Andy Weir

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first man to die there.

It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he's stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his food would show more be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to get him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit--he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. For today, which appears to be World UFO Day (snort), it's your favorite SF/F novel, and boy howdy does this qualify!

Starting from the get-go, "Well, I'm fucked", you know Mark Watney isn't going to be one of those steely-eyed, square-jawed Ken-doll astronauts. Those came on the first and second Mars landings, vetted and trained (I don't doubt) by PR consultants as heavily as by scientists. Watney's on the third Mars landing, the one that won't get a parade on their safe return just a handshake and a Groupon for free Tim Horton's or summat like that.

And thank goodness for that, because Kendoll Astronautibot would've Died the Glorious Death for PR purposes. Watney's a helluva lot more fun.

And that is the crux of my review: FUN.

“Well, it is a photo taken from orbit,” Mindy said. “The NSA enhanced the image with the best software they have.”

“Wait, what?” Venkat stammered. “The NSA?”

“Yeah, they called and offered to help out.”

Maybe some po-faced Grimsby McFrownington doesn't think that's side-splittingly funny, but I sure as hell do.

This book is something unusual in my long experience of reading SF. It is exciting, it is convincing, and it is FUN. (Make that reading, not just reading SF.) Andy Weir took a very, very serious situation...life and death, not remotely figuratively...and didn't minimize any of the stakes, didn't make the mistake of downplaying OR overplaying the main character's nature, and delivered a believable smartass engineer, a lateral thinker and a complete fatalist who refuses to give up until he's actually assumed room temperature:

I could cut off an arm and eat it, gaining me valuable calories and reducing my overall caloric need.

I need a minute...laughing....

Now that, my chick-a-biddies, is Andy Weir making an angry, frustrated, maddened-by-stupidity old man lose it, howling with laughter, before he's finished his first cup of coffee. If I were religious, I'd have him on the Sainthood Watch List for performing miracles while still alive, from a long distance.

We all know that there's a movie on the way, starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott (he's a hard sneeze away from EIGHTY YEARS OLD and he's directing this! mother, may I please be Ridley Scott in my next lifetime?). The odds are reasonably good that this team won't eff it all up and make it into a s'mores-around-the-campfire-Kumbaya-singin'-Murrika-First nightmare. There are real stakes here, and the book delivers laughs while delivering some deeply pulse-pounding action.

And Everything Comes Out Right.

How refreshing is that. How very seldom do we get entertainment where everything comes out right. Post-apocalyptic zombie-plague vampires-eating-your-mama political/prison dramas. Kids dying of cancer before they're old enough to drink played as a romantic theme. Soldiers coming back from the idiot wars our political scum sent them to fight for hugely profitable untaxed corporate "people," who now even have religious rights that I don't think ordinary humans deserve.

It is not a pretty world out there. But for a blessed day or so, Andy Weir made me, the bitterest angriest most man-the-barricades-and-lube-the-tumbrils old cynic y'all know, smile with the uncomplicated happiness of a churchgoer at a picnic. It didn't last, unlike the idiot's bliss, but I treasured it while it was happening. Mark Watney, you get the last word:

I can't wait till I have grandchildren. When I was younger, I had to walk to the rim of a crater. Uphill! In an EVA suit! On Mars, ya little shit! Ya hear me? Mars!

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Reading Artemis is a tricky business. You know there is no way Andy Weir’s second novel can be as good as his debut efforts. Yet that does not stop you from hoping that you are wrong, buoying up your expectations only to have them dashed as you realize that you were, unfortunately, right all along.

Some of the problem is that it appears as if Mr. Weir is trying too hard to repeat his success by using a very similar formula to his novel as he did last time. Instinctively, this makes sense. show more People fell hard for the wise-cracking genius stranded on Mars and the supporting cast of characters on Earth helping him. As is so often the case though, what works one time does not work again. Jazz is no Mark, and the Moon is not Mars. Jazz is neither alone nor struggling to survive in a hostile environment.

You can see where Mr. Weir tries to separate his two heros. Obviously one is a girl. He cuts down on the cussing. He has made Jazz’s life as unlike Mark’s as possible. Yes, there are still dangers on the Moon, but half of Jazz’s problems stem from trying to circumvent the safety procedures and equipment in place to prevent accidents like habitats being breached or people dying from exposure to the vacuum of space. She may be poor, but she has more than Mark ever had at her disposal. That constant threat of life-or-death danger that made Mark’s story so compelling is completely missing in Jazz’s story.

The other problem comes from Jazz herself. She just is not very interesting. For someone who is in her twenties, she acts like a teenager. Her method of interacting with others is to deliberately bait or mock them. The attitude she exudes to everyone is grating, and you find yourself wishing one of her enemies would catch up to her if only to teach her a lesson. Instead, she bounces from self-induced catastrophe to self-induced catastrophe with seemingly no cares for others. That her rough exterior masks a vulnerable interior is neither a surprise nor all that interesting in the grand scheme.

The science this time around is equally disappointing. Gone are the fascinating chemistry, astronomy, and botany problems. Instead, the novel reads like one long love story to engineering. This means math and physics and more math. I might use math on a daily basis because of my job, but even I draw the line at reading about it in my novels. Plus, I am no engineer. Descriptions of structures, the ways they were built, are shaped, and are kept safe is like reading a car’s owner’s manual. How many people can say they enjoy that?

