𝜤’𝒎 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝜤’𝒎 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒑𝒊𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔.

𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏?

𝑌𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑, 𝜤 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉 

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I know there is a lot of love for Project Hail Mary, and I am joining the ranks of those who liked it a lot.

First and foremost for me, this was a sci-fi adventure novel. With Disney elements. Now I like Disney, so that's not a critique from me, but I think it accurately portrays the level of this novel.

Dr Ryland Grace wakes up from a coma in space. He can't remember why he is there but he sure has a lot of knowledge about space. The novel develops through flashbacks and present first person POV to unfold his involvement in mission to save planet earth from a galactic amoeba which is slowly consuming the sun's energy.

I might be classed as a complete science dunce, so I can't comment on the quality, accuracy or believability of the sci aspects. What I will say is that I probably would have found it all quite dry in book form and the audio did it really well. I feel like understood a good portion of it so it was explained well but at times, I wanted it to draw back and focus on people and action and feeling and I got frustrated by the level of detail during particular moments.

Which leads me to characters. I felt the character depth here was somewhat lacking. It relied (very successfully I might add) on Rocky as the heart of the novel. I didn't feel a huge connection to Grace for much of this, his 'emotional' responses to a lot of stuff didn't feel fleshed out. But Rocky as a character and Grace's relationship with him was utterly captivating and was main emotional drive and  the real strength of the novel for me. Like I say, it's Disneyfied. Rocky is highly infantilised I feel and made very cutsey, even as Grace extols his virtues and his brilliance. But if you like that kind of anthropomorphised side kick kind of deal (I do!) then it's going to work very well for you.

The plot carried along nicely, the flashbacks kept it from moving too slowly and helped keep things feeling fresh. It had a satisfying ending and gave me opportunities to mull on humanity and bravery, and space travel and life on other planets and all that good stuff.