"Project Hail Mary" - Andy Weir - A Review OR A Newfound-Love Letter to SciFi
Review of a Space Saga- Light-Hearted, Science-y, and a lot of Fun!
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I was so not over “Three Body Problem” trilogy, even though I had read it over several months ago. I had read something so so great, I was simply awestruck. The whole world-building, structure of the story- the twists, the turns- were simply too great to get over. Whenever I read some fiction, it reminded me of the novels of the Three Body Problem, officially named- “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy. Proust much, anyone?
How did I get here? Being in the Machine Learning industry, which is adjacent to IT and software industries, I meet a dozen people a month or more who are into Science Fiction. But I never was interested in those. I was weary and cautious about being a part of a monoculture.
Honestly, most people talking about Star Wars and Star Trek, and the endless stream of fanfiction and fan theories didn’t make matters better. I also found it less than ideal when they were referred to in other media- like Jesse’s friends in Breaking Bad talking about it, and when our favorite geeks discussed them in The Big Bang Theory.
So, when referred to endlessly, and almost always shown adversely, and most importantly- about literally two series of movies that honestly aren’t that good- how are you supposed to like the genre?
But, my view of the Science Fiction genre was not entirely negative. Because, I did see some excellent series like DarK (2017-20, Netflix) and Black Mirror (2011- , Netflix), and movies like Contact (1997).
But, my exposure to good SciFi was limited to the screens only. Unless, of course, I count Ghanada. The short stories and the novels were top-notch, when seen from the perspective of a SciFi reader. I honestly never counted Professor Shanku by Satyajit Ray, as they are better classified as Science Fantasy, as opposed to Science Fiction.
There was this aspect to it- not being exposed to enough good Sci Fi. I retired to thinking that some great ideas make one-off great entries to the genre of Sci-Fi, but true, vast greatness can’t really be expected here. (More on this soon.)
Or, that's what I thought.
So, what's vastness?
You know, Mahabharata?
It's grand. Vast. Huge. Epic. It contains sagas of love, loss, war, strategy, friendship, sex, justice, institutions, philosophy, mythology, battle, parental love- almost all things you can imagine.
I read the Ramayana and Mahabharata at an early age, and while I can't say that reading them has set my style in literary choices, but, I have always preferred stories that are grandiosely written, having many themes and sides and aspects.
This is why loved Tolstoy's “Anna Karenina”, or Marquez's “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, or enjoyed watching “The Armed Librarians”. Or this is why I recite “Ulysses” by Tennyson from time to time. Or this is why “The Wire” is my favorite TV series.
I like many themes, elements of grand structures to be interwoven into a story. I got all that in the “Three Body Problem” series.
It was so great and grand- it created entire solar systems, created a situation, which created new systems for the entire world, which leads me to the next aspect of what I like in a SciFi novel- change in human beings, and the emotions and actions that sorround them.
And 3BP's aspect of solid science will lead to the section after that.
Science Fiction is about the Humans, Mainly
I remember watching the Robocop animated series, dubbed in Hindi, in a cartoon channel in my childhood.
But I don't remember it evoking any special emotions in my mind, or, I remebering it fondly going into my adulthood.
Because, it was a plain, simple story set in a superficial world far away from ours. And it was focused on all the flashy gadgets. Like Star Wars shows all the dogfights among spaceships, or Star Trek shows intergalactic travel.
Focusing on gadgets and spaceships only seems immature. That's not what makes a good SciFi. The humans do.
Any technology, from big to small- fundamentally changes inter-human interaction, human feelings. I am really interested to see those.
Sometimes, these are grand, like the tough, unyielding mentality of people who were trying terraform Mars generation after generation in “The Expanse”, or the ever hostile attitude of the ‘belters’ towards the ‘Inners’ in the same series.
Or they might be small, like, how you win an argument, or behave in bed, like in the episode “The Entire History of You” in Black Mirror.
If you look around the technologies around yourself, think-
When your cellphone's charge is around 5%- does that not make you anxious beyond any point it should?
Doesn't watching your loved ones in a video call evoke very deep emptions in you- much more than a regular call?
Why introverts ‘fear’ answering phone calls while being okay with texts?
