Possibly the worst criticism I could give to Project Hail Mary is it is just a little tedious in places and certainly not nearly as convincing as Andy Weirs “The Martian”. The latter of which remains one of my favourite books and left me truly feeling like humanity had actually already visited Mars (say it ain’t so). The setup here is a fairly typical end-of-world-final-chance affair but is presented believably and makes for a worthwhile read and one I wholeheartedly recommend. I do tend to prefer more personal struggles than end-of-everything yarns and this book thankfully focuses on the main characters situation and struggles rather than dwelling on the reasons for it. I genuinely felt for the comradery between the two main characters by the end – which was entirely satisfactory even if I’d have liked to know more about the struggles that humanity faced back on Earth.
An excellent read from beginning to end (4 out 5 Supernovas).
“How did you do it? What killed it?”
“I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe.”
“You poked it with a stick?”
“No!” I said. “Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick.”