Basic Information:
Author: Andy Weir
Edition: epub on Libby from Fresno Public Library
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 9780593135204 (ISBN10: 0593135202)
Start Date: April 25, 2026
Read Date: May 4, 2026
476 pages
Genre: Fiction, Science
Language Warning: Low
Rated Overall: 4½ out of 5
Fiction-Tells a good story: 5 out of 5
Fiction-Character development: 5 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
Earth is being threatened, not by some hideous monster from outer space, coming to Earth blasting guns at us. Rather this threat is from little organisms which are absorbing the energy of the sun. How? They are going back and forth between the sun and Venus to mate, producing more of these organisms. It is noticed that other stars seem to be dimming, except for one. Why is that one not dining, even though there are these organisms there?
All nations on earth realizing that this would be a disaster for all humans, band together to figure out what the problem is and how to solve it. A Dutch woman is given all power to save the world. A discredited doctor is summoned to identify what is going on and to remedy the situation. He finds out what is going on.
The solution is in another galaxy several light years away. This is a suicide trip as there will not be enough energy to return them, they can only return a small craft with what they found. Two astronauts and a scientist are brought together to go. But the scientists dies before take off.
There is only one scientist who is uniquely qualified and fit to do the job-the discredited scientist. He is kidnapped and put on the space ship. When he wakes up the other two are dead and only he is alive.
When the spaceship gets to the galaxy, another ship from another galaxy also arrives. The occupant is a giant spider-like creature. They coordinate what they know. Much of the book is about the meeting and subsequent cooperation. Of course there are several issues which pop up and are solved.
They depart with the answer on how to save their worlds. But the solution to the sun’s depletion of energy ends up creating problems for the scientist which jeopardizes his return. He sends the information off in the information craft and works on trying to salvage his return. In the meantime, the scientist realizes his spider-like friend also has the same issue. The scientist, knowing he will be lost, rescues his friend.
Cast of Characters:
- Ryland Grace -disgraced scientist who saves Earth
- Rocky-Spider like alien
- Eva Stratt-Appoint leader with all powers the world can give to save Earth
- Commander Yáo-Captain of the spacecraft, does not wake up from coma
- Ilyukhina - Second officer of space craft. Does not wake up from coma
- Dimitri Komorov -Scientist who will be on the spacecraft, but dies on Earth due to an explosion
- Dr Xi-Chinese scientist
- Dr. Lokken -
- Dr. Robert Redell -
- Dr. François Leclerc -
- Dr. Lamai -
- Martin DuBois -Scientist who will be on the spacecraft, but dies on Earth due to an explosion
- Annie Shapiro - BackupScientist who will be on the spacecraft, but dies on Earth due to an explosion
- Steve Hatch-
- Dr. Irina Petrova -
- Marissa -
- Recommendation: Rachel and others
- When: January 2026
- Date Became Aware of Book: ???
- Why do I want to read this book: Andy Weir is a good writer.
- What do I think I will get out of it? A good read with lots of science behind it.
Thoughts:
Chapter 1
Ryland Grace comes out of suspended animation and slowly remembers things like his name and what brought him here. The two people sent with him are dead. He is wobbly and trying to figure out who he is. Before he knows who he is, it is a process of figuring out what he is good at and deciding he has a good physics background. He realizes that he is no longer on earth as the gravity is different.
This gives you an idea of how the book goes. Grace looks for clues to his identity and e slowly realizes who he is as he regains memories. That is until an alien comes along where it seems like Grace becomes fully cognizant of who he is.
Chapter 2
Petrova line-central to the book as it deals with why the sun is dimming. The computation is 1% over the next five years; 5% over the next 20. Ice Age time. The Petrova line is made up of life about 10 microns across.
He realizes he is on a spaceship and that the other two crew members are dead. He is the only one alive. He also realizes that he was a teacher.
Chapter 3
Grace is remembering being back teaching junior high schoolers science. They have been processing the news about how the sun is dimming and there is general pessimism. But Grace thinks what ’s the point of even having a world if you’re not going to pass it on to the next generation?
Talks about cultivating his reputation as a “cool” teacher-one who cares about the kids.
I can’t fault someone for loving their kids, and God knows we could do with more parents being engaged in their kids’ educations, but there’s a limit.
Eva Stratt, who is in charge of finding out what is happening to the Petrova line and how to solve the sun problem. Grace wrote a paper on how a different form of life may not need hydrogen and liquid water. This has caught her attention as a possible key link in the problem she is solving. He is kidnapped by the FBI as he will be the one trying to identify if the make up of the Petrova line is alive. He is given a well stocked biology lab in some mysterious building.
Through this exercise in memory, he knows his name, Dr. Ryland Grace. He knows he is on a spaceship called the Hail Mary. But he does not know where he is going.
He is back to the lab memory and being the first one to look at the little dots which may be life. Stratt questions him after six hours on what he found. They probably are life and give off a lot of light which is how they move around. He called them Astrophage-something which lives off of stars.
