Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir *****

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Bringing back hard sci-fi. Junior high science teacher Dr. Ryland Grace & alien engineer extraordinaire, Rocky, from 40 Eridani A met at Tau Ceti on a mission to save their respective planet systems. The stars, the science, and the physics are real.

One of the ancient rules of science fiction is that the author is only allowed to violate one scientific law. It is said that any more violations move the book into the domain of fantasy. Andy Weir follows this rule. The single violation is the astrophage, a microbe that converts energy into mass and mass into energy. Aside from that, the author explains all the physics, chemistry, and biology he invokes to avoid the appearance of a second violation. The book is GREAT because all this explicit science doesn’t slow down the story. Even if you didn’t go to MIT, as I did, you can enjoy this book.

Quote selection

Panspermia: “Are you out of your mind? Do you honestly think something as complicated as mitochondria would evolve the same way twice? This is obviously a panspermia event.”

Boredom: Wow. I’m sitting here in a spaceship in the Tau Ceti system waiting for the intelligent aliens I just met to continue our conversation…and I’m bored. Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.

Humans are bad at math: “Average is six hundred eighty-nine years.” “Earth years?” “Yes,” he says a little sharply. “Always Earth units. You are bad at math, so always Earth units.”

Sleep: One thing I learned back in my graduate school days: When you’re stupid tired, accept that you’re stupid tired. Don’t try to solve things right then.

Limits of human perception: Astrophage safely. If you asked for a firecracker and someone gave you a truck full of plastic explosive, you’d know something was wrong. But the difference between a nanogram and a milligram? Humans just can’t tell.”

Lasso: Then I spot a weird, jagged protuberance on the hull a few meters away. An antenna, maybe? It’s too far to reach with my hands, but maybe I can get it with the tether. I’m drifting away from the hull at a slow but steady rate, and I don’t have a jetpack. It’s now or never. I tie a quick slipknot in the tether and throw it at the antenna. And, I’ll be gosh darned, I nailed it! I just wrangled an alien spaceship.

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