Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ballantine Books, 496 pages, $28.99

Years ago I chose “The Martian” for the MBTB book group to read. It proved to be a controversial pick. First, it was argued, the book was not a mystery. I said space is a mystery, but in essence, I agreed with them. But I enjoyed the heck out of that book and, to this day, cannot look at a potato without thinking of “The Martian.” Some members of the book group enjoyed the book and others didn’t. One really, really, really didn’t!

Now we have “The Martian” on steroids: “Project Hail Mary.” Here is the last line of my review: I love this book. Now you only have to read the review if you want a few particulars.

Half the book is the adventure of Ryland Grace in space, racing to Tau Ceti to solve the problem of why the Earth’s sun is dimming, thus imperiling life on Earth. The other half of the book is about how scientists figured out what was causing the diminution and how Ryland Grace, failed Ph.D. candidate and popular middle school science teacher, became the last hope of earthkind.

The book begins with the awakening of Ryland Grace after he has been in a coma. He does not remember his name. He does not know where he is. He has no idea what is going on. There are two mummified bodies in his room. He has all his scientific and reasoning faculties intact, however. He does not find out his name for several chapters, but using logic, he does cotton on to the fact that he is on a spaceship and he has been in an induced coma because the flight must have been a long one. Obviously, he reasons, his crew mates did not survive. (We later find out the flight has been thirteen Earth years so far but only four years in Grace’s world, relativity being what it is. Thank you, Einstein.)

As memory slowly returns to Grace, he realizes he is on a mission to save Earth. Its sun has been slowly dimming. Grace has named the culprit “astrophage.” The little critter is like a souped-up firefly. It can gulp and hold an incredible amount of energy in its little form. All sorts of catastrophic climate events are occurring on Earth as a result. In a “hail Mary” attempt the world comes together to invest in a million-to-one shot at figuring out how to stop the sun’s destruction.

Tau Ceti, a star 11.9 light years from Earth, has something unusual going on. Tau Ceti is infected by the astrophage, too, but it is not dimming the way Earth’s sun is. Why not? The only way to find out is to launch the improbable ship and give it the impossible task. For the people on board the Hail Mary, it will be a one-way trip. The information they glean will be sent back to Earth in four separate beetle-shaped rockets, for the sake of redundancy. They are named George, Paul, Ringo, and John. (Get it? the beetles=The Beatles.)

Grace’s returning memories are revealed in chapters sprinkled throughout the book. His unexpected path from middle school teacher to astronaut is slowly explained. 

I’m going to put a “spoiler alert” here. I don’t know why I feel the need to do that, since every other review tells you what the “surprise” twist is, but let that be on their heads, I say. (Just kidding.) Sometimes a surprise needs to be as much of a surprise as possible. I read this book without having read any reviews, so I met each twist and turn with much joy and wonderment.

SPOILER ALERT

Earth is not the only planet suffering from the effects of a dimming sun. From a planet far, far away, another space traveler has journeyed to Tau Ceti to find out how to combat those pesky astrophage. To Grace, “Rocky” is an alien. To Rocky, “Grace” is an exotic creature. Remember “Enemy Mine,” the 1985 movie with Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr.? This is sort of like that, except for the enemies part. Their cooperative venture to solve their mutual problem involves a lot of science — and Weir does his best to put what happens in layman’s terms — and sweetness, brilliance, toleration, and a touch of bittersweet.

I love how human, awkward, sad, and smart Ryland Grace sounds. I love his ability to be funny, despite looming disaster.

I love this book.

MBTB star!