cackling with me right now?)
AAAHHHH COME ON! I just keep tangent-ing! This book is about... a dude. He goes to space. But who is he? No one knows. HE doesn't even know. He forget. But don't worry! He remembers now. He science teacher. Then there are tiny space bugs eating the sun. Humans, we don't want that. We like sun! We need it for sunbathing. How would we get tan without sun? Humans want tiny space bugs gone. But then they figure out that tiny space bugs make rocket ships go vroom! so maybe keep them around a little longer. But not on sun. Still need sun (for sunbathing, and less important stuff, like, I don't know, keeping us alive). So! Humans do some human-ing and we send people to kill the tiny space bugs on the sun! The dude and two other people. But then the other people dead! And tiny space bugs still alive!!!! Noooooo!!!! What we do?!?!?! I know! We find friend! Dude finds friend and we do Close Encounters and Arrival with new friend! (...of the Third Kind I mean the Spielberg movie.) They best friends now. Even have secret hand shake. Involves lots of hands. And lots of shaking. Ultimate best friends. And then... spoilers happen. Dun dun DUN! Can't say more because otherwise your head will explode from too many spoilers.
Phew. I can promise you I WAS sober while writing that. Sane... not so much. In effect, that is what Project Hail Mary is about. (Oh man, I just reread it. Am I going to keep it in? Yeah, why not.)
Ahh I need to put some coherent stuff here to explain my rating. Andy Weir can write sci fi wonderfully… but he can only write one character and one story type - a witty dude survives in space. That’s all he has done in all three of his books. (The Egg is different though… where has that Andy Weir gone? And when will he come back?) This is not necessarily bad, some of the best authors don’t write outside one genre, one sub genre even, but… do you know what I mean? Probably not. I barely do.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Aha! I readeded the book! Yeah! This one! The Catholic one!
I have had this book on my radar from before it came out, but was finally convinced to actually read it when one of my Goodreads friends said it was his favourite sci fi book of all time. Plus, 29 of my friends on here have read it and only two have given it below 4 stars (which makes their average rating 4.52, the same as the book’s average rating. Huh. My friends know what's up.)
My history with Andy Weir is actually quite long. I don't remember the first time I read The Martian (it was before I started cataloguing my reading in depth), but I'm pretty sure it was either before or around the time the movie came out (though looking at it now, the book was traditionally published only a year before the movie released, so I am not entirely sure on that fact. And I read it first through the library with my old card so I can't look up when I borrowed it. Grrrrr). Weir's next book, Artemis, I read only a month and a half after it came out, and I am aware barely anyone else did, but I liked it. And yes, as well as that, I am a female (I know it gets a lot of flack for its female characters). Though, I haven't reread it since then so I can't say if I would feel the same today.
Ok, enough background. Review the Catholic book, Isabella. Well, of course I know it's not Catholic, it's f**king Andy Weir for goodness sake, but where do you think "hail Mary" comes from? But in terms of Andy Weir, this was quite tame. This is the author of The Martian where there are (as a quick google search has just told me) over 160 profanities, the first of which is (as a quick flick though my copy has just told me) the fourth word. I made a note when I was 25% in to Project Hail Mary and there had only been two f words. I know, who would have thought Andy was capable of such restraint. Plus, I don't think there was many more after that... yep, I have the ebook from the library and there were only 4 total f-bombs in the entire book. Oh, it was also kind of cool because I had the audio as well as the ebook, and where the ebook just had different notes (like ♫♩♪♫ ♫♪♫♩ ♫♪♫) the audio made music noise. (Now I'm kind of annoyed because I just got the audio for free from Audible. The same one I waited ages for my library reserve to come to fruition with. If I had just been patient for a couple more weeks...) So yeah, the audio was pretty good. Except the “New Zealand” accent sounded more Australian.
I love how I've already said The Martian's title more than this book's. It's Project Hail Mary people. That's the book I'm supposed to be reviewing. Shows my tangential susceptibility. Let's try to get back on track (key word: try) and start by summarising this book. This book. Project Hail Mary. That's what you came for anyway. Not all these (brackets) and italics and sin/cos. (Come on, who did trigonometry and who's cackling with me right now?)
AAAHHHH COME ON! I just keep tangent-ing! This book is about... a dude. He goes to space. But who is he? No one knows. HE doesn't even know. He forget. But don't worry! He remembers now. He science teacher. Then there are tiny space bugs eating the sun. Humans, we don't want that. We like sun! We need it for sunbathing. How would we get tan without sun? Humans want tiny space bugs gone. But then they figure out that tiny space bugs make rocket ships go vroom! so maybe keep them around a little longer. But not on sun. Still need sun (for sunbathing, and less important stuff, like, I don't know, keeping us alive). So! Humans do some human-ing and we send people to kill the tiny space bugs on the sun! The dude and two other people. But then the other people dead! And tiny space bugs still alive!!!! Noooooo!!!! What we do?!?!?! I know! We find friend! Dude finds friend and we do Close Encounters and Arrival with new friend! (...of the Third Kind I mean the Spielberg movie.) They best friends now. Even have secret hand shake. Involves lots of hands. And lots of shaking. Ultimate best friends. And then... spoilers happen. Dun dun DUN! Can't say more because otherwise your head will explode from too many spoilers.
Phew. I can promise you I WAS sober while writing that. Sane... not so much. In effect, that is what Project Hail Mary is about. (Oh man, I just reread it. Am I going to keep it in? Yeah, why not.)
Ahh I need to put some coherent stuff here to explain my rating. Andy Weir can write sci fi wonderfully… but he can only write one character and one story type - a witty dude survives in space. That’s all he has done in all three of his books. (The Egg is different though… where has that Andy Weir gone? And when will he come back?) This is not necessarily bad, some of the best authors don’t write outside one genre, one sub genre even, but… do you know what I mean? Probably not. I barely do.