Is there anything new under the apocalypse meets space opera sun?
Why yes there is, in fact, quite literally so and it’s all thanks to one of the nest books to emerge so far this year, Project Hail Mary, courtesy of Andy Weir who is most well known for The Martian, his debut novel which went on to do quite nicely at the box office starring one Matt Damon as an astronaut determined to survive in the inhospitably bleak surrounds of Mars when dire circumstances conspire to strand him there.
Peril is very much the name of the game in this expertly told and perfectly-paced tale which sees the Earth, in common with a great many other other planets in the galaxy, when the Sun or Sol as it is referred to throughout, starts unaccountably and rapidly dimming, a frightening development which has considerably dark implications (literally and figuratively) for life as we know it.
Humanity, for once, gets its collective proverbial together, and in no time flat, a miracle in itself, has despatched three astronauts a desperate multi-year trip to Tau Ceti, the only star in our galaxy which is burning as brightly as ever, a promising anomaly which might just hold the key to our survival.
But, and this is where Project Hail Mary begins very much as it means to go on, in gripping, utterly enthralling fashion, the lone surviving astronaut, Dr Ryland Grace, has woken up, prodded by a robotic with limited to no sentience and zero bedside manner, absolutely unable to remember who he is and why he has come to light years from home.
“There’s no door. Just a ladder on the wall leading to .. a hatch? It’s round and has a wheel-handle in the center. Yeah, it’s got to be some kind of hatch. Like on a submarine. Maybe the three of us have a contagious disease? Maybe this is an airtight quarantine room? There are small vents here and there on the wall and I feel a little airflow. It could be a controlled environment.” (P. 7)
To be fair, he’s not even certain that he’s in space.
All this amnesia might not necessarily be a big deal if it wasn’t the last roll of the dice for humanity who is watching Sol dim year by year, with all the attendant environmental, societal and political fallout that brings.
So, if we’re all to be saved from certain doom, Ryland has to remember who he is, what he’s capable of, and why he is out in the middle of the galactic nowhere very, very alone and with no clear sense of what to do next.
If you think this is a brilliantly intriguing premise and a superbly engaging way to begin a novel, you would be right on all counts, with Project Hail Mary one of those books that takes initial confusion and uncertainty and using present events and past key moments builds a suspenseful story that never takes the pedal off the metal while possessing a great deal of affecting, heartfelt humanity, and courtesy of Ryland’s slowly re-emerging personality, a surprising amount of humour.
It may amaze you but being stuck out in space, wiped of all your memories and sense of self, can actually be funny; it speaks, of course, to humanity’s ability to look at the worst of all possible moments, and there are more than a few of those in this damn near perfect book, and laugh at the absurdity of existence.
To delve into exactly what happens to Ryland as the fog clears and he remembers who he is and why he’s at Tau Ceti – the exact course of his amnesia is fiendishly explained and proves that political maneuvering is not always guaranteed to have good outcomes – would be to give too much of this immensely rewarding, page turningly worthy plot away, but suffice to say Ryland has a lot on his plate and Weir manages to throw even more onto it as the narrative progresses as a blisteringly good pace.
Project Hail Mary is that rare book that not only executes on its premise with adroitly written edge-of-the-seat tension but remembers to keeps its focus on what it means to be human and how everything we do is dependent on a domino of things going right, or more accurately in this science-packed book, not going wrong.
Because when the end of the world beckons, and the only possible, maybe solution is way out in space, the chances of things going wrong is monumentally big and Weir runs with this reality and then some.
But if you think you are going to get a narrative gleefully unhinged from all reality like a Hollywood blockbuster wet dream, think again; Weir packs the book full of all kinds of scientific information but not in a way that will alienate anyone.
In fact, this reviewer, an English major who struggled through biology and found physics somewhat understandable but mostly frighteningly complex, lapped up all the science speak packed into just about every chapter of Project Hail Mary largely because Weir doesn’t forsake telling a ripping story for a slew of scientific facts.
“It’s a simple idea, but also stupid. Thing is, when stupid ideas work, they become genius ideas. We’ll see which way this one falls.” (P. 299)
Weir is one of those rare writers who somehow manages to keep narrative and its building blocks, including scientific exposition and startlingly good characterisation, superlatively good tension, with both present and accounted for but not at the expense of the other.
As a result, while a great deal of scientific explanation fills its pages, its delivered in accessible, story-friendly fashion, helped along by the fact that Ryland is one of the best protagonists to come along in a science fiction novel for quite some time.
Leaving aside just how alone Ryland is – that in itself is an intriguing part of Project Hail Mary that delivers tenfold – He is one of those lead characters who is funny, smart, capable, grounded and delightfully though not fatally fallibly human.
Having him go through this most demanding and harrowing but also hopeful and rewarding of stories is a rare delight, because he is so damn relatable, the perfect person, even if he doesn’t think to possibly save the world.
Project Hail Mary is an astonishingly good, funny and deeply rewarding read, a novel which takes us to the very end of ourselves, and Ryland to the end and new beginning of himself, all while setting off on a journey into the very far reaches of the galaxy from which our salvation, in forms we never see coming, might well manifest and from where we may learn about life and its capacity for breathtakingly surprising survival, than we ever thought possible.