I read Andy Weir’s first book, The Martian, years ago, but hadn’t read any others until my book group picked his 2021 Project Hail Mary.
As the book opens, an unnamed man is awakening without knowing who or where he is, and he slowly realizes he is alone on a spaceship, the medical robot having kept him alive but his two crewmates did not survive. Going back and forth between the present and his memories, he remembers that he’s on a mission to save Earth, as the first alien life found–the microbe Astrophage–is taking energy from the sun and is on track to make Earth inhabitable for humans within a couple of decades, with years of failed crops and famines–misery–leading up to it.
He remembers that he is Ryland Grace, a middle-school science teacher (with the accompanying goofy personality), and that he was put into a coma for the long trek to Tau Ceti, a star system with Astrophage that isn’t being dimmed by Astrophage’s presence. His job is to find out why Astrophage isn’t dimming Tau Ceti and see if that information can be used to save Earth. It’s a one-way mission, and he’s now alone to try to carry it out–at least that’s what he thinks.
That’s when I had to suspend some of my disbelief–I get that a middle-school science teacher has to be conversant in physics, chemistry, and biology–but then when it shifts to a first contact situation and Ryland is meeting aliens, with all of the communication challenges presented, that’s when I thought it was unrealistic for a single character to be skilled in so many things.
Nevertheless, the Eridian Rocky was the best character! His ship’s engineer and also sole survivor, I loved Ryland and Rocky’s initial attempts at communicating with each other and the way they made living together work, even with incompatible living conditions. I laughed out loud at times, and spent much of the book just tickled at what I was listening to. I also loved the cultural differences, as around eating and sleeping, and how they dealt with them
It’s scheduled to come out on film in 2026, with Ryan Gosling playing Ryland Grace, and I will definitely plan on seeing it–I am very curious as to how they portray Rocky, who is described as a six-armed/legged creature about the size of a labrador, whose atmosphere has to be high in ammonia and whose skin looks like it’s made of rock.
I consider it weight-neutral, as I don’t recall any specific anti-fatness. If you’re at all curious, I highly recommend the audiobook, as I was entertained throughout.
Reading While Fat 