Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
We had a pretty good turnout for our first book of the month vote. To be honest I did not anticipate the problem of there being a tie. I took the liberty of flipping a coin which came out heads for Project Hail Mary. In the future I might have to come up with a better method of tie breaking. I’m figuring this out as I go and it is all just for the fun of it anyway so please don’t take this too seriously.
I intend to read this book over the month of September and then near the end of the month I will create a discussion thread for it where people can discuss it without worrying about spoilers. Follow along if you want to.
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- Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir - 20 votes
- Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky - 20 votes
- Neuromancer - William Gibson - 17 votes
- Hyperion - Dan Simmons - 13 votes
- Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey - 13 votes
- A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine - 11 votes
- Wool (Silo Series Book 1) - Hugh Howey - 10 votes
- Red Rising - Pierce Brown - 4 votes
- 22/11/63 - Stephen King - 1 vote
jazz hands
Ok so as soon as I saw that the book was called Hail Mary, I was said to myself “OK so there will be a main character called Grace or something”
My buddy (fairly religious guy) read the whole book without noticing that same pun. He’s usually the one who points this kind of joke out to oblivious me.
It’s such a “I started with this joke and worked backwards” kind of great name lol.
Just to echo what others have said, the audiobook version is amazing. It adds a ton of depth to the book that you can’t get without reading alone.
Book ordered! Thanks for running this Izzy!
I hope it will turn out fun and engaging. I have also ordered the book. 😀
All of these books have a 3 month wait on my Libby. Oh well thanks for the list!
Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite reads this year and I recommend it to anyone that’s even a little sciencey.
Since the list is generated from the monthly reading post it isn’t surprisingly to me that it ended up being some of the most popular mainstream books. As time goes on and these books get picked over the months I believe the list will become more niche as I won’t allow a winner to make it back on the list.
Oh yea definitely. I missed the voting (didn’t even know about this community before) but I had never read a book such as this one. I bought it because I really had enjoyed The Martian and especially the style of the author as I’m an engineer (Artemis was alright) but then it stayed on the shelf for a few months.
One day I pick it up and it basically didn’t last a week total and this included my girlfriend reading it as well (I think she took like 2 days). And we’re definitely not power readers.
Literally couldn’t put the book down.
His next book can’t come quick enough.
If anyone else has recommendations on similar books let me know. We really like that he goes through the thought process of the characters when solving the problems, even with some equations and math mixed it. So if you have recommendations based on that ping me.
Ahh Hyperion. I’ve reread three books/series ever: Dhalgren. Lord of Light and the Hyperion/Endymion cantos. Simply wonderful.
Red Rising is good. Memory Called Empire was ok. Project Hail Mary is quietly waiting on my to read shelf.
One of my favourites. Weir’s style may put some people off but he’s definitely one of the best contemporary sci fi authors according to me.
I don’t know. Am i crazy for feeling like Weir is just rewriting The Martian (again)? Another engineer survivor porn story where the very smart man needs to very smart man way out of the escape room.
It didn’t feel like a rewrite, it felt like just a story set in that writing style. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the dialogue and attention to detail is great.
Mhm. He very obviously has a style and voice that he enjoys and works well for him. At this point if I’m reading a Weir book it’s because that’s the vibe I want
Glad the coin flipped head, I’ll be joining for the read!
Some humble proposals for a few other sci-fi options for the next round that are a bit fresher than Gibson and Asimov (not that I don’t love the old guard!):
- Venomous Lumpsuckers by Ned Beuman - winner of this years Arthur C Clark award for science fiction, a dark satire environmental disaster page turner touching on cryptobros, greenwashing, carbon credits and short selling late stage capitalism. Hilarious, but be warned: optimistic, it ain’t.
- Terraformers by Analee Newitz - another extremely welcome breath of fresh air by Newitz, a sci fi epic spanning millenia also focused on environmentalism and capitalism with her refreshing approach to non-human sentience and fluid sexuality (Check out her “Autonomous” too if you haven’t already!)
- A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - beautiful prose and descriptions of a colorful and diverse cast of misfits on a worker class intergalactic highway construction ship. Some of the best descriptions of characters I’ve seen lately and some really interesting aliens.
- Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi - imo MUCH improved offering from Scalzi over Red Shirts but still his characteristic pop-culture drenched page turner. One of the most face-punchingly terrible antagonists in recent memory.
- Exhalation by Ted Chiang - incredibly evocative and thoughtful collection of short stories
I’m really late to this whole thing but this book is one of my favorite comfort reads. Idk, I think it feels weirdly wholesome where it’s just 2 people(a guy and a huge scary space spider?) trying their best to save everyone and even though it didn’t have an antagonist, it still felt like there was one in the form of space bacteria(?). One of my favorite reads
Waiting on the library copy of phm. I’m something like 32 in line
Great book, I’m looking forward to the movie adaptation as well
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Memory Called Empire is a new favorite of mine. The sequel, A Desolation Called Peace, is also incredible.
I felt the sequel was good but not on par with the first one. A Memory Called Empire just weaves the story using so many colors!
The sequel even won the Hugo, so yea, I can’t wait to read it.
You won’t regret Project Hail Mary. One of the most fun books I’ve ever read.
