From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Review of Andy Weir's _Project Hail Mary_
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2023 13:12:58 -0400 (EDT)

This is the review I gave at last night's PRSFS meeting:

This 500-page 2021 novel, set in the near future, begins with the
protagonist waking up in a small room with two corpses.  He doesn't
know where he is.  He also doesn't know *who* he is.

He gradually explores his environment.  He soon realizes that he must
be some kind of scientist, that he's in space, and that he had been
expected to work with the other two people on some very important
project, the nature of which he has no recollection.

He gradually regains his memory.  It comes to him in dreams whenever
he sleeps.  Those dreams are chapters in the novel which fill in the
back story.  An important part of it, which changes everything, he
doesn't remember until very late in the novel.

Like his previous novel, _The Martian_, this book depicts the process
of doing science, and of finding solutions to problems.  Unlike _The
Martian_, this novel unfortunately contains lots of physics errors,
which I would love to discuss with anyone who has read the novel or
who doesn't mind spoilers.

There's an alien encounter in deep space.  It turns out that the
protagonist and the alien are working on basically the same project,
and end up solving it together and saving each other's lives.

The problem the project is intended to solve has the fortunate side
effect of making interstellar travel practical.  It's believed that
interstellar travel is required to find a solution.

It has a surprise ending.

I am bothered that the back story shows one person being given
absolute power over everyone on Earth due to the emergency, and
depicts this as a good thing.  One interesting use of this power is
that the mission is exempt from all copyright laws, and is given a
copy of all human knowledge.  All books, scientific papers, movies,
songs, TV shows, websites, everything, is aboard the small spaceship.
One good thing about the 21st century is that it makes it practical
to store lots of information in very little space, and to quickly
search it.

Despite its flaws, I enjoyed the novel.