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mattsoldo | 4 years ago

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (author of The Martian) goes into the relativistic effects as well, and it includes a crazy (made-up) fuel that could make it possible. Great easy read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54493401-project-hail-ma...

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pierrebai|4 years ago

I would not classify it as great, but somewhat below par. I made a list of things I did not like about the book, but it would spoil many things. Not spoiling bits:

    - All characters are two-dimensional. The further from the main protagonist, the more 2D.
    - Dialogues go from wooden to cringe-worthy, with few exceptions.
    - Protagonist swings from super over- cautious to careless and back.
    - Alien with deus-ex-machina syndrome, always having the perfect tech, material or skill to fill in the lacks of the protagonist.
    - Tired trope of amnesia to make the protagonist remember stuff progrssively for the reader.
    - Extreme over-usage of flash-back, linked to previous point, but oh boy! Half the book is flashback. Waaay over-used story-telling tech.

The science, outside of the magic fuel and magic alien material is mostly correct. That's the main strong point of the book.

handrous|4 years ago

Assessments of what gets a sci-fi or a fantasy book classed as "great" vary widely, it seems. I find recommendations by people I don't know well, for those genres especially, to be entirely useless. May as well throw a dart.

bestest|4 years ago

My thoughts exactly. I'd even call it quite shallow. The only thing saving this book is science. I wouldn't say it's a disappointment. But it definitely is very "Martian".

CabSauce|4 years ago

All fair points. Still an absolute page-turner. Sort of a trashy romance sci-fi novel.

ftkftk|4 years ago

Excellent book. The audio book is really well done as well - narrated by Ray Porter.

joshstrange|4 years ago

Ray Porter is an excellent audio book voice actor. He narrates the Bobiverse books (as well as "The Singularity Trap" by the same author) which I enjoy and "Project Hail Mary" is next on my reading list after I finish out the ExForce series.

toiletaccount|4 years ago

i listened to a preview of that book and couldn't even get to the end.

i kind of hate audiobooks for this reason, my internal voice is just so much easier to listen to.