Project Hail Mary by Caleb Welch

Setting

cw101_1 — 2024-02-06 14:15:17 UTC

The main character, Ryland Grace, must travel to a star called Tau Ceti which has Astrophage and a Petrova line, but has not gotten dimmer. He must travel 13 years in a coma controlled by a robot so he doesn't have medical emergencies. The coma works for him, but there was an error in the system for his crew mates and they died. When he woke up from the coma he had amnesia and had no idea where he was, what he was doing, or who he was.

The Problem

cw101_1 — 2024-02-06 14:25:52 UTC

They have to find a way to stop single celled organisms called Astrophage from sucking energy from the sun which would result in an ice age and humanity's extinction. Astrophage constantly maintains a heat of 96.415 degrees Celsius. They use light energy to travel very fast.

The Main Character

cw101_1 — 2024-02-13 12:44:25 UTC

Dr. Ryland Grace is a science teacher. He was the first person to study astrophage because while he was smart he wasn't one of the greatest scientists ever so if the alien organism was hostile than Earth wouldn't lose a genius that they would need to overcome extinction. When it was discovered that Astrophage wasn't toxic the sample they had gotten from a probe was dispersed among different countries top scientists. Since Dr Grace had discovered so much they let him keep a small amount to study. He discovered the life cycle of the Astrophage which led them to understand how it worked. They had learned that Astrophage was the best energy source in nature, so the government needed to breed it for the energy. Since Ryland was the one who discovered it he was put in charge of that. Over time Ryland became a leader of the mission along with a woman named Stratt who lead the whole thing.

The Crew And How Dr. Grace Was Put On The Mission.

cw101_1 — 2024-02-13 13:57:19 UTC

Originally there was a crew of three people. The leading countries in the project were Russia, China, and America. They each chose one person to send on the mission. The crew all needed to have a certain gene that allowed them to survive being in the coma. Only one in seven thousand people have the coma resistant gene which means that one million out of around seven billion people would be able to go on the journey. The crew was made up of the best astronauts with the gene from Russia. America, and China. Stratt wanted a back up crew as well so there were six people selected. Two engineers, two scientists, and a captain. Astrophage is highly reactive, so if there was a mistake the explosion would be huge. At first Ryland wasn't part of the crew. Then one day when the scientists that were selected for the crew were running tests they made a mistake, killing the two scientists for the crew. The only other coma resistant, qualified scientist was Dr. Grace. So, he was made part of the crew. His crew mates' coma robots that handled all their health problems during the coma malfunctioned and they died. That left Dr. Ryland Grace suffering coma inducted amnesia as the soul crew member of the Hail Mary. Or was he?

A crewmate?

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 01:37:46 UTC

Rocky is an alien from the planet Erid. His star is losing energy to Astrophage as well, so the Eridians decide to travel to Tau Ceti, just like humans. They see each other's space ships and start communicating. They both originated at the same time so in the story, they evolved at the same speed; however, there are some very big differences. Rocky's environment is filled with Ammonia which is toxic to humans and he can't breathe oxygen either. He communicates by omitting frequencies like whales do, making complex chords for words. He doesn't have eyes because on his planet there isn't light so he didn't evolve to have them. Instead, he uses sonar. He has five legs with three "fingered" claws at the end of each. He lives in around 26 atmospheres which would crush humans and in two hundred ten degrees Celsius. He and Dr. Grace communicate and eventually connect ships by a tunnel. They separate the sides and communicate through a glass like wall. Dr. Grace enters the chords into a computer along with the word for it until he has a translator. Eridians have a much better memory of hearing since that is what they use most so Rocky can remember the sounds that make our words. Eventually Rocky builds a life support system and comes onto Dr. Grace's ship and makes a climate controlled section for him. His species hadn't discovered radiation because their atmosphere was too thick for radiation to get through. When they went to space and encountered radiation, Rocky's crew mates' died. Rocky was the engineer so he lived by the Astophage powered engines. Astrophage blocks out radiation so he was able to be the lone survivor just like Ryland. They became very good friends and the had similar technollogy, but humans were slightly more advanced.

Letter To The Author

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 01:58:34 UTC

Dear, Andy Weir

I respect you books very much. They are all super creative while still being scientifically accurate. It's always super interesting to read your books and learn about random scientific facts like what different elements are and even how to grow potatoes without dirt. Your books are inspiring to me as someone who enjoys writing and science. I admire your genius creativity not only in Project Hail Mary, but in your other writings like The Martian. I find your books gripping, interesting, and inspiring all at once.

From, Caleb Welch

Rating

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 02:02:40 UTC

I would probably give this book a four out of five because it was incredibly interesting, but very long. The science was super cool, but it was often easy to get lost in all the data, numbers, and biology.

The Crew

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 02:06:12 UTC

This is what I think the original crew would have looked like.

Adrian

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 02:11:57 UTC

They travel to this place to search for Taumoeba, Astophage's predator.

Coma

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 02:15:59 UTC

This is Dr. Grace and his coma machine.

Theme

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 02:24:45 UTC

The author believes if you join together you can accomplish anything. This is shown in every facet of the story. Countries which previously would not band together band together. Species band together with species. Humanity bands together. Everyone is fighting for one thing. Survival.

Quotes

cw101_1 — 2024-02-14 02:50:09 UTC

"Sorry, Earth" Page 457

Dr. Grace has many near death incidents where he almost dies and thinks this, being earth's last hope.

"Earth will live! Erid will live! Everyone live!" Page 596

Thought the ups and downs Rocky and Ryland are always together trying to work out something. Many times they think they did it, but did they?