Back on the spaceship he realizes that things are off, the sun he is observing is not our own, but a different solar system.
Chapter 4
Grace figures out that he is in a different solar system and remembers himself being in a lab where he discovers what Astrophage is. He also discovers how simple they are. On the spaceship, he finds out he is on a one way trip to whatever solar system it is. There are four “beetles” which will take information back to earth.
Chapter 5
Grace talks about working with trying to figure out what the Astrophage were like. He found they went for carbon dioxide. Also he found that he had created another Astrophage besides the three he had. He discovered their life cycle. Go to the sun to get energy, go to Venus with its carbon-dioxide and bread. Then back to the sun.Get energy, get resources, and make copies. It’s the same thing all life on Earth does.
Apparently his discovery triggered something as he is whisked away immediately, including landing on a Chinese aircraft carrier. There is a gathering of 15 people, mostly scientists listening while he describes what he did. He is introduced to Project Hail Mary. Our star, the sun, is not the only star dimming. Looks like the center of activity is a star called Tau Ceti. While being the center of activity, it has not dimmed like stars around it.
Chapter 6
Grace is working through what he is doing on the spaceship. Also what can the spaceship do?
At the end of the chapter, an alien ship has come alongside the Hail Mary.
Chapter 7
Rudimentary communications with the alien ship. It sends over a cylinder and Grace goes outside in a Russian suit. The cylinder contains ammonia gas and is hot.
Chapter 8
The cylinder is made out of Xenon-he will call it xenonite. This comes into play later on in the story. The aliens have communicated they are from a star based area called 40 Eridani. The ship wants to connect with the Hail Mary.
Chapter 9
Connecting the two ships for first contact.
Chapter 10
He meets/sees the alien on the other side of the xenonite wall. A brown clawed crab/spider-like being, which he initially mistakes for a rock. He calls this being Rocky.
Chapter 11
Learning to communicate.
Chapter 12
Grace and Rocky are learning each other’s language. Rochy’s is musical, like a whale song. Rocky wants Grace to watch him sleep. Grace asks why can’t the rest of his crew watch him sleep? Rocky says that there were 23 of him on the original crew. Now there is only him. Just like Grace. They bond over that.
Chapter 14
The chapter starts off with Who would have thought that saving the world could be so boring?
In some ways, this is a book about what happens to our environment when things change which we take for granted. In this case, the sun does not put out as much energy. Weir also writes pretty engagingly as well, so even without the underlying message, it still would be a good read.
Grace goes into why Rocky’s crewmates did die and he did not. He was shielded from radiation and they were not. Weir actually goes into why the Hail Mary had shielding in a previous chapter.
Sometimes you have to do what you do not want to do for your or your species survival.
Rocky makes a space suit which he can be in the Hail Mary.
Chapter 15
Rocky brings stuff into the Hail Mary. From there, they will work on the Atrophage problem.
Chapter 17
Grace notes how eerie it is to have Rocky looking at him when he wakes up. It is part of Rocky’s culture to make sure his kind wake up from sleep. We haven’t run into anything where our cultures clash…yet.
Discrepancy is science. You think about discrepancy. Make science.
Rocky and Grace have gone to a planet where the Astrophage goes to and from the sun. But they discover that there is not an equilibrium. Instead there are other kinds of life. This other kind of life is a predator of the Astrophage which Grace calls the taumoeba.
Chapter 18
Weir has one of the characters saying that He [God] was pretty awesome to to make relativity a thing, … The faster you go, the less time you experience. It’s like He’s inviting us to explore the universe… Interesting line of thought.
Chapter 19
They are going to sample the area of the planet where they think the predator of the Astrophage is. They have made a six mile chain so the ship does not need to go down into the atmosphere. They get the sample.
But in doing so, the ship had started to melt. Rocky saves Grace, but has exposed himself to the wrong atmosphere and is dying.
Chapter 20
Grace works on saving Rocky.
He has an interesting thought as he has taken many chances in doing this. Anything which I do beyond this moment is a gift from the universe to me. I am pretty sure Weir thinks this is a throw away thought. But it does indicate that there is a concept that the universe does have a personality, being able to give reprieve and gifts.
Grace works through some basic biology of Rocky. He realizes that he is not able to operate or anything like that. But he figures out how to clean some of the soot off of him.
Chapter 21
Rocky awakes. Grace finds out that the soot he cleaned out of Rocky was like a scab which helped him heal.
I’m smart enough now to know I’m stupid. That is something which we all can learn. Being on painkilling drugs is something he called enhanced stupidity. I like that term.
Scene switches back to Russia a few days before launch. The primary scientist and his backup died in an explosion and now someone needs to be selected to take their place.
They have found a predator which eats Atrophage and calls it Taumoeba. It is quite aggressive.
