One-Trick Pony?

[mtvessel]

Jul 2022
Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir – Del Rey, 2021
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I have read two of the three books that this author has published, and both of them have starred wisecracking men who find themselves stuck alone in a dangerous situation in space and have to science their way out of it. Which leads me to to suspect that he may be something of a one-trick pony. Luckily, it's a really good trick.

I don’t want to say anything about the plot since it involves the hero, Ryland Grace, waking up with amnesia and having to figure out from first principles what's going on, but suffice to say that this much more science fictional than The Martian and comes with all the virtues and faults that hard science fiction has as a genre. So you have to accept ideas that blatantly contradict science as we understand it (but get to enjoy how they are logically developed), and identify with a character who is somewhat bland and underdeveloped in their human relationships (but whose rational approach to problems, humour and compassion make extremely likeable). Traditional this book may be, but I enjoyed it a lot.