Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

I am seriously late to this party as my first book for February is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, published by Ballantine Books in May of 2021. I don’t know why it took me so long to read this stellar (lol) sci-fi novel except that I typically shy away from huge blockbuster hits that everyone is talking about. Of course there are exceptions, such as The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, my top book of 2025. I can’t explain that.

The other reason is that as much as I loved Weir’s first ever published novel, The Martian, I didn’t love his sophomore work, Artemis. So, maybe in the back of my mind I was thinking is book #3 more like The Martian or more like Artemis?

Let me clear that up right away! It is 100% more like The Martian! I don’t know when I’ve flown through a 476-page book in such a short period of time. I just couldn’t put this book down and I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I wasn’t actually reading it.

I also wanted to get it read quickly because my husband recently finished it and we were dying to talk about it together. We rarely read the same books as our tastes and favorite genres vary GREATLY but he loves sci-fi and while it isn’t my favorite genre, I generally enjoy it if it is near future and not wildly futuristic.

And finally, the movie based on Project Hail Mary will be released next month on March 20, 2026.

I can’t wait to see this movie and see how it holds up to the novel, but I have a good feeling it will be awesome. The film adaptation of The Martian starring Matt Damon was fantastic, so I am very hopeful!

Now, about this book. It starts out very, very strong, the writing jumping off the page. The story line is very compelling, told in two points of view, both told in first person by the main character, Dr. Ryland Grace. One side of the story is how Dr. Ryland Grace, a junior high science teacher with a Ph.D. and dissertation subsequently proved false, comes to be involved in Project Hail Mary. The other side of the story is Dr. Grace actually on the spaceship Hail Mary.

Weir does a great job of eking out Grace’s backstory bit by bit alongside the drama of Grace being alone on a spaceship hurtling through space. He handles the pace of both stories so well.

There is a lot of science, a lot of math, and a lot of other subjects that I don’t have the slightest aptitude for. Sometimes I struggled to get through a sentence for the sheer magnitude of what I didn’t understand. Is it real science? Is it real math? Does it make sense to math and science people? How much liberty did Andy Weir take with those parts of the story? Do I care? NO, I don’t.

Just in case there is anyone left on this planet Earth, and not on Erid or Adrian or Tau Ceti (IYKYK), I won’t do any spoilers here. I’m sure you can find all the spoilers you want with just a google search. I’m so glad I didn’t know any spoilers (and thanks to my husband who didn’t tell me a single one while I was reading!). The ending of this book really surprised me. It is NOT what I expected at all, and I have to be totally honest, I felt a bit let down. Is it a bad ending? No. Is it the expected ending, not really, at least not to me. I just finished the book this afternoon, so maybe with time, as I mull it over, I’ll come to agree that Weir’s ending was actually the right one.

There are two things that I thought were clever and unique about this book. I don’t think either one is a spoiler, so I’ll close with explaining them both.

First, if you read or saw The Martian you will know that the very first word of the book and the movie is an F-bomb. Well, in Project Hail Mary, there is not a single curse word or profanity (that I remember). The main character, Dr. Grace, teaches junior high science. As a former middle school English teacher, I understand completely how he created a long list of alternatives to any curse word or profanity he might want to use since he was around snarky teenagers all the time. So in stark contrast to Mark Watney’s love of the F word and all other forms of profanity, Dr. Grace doesn’t say a single one. I found that to be quite charming. I’m especially interested in seeing the movie to see if they hold to that, in today’s 2026 curse word-filled entertainment world.

Secondly, the main thrust of this novel is that the world is in danger, and the world, collectively, country by country, must work together to solve the problem, like the world’s largest science fair, which, given the main character is a junior high science teacher, is pretty cool. The project that every country agrees to pool their talent, resources, money and more to work together is named Project Hail Mary, after the term used for a last-ditch effort to achieve something, as this is the one and only thing that can save the world. Catholics will recognize the term Hail Mary as being the title of one of the primary prayers of our faith, the first line being, “Hail Mary, full of grace.” Weir’s brilliant idea is to have the spaceship named Hail Mary and his main character’s surname is Grace, thus, the Hail Mary is full of Grace himself!

There’s still time if you want to read this book before seeing the movie. It’s really so good, whether you understand the science and math or not. It’s just a great story, whether you like sci-fi or not. I highly recommend it!