Chapter 22
The Taumoeba has gotten into the fuel lines where the fuel is Astrophage. The ship stops functioning. They figure out how to get the ship functioning and moving back to Rocky’s ship using the pods which were going to be sent back to Earth.
Chapter 23
Back in Russia, after the scientists are blown up, Grace is the most obvious choice to replace. He is reluctant. Stratt kidnaps him and puts him into a coma for the launch.
Chapter 24
Grace realizes he is a coward.
They find their way back to Rocky’s ship.
Chapter 25
All are ready to leave each other. Rocky has his Taumoeba and Grace has his. And they leave.
Chapter 26
Weir gives a summary of what will happen if climate change is not checked. But he does it in the form of a speech by Stratt.
They are on their way home.
Chapter 27
Occasionally Weir throws in a sentence which should make the reader smile. Such as thanking the primary scientist for Grace’s life because of the scientist’s preferred method of suicide. The Taumoeba have escaped, but Grace catches it early and kills them with excessive amounts of nitrogen.
Chapter 28
The new and enhanced Taumoeba can get its way through the Rocky made material, but not steel or plastic. It hits Grace that Rocky is in trouble.
Chapter 29
Grace has a classic dilemma: go back to earth and save the world and himself or save Rocky and his planet-sending little rescue ships with information back to Earth and saving it, but dying in the process. He makes his decision: to save Rocky and his planet. A few chapters ago, he realizes he is a coward. But this is a heroic decision.
Grace finds Rocky’s ship and manages to attract his attention. Rocky comes over and may have figured out how to save Grace.
Chapter 30
Grace has lived on Erid for 16 earth years now. They have built him a dome which he can live in. The gravity is much more than earth, and has a debilitating effect. The Eridian would have been glad to repair the Hail Mary and send him back. Rocky does give him the news that Earth’s sun has been restored, so Grace knows the mission was successful. But he is not ready to go back. He is teaching some young Eridrians.
This is my third Andy Weir book-The Martian and Artemis being the other two. If he keeps writing them like this, I will keep reading them
By now I think everybody knows the basic story lines of Project Hail Mary! Discredited scientist is sent into space, befriends an alien and saves not only his own world but alien friends world. What is interesting to me is what happens between all of that-otherwise it is a normal book which is worth about an hour of ones time.
Weir has a way of making complex scientific knowledge both understandable and entertaining. He weaves it into the plot-not hiding it, rather using it to further the plot. Weir is one of those rae authors who educates you as well as entertains you.
Notes from my book group:
what ’s the point of even having a world if you’re not going to pass it on to the next generation? Eventually our evolutionary chain will give out. Is there a point in educating at all?
As you read the book, did you come to a better understanding of how science is done? Also when the questions or answers being asked are wrong?
What did you make of these sentences: Discrepancy is science. You think about discrepancy. Make science. ?
When you come across a person who speaks a different language, how do you establish communications? What if you did not have a dictionary which cross-referenced words?
Is this book about climate change?
Do you think this book accurately portrayed what happens when there is a small amount of difference in the environment?
Stratt forces Grace to go on a suicide mission. What are the ethics behind this? Is this similar to Spock saying the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?
One thing which Grace discovers is that even though he behaved cowardly when on earth, he has performed heroically when in space. Was this something part of Grace already? Or was the difference in location? Or something else triggered this change of character? What does this say about ourselves?
Weir has several trains of religious thought, ranging from He [God] was pretty awesome to to make relativity a thing, … It’s like He’s inviting us to explore the universe to Anything which I do beyond this moment is a gift from the universe to me. Does Wier have a consistent religious view presented in this book?
What does the author want us to feel when we read this book?
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of Project Hail Mary?
Does this story work as science-fiction?
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which character was the most convincing? Least?
Which character did you identify with?
Which one did you dislike?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
Of how God is viewed?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
Reading Groups General Fiction Guide
New Words:
- Carapace: a dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids.
- Panspermia: the hypothesis that life exists throughout the universe, distributed by cosmic dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms, known as directed panspermia. The theory argues that life did not originate on Earth, but instead evolved somewhere else and seeded life as we know it.
- Oberth effect: a maneuver in which a spacecraft falls into a gravitational well and then uses its engines to further accelerate as it is falling, thereby achieving additional speed.
Good Quotes:
- First Line: What’s two plus two
- Last Line: Twelve kids raise their claws.
- what ’s the point of even having a world if you’re not going to pass it on to the next generation? Chp 3
- Discrepancy is science. You think about discrepancy. Make science. Chp 15
- I’m smart enough now to know I’m stupid. Chp 21
References:
- Publisher's Web Site for Book
- Author's Website
- Wikipedia-Book
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- Barnes and Noble
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- New York Times Review
- Washington Independent Review of Books
- Literary Charts
- Esquire Magazine
- BYU Design Review
- The Commentator
- Gates Notes
- Publishers Weekly