On one hand, Artemis falls victim to the dreaded follow-up anticipation generated by the next novel after any rousing success. People are going to be disappointed no matter how low expectations they think they have because there will always be hope that it will be at least as good as that blockbuster. On the other hand, there are some very real problems within Artemis that makes it a disappointment in its own right. A lackluster plot with a mediocre and annoying main character is not going to be successful in any instance. That the two coincide within one novel makes Artemis a novel that is doubly disappointing. show less

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a high-stakes space sci-fi adventure that's heartwarming as well as heartbreaking. The book has been on my list for years, but I was a bit hesitant to read it... unsure if it could live up to the hype. And I’m glad, it did.

It’s about Ryland Grace, a middle-school science teacher turned astronaut (who wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of his mission), and “Rocky,” an engineer from the planet Erid. As Grace’s memories return, he realises show more he’s Earth’s last hope for destroying a star-eating microbe called Astrophage.

This is one of those rare sci-fi stories that feels both wildly imaginative and oddly believable. Yes, the story seems quite real... something that can actually happen someday. Unlike many sci-fi, the science in Project Hail Mary felt real, not just futuristic tech.

It’s conversational, sarcastic and filled with some nerdy enthusiasm that I could see myself in. The book was funny and engaging throughout. Plus, it made scientific concepts feel approachable, giving you an idea of how physics, space science and astronomy work in general. It was all charming for me... knowing how things work just for the sake of knowing them.

The story alternates between Grace’s present-day survival in the Tau Ceti planetary system and flashbacks to his days on Earth. Even with these constant timeline shifts, it never felt confusing. The transitions were smooth.

Rocky, the alien engineer, was a lovable character. The communication at the beginning felt quite adorable, almost like talking to a baby and figuring out what they want to say. Project Hail Mary might become my favourite science fiction (ever) just because of the Grace-Rocky friendship.

If there’s one slight downside to the book, it’s that the space part felt like it ended a little too soon. I wanted more moments of Grace and Rocky running science experiments and building new things.

But no complaints. The book left me smiling at the ending. Fully satisfied, content to heart. And I’m writing this all still teary-eyed.

Project Hail Mary is definitely a recommendation. But beware, it’s gonna ruin other space sci-fi books for you. It’s part survival thriller, part science deep-dive, and part story about friendship. The info-dumps may feel a bit too much, but they don't drag the story a lot. show less

I loved [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564._SY75_.jpg|21825181] but was disappointed by [b:Artemis|34928122|Artemis|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1494273579l/34928122._SY75_.jpg|56402016], so am delighted that with [b:Project Hail Mary|54493401|Project Hail Mary|Andy show more Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597695864l/54493401._SY75_.jpg|79106958] Andy Weir once again plays to his strengths. They are very enjoyable strengths. He excels at a sci-fi thriller in which One Type of Guy experiences severe space peril in isolation and survives it using scientific knowledge, ingenuity, good humour, improvisation, and technically-challenging collaboration. Being able to write One Type of Guy really well is just fine when the novel's focus is on excellent worldbuilding and a fast-paced, exciting plot. I found [b:Project Hail Mary|54493401|Project Hail Mary|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597695864l/54493401._SY75_.jpg|79106958] absolutely compulsive and read it at speed. The setup is brilliant and extrapolated magnificently. Basically any details about it would be spoilers, as the mystery of what's going on is such a joy to unfold. The inclusion of flashbacks is a great choice, as it paces out revelations effectively. I also really loved the ending, which subverts expectations in a delightful way.

I love the concept of an 'astrophage' - a tiny organism that essentially eats stars. It's like a more intelligent version of Sunshine, a very silly Danny Boyle movie with a fantastic cast that I enjoy a lot. In that, the dimming sun can be fixed by lobbing a bomb at it. In [b:Project Hail Mary|54493401|Project Hail Mary|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597695864l/54493401._SY75_.jpg|79106958], the initial race is to understand what the astrophage is and how it eats stars. As well as being a severe threat to humanity's survival, this extraordinary microorganism (?) proves the key to interstellar travel. So a mission is sent off to find a star that has survived astrophage infection and send the cure back to Earth.

The protagonist, Ryland Grace, is essentially Mark Watney again, which fits the plot perfectly. I was utterly invested in his attempts to remember what he's doing in space. The novel goes from good to brilliant when Rocky the alien shows up. Weir has created a genuinely strange and original alien species, strikingly different to humans in convincing ways yet capable of communicating and cooperating with Grace. Human and alien work together to research and create a parasite that will keep the astrophage under control, the taumoeba (another great name). One can only hope that it doesn't get out of control and start eating anything else.

Weir is particularly good at asking questions that not enough sci-fi tackles: would aliens think at the same speed as us and if so why? Would they hear the same frequencies? See the same parts of the spectrum? Make scientific discoveries in the same order? Eat? Sleep? Have a comparable body temperature? As well as an exciting space adventure, [b:Project Hail Mary|54493401|Project Hail Mary|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597695864l/54493401._SY75_.jpg|79106958] is a really thoughtful depiction of first contact. There is no question of conflict, as both Grace and the alien he meets are on missions to find a solution to the astrophage apocalypse threatening their planets. The risks are around misunderstandings, scientific mistakes, insufficient equipment, and unforeseen problems. Thus the narrative is of learning to communicate and work together in dangerous conditions and severe time pressure.

I found the final twists unexpected and quite moving. Grace remembers that he never agreed to join the mission and was forced onto it, a powerful reversal of expectations. After parting with his alien friend Rocky, he realises that the astrophage parasite will eat their fuel. So he goes back to save Rocky, although this means he won't be able to make it back to Earth before starving to death. In the final scene, science and cooperation have again triumphed as Grace is living happily on an alien planet teaching alien children. He knows that Earth has been saved by the fix he sent back, but doesn't mind not returning. Quite a powerful and hopeful ending; it pleasantly surprised me. All in all, an excellent reading experience. show less