hiba's Reviews > Project Hail Mary

“think we’ll find more of them? intelligent species?”
“who knows?” i say. “you and i found each other. that’s something.”

i went into project hail mary expecting a save-the-earth survival interstellar adventure - and i definitely got that - but i didn't expect to get so emotionally impacted by an adorable, heartwarming friendship at the core of this book. ryland and rocky are my new favorite interspecies space bffs (ok my only favorite, whatever). their banter was naturally hilarious and i loved how far they were willing to go for each other.

also credit to andy weir for getting me so engrossed in a plot heavily based on math and physics and other science shit (speaking as a failed science student). i really enjoyed all the scientific explanations and conflicts and twists - never thought i'd get so tense over a bunch of microbes floating in space. the stakes were high, the climax was intense and gripping as hell, and i personally loved the unusual, somewhat bittersweet ending.

my only criticism is that the earth flashbacks got a bit too much after a certain point - i wanted to stay in space on the ship with rocky, not constantly be shoved back into ryland's past on earth. the humor in those flashbacks didn't work for me either and often cut into the tension building up in the main plot. but apart from that, really fun reading experience.

overall, this is easily one of my best reads of the year and i already miss reading it.