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The Value of a Star: Ratings Explained

Project Hail Mary
By: Andy Weir
My Rating: FIVE out of Five Stars (All the stars!)
Best for: 14 and up (Safe for mature 12+ year olds)

Project Hail Mary: Among the Best Sci-Fi I’ve Ever Read (And Why You MUST Read It Now)

I’ve just finished Project Hail Mary for the second time, and I have a dare for you: Find me a better science fiction story.

Actually, don’t bother. Taste is relative, but with a 4.5-star rating on Goodreads, I’m clearly not alone in my obsession. This is exactly what science fiction should be. It takes concepts that feel unreachable in real life and makes them pulse with excitement in your hands. Andy Weir does for science what Dennis Taylor does in the Bobiverse series—he makes it cool, funny, and incredibly high-stakes.

The story follows Ryland Grace, who wakes up on a spaceship with zero memory of who he is or how he got there. He soon realizes he’s the sole survivor of a last-ditch mission to save Earth from an extinction-level threat. He has to puzzle out the science of survival while light-years away from home, and he’s doing it all alone.

Or is he?

I love the story, I love the characters, and I love the “white-knuckle” peril. But here is the real reason I’m shouting about this book right now: The movie is coming out in a few weeks starring Ryan Gosling.

For the love of all that is holy, read the book first. Once you see the movie, your brain is hard-wired to the filmmaker’s version of the story. If you read it first, your imagination builds the world, the faces, and the facial expressions. It becomes your story. I’m making my 13-year-old finish the book before I take him to the theater, and you should too.

A note on the “Weir-verse”: If you were put off by the language in The Martian or Artemis, don’t worry. Project Hail Mary is incredibly clean. Aside from maybe one or two instances, there’s no swearing, no sex, and no graphic violence. It’s just pure, edge-of-your-seat fun.

Pro-Tip: If you like audiobooks, Ray Porter’s narration is the gold standard. It’s a masterpiece.

Content Guide for Parents & Discerning Readers:

Age Recommendation: 14+ (Strong 12 and 13-year-old readers will love it too).

Language: Very Mild. Weir keeps it remarkably clean here compared to his previous books.

Violence: Moderate Sci-Fi Peril. There are descriptions of dead crewmates and high-stakes medical scenarios, but nothing gratuitous.

Sexual Content: None.

Thematic Intensity: High. Global extinction, extreme isolation, and intense scientific problem-solving.

The Verdict:

ALL the stars. It’s a heartfelt, humorous, and thrilling tale of friendship and human ingenuity. It is the perfect science fiction novel. Go read it before the movie spoils your imagination!

Happy Reading!

First Read: June 2021
Come on, lighten up people! Project Hail Mary was fun!

Actually, most reviews don’t need to lighten up–this book is getting some great, and well deserved praise. But there are a few reviewers who want to focus on a few (admittedly) hard to swallow bits.

Sure, there are huge, complicated science dumps. Sure, the hero is a junior high science teacher who knows way more than he should about…well…science. Sure, he can pick up foreign languages really, really fast. Sure there are a few head scratching plot holes.

Who cares?!

To all those who are hung up on any of that stuff, I say chill out! Project Hail Mary was FUN! So fun, in fact, that for me, all those nit-picky details dissolved into peaceful insignificance.

Will he survive? Will Earth be saved? How is this possibly going to work out!?!?

There’s no way to not compare Project Hail Mary with The Martian. It’s another story about a guy stranded in space who has to use his brain to science stuff or die. This time though, it’s not just his own life at stake…it’s the entire planet!

So, no pressure.

The story starts with a Jason Borne vibe–our hero wakes up and doesn’t know who or where he is. His memories return slowly as the pages turn, and early on he realizes Earth is facing an extinction level event and he’s humanities last hope. In classic story awesomeness, we learn the back story along with the hero, and together we discover the problems and come up with the solutions. Of course, this space, so we also walk the fine line between disaster and discovery together, which makes for a white-knuckled adventure that goes to wonderfully unexpected places!

If I ever get to talk to Andy Weir, I’m going to ask him about his clearly intentional decision to make Ryland Grace, the hero from Project Hail Mary, a gosh-darn puritan vs The Martian’s Mark Watney and his very severe potty mouth. Personally I appreciated it very much, but I’d love to understand why he did it.

There are still a couple swears in the book, but no violence. No sex, but there is one instance of talking about a sexual relationship. Plus there’s all that complicated science–particle physics, relativity, molecular biology, chemistry–it’s all in there, with lots of detail. I found the heavy science an interesting character in the story, but I could see others (my teenage sons, for example) not enjoying it. But at least now you can go into it eyes wide open.

Lighten up! This book is FUN!

Best for 16 and up.

Get your copy here!

Happy Reading!