Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
Having read it
★★★★☆
The book has some spirit, good ideas and humour and every part seemed needed but, at the same time, it felt like its narrative was a bit too reflective of interstellar travel and so took its time getting on with it, despite the way past and present helped drive it.
Still, it’s plot had just about enough to keep me intrigued and, at many a moment, the author really took the opportunity to ‘science the shit out of it’ and also write a few decent, succinct lines, like this one:
Deadline-induced quality issues: a problem all over the galaxy.
A good passage
Light is a funny thing. Its wavelength defines what it can and can’t interact with. Anything smaller than the wavelength is functionally nonexistent to that photon. That’s why there’s a mesh over the window of a microwave. The holes in the mesh are too small for microwaves to pass through. But visible light, with a much shorter wavelength, can go through freely. So you get to watch your food cook without melting your face off.
A second good passage
Sometimes, the stuff we all hate ends up being the only way to do things.
A third good passage
The arms dutifully hand me a cup of coffee. It’s kind of cool that the arms will hand me a cup when there’s gravity, but a pouch when there isn’t. I’ll remember this when writing up the Hail Mary’s Yelp review.