Why receiving lots of likes and comments in social media makes you feel proud and famous?
Why is it commonly believed that people buying bigger cars, or pricey motorbikes are compensating for something else?
You might diagree with the statements above, but know that these are truw, and the premises of the questions hold true to a large degree.
The above are all modern inventions of technology, yet, they fundamentally change human beings. They change human emotions, attitudes in the root.
So, think, when there are fundamentally new technology and gadgets in the future, in the story, they will fundamentally change the humans in the story. Does your SciFi show that?
Or they don't spend time in that, at all?
How the Science and the Technology changes the humans of the story, is one one of the central things to watch in a SciFi story.
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Manik Bandyopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore- all did psychoanalysis of their subjects sitting in the historical context and society, so, SciFi writer, why won't you do the same for the future society and context, sprawling from the tech and science that came out of your own head?
“Black Mirror”’s modular approach of focusing on one tech/gadget and how it influences the humans is something I like. My feeling is similar for Neal Stephenson's “The Diamond Age” and “The Expanse”.
Science Fiction has Two Words- ‘Science’ being the First
If all focus of a SciFi story is poured into the ‘Fiction’ part, and none is present in the ‘Science’ part, then that story ceases to be a very good SciFi.
The author has embarked on a journey to write SciFi. And if you somehow only focus on developing the Fiction part of it, and not the Science part, is it SciFi much? Not to me!
Andy Weir delves somewhat deep into the Science. So did 3BP. But this was kind of lacking from Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. What do I mean, concretely? Say, you are describing a television in your SciFi novel, and in your world, TVs aren’t invented yet. If you just say “TVs are machines where people watch recorded or live moments from far apart”, that’s not much different from a crystal looking glass in the chamber of a fortune teller, is it?
To make it Science Fiction, you have to at least say- “Phosphor atoms and molecules live at the inner surface of the screen, and not much different from a battery, an electron gun shoots electron at them in controlled manner, that causes the illumination of the phosphor dots, and the generation of moving images. The TV is capable of showing 30 frames per second to properly create the illusion of moving pictures- a video”.
If you aren’t describing things in at least this level, then is it really focusing that much in the Science?
I have read some really good short stories by Andy Weir in his book “The Egg and Other Short Stories” and in other places that did not go into this much detail, but there were some real good ones. “Black Mirror” doesn’t describe the science or technology in-depth either, but, yet, the episodes are good.
To be good SciFi, you don’t need this aspect, but this is what I prefer.
3BP went deep in it, and “Project Hail Mary” was satisfactory.
I am talking so much about “Three Body Problem” but I am avoiding writing a full review, and indeed keeping it as a side character. Like Jesus was in Ben-Hur, or Buddha was in Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. Maybe someday, I will write a full review of 3BP, but not today.
I said many things that aren’t directly related to the book, but those are the things that I needed to say, so I said them. This opportunity was as good as any.
Review of Hail Mary, Finally…
So, I really liked the book, and it was a ton of fun. I came to know about this from a comment on HN, and it came recommended in many highly upvoted comments, so I had to check it out.
Weir’s writing is free-flowing, without linguistic baggage, and effortless to read. And this book can be read in a crowded subway, or during having lunch.
I had a ton of fun reading this book.
The Science was properly there. The world building was done somewhat hurriedly, and not much attention was paid to it. When there is a world-threatening news, everything went way too smoothly in Weir’s Earth. Social, political unrest were absent.
These weren’t given any bookspace. But this was an important aspect of 3BP.
But I say this not to criticise.
“Project Hail Mary” is a personal story. Told from the perspective of a person. A middle-school science teacher. And all the science, and explanations were limited to the level of a really clever middle-schooler.
And the book never gets heavy-hearted. Nowadays, SciFi and Science Fantasy are almost always linked to dystopia. This wasn’t that. That’s a welcome change.
And the author’s sense of humor, and the ability to write funny sentences is really laudable. And he maintains the fun through even the most grim situations. Even in the most serious ‘everyone dies’ situations, author’s sweat doesn’t break, and he can easily maintain the atmosphere of light fun.
The book is really good, and I can fully recommend you to give it a try. It’s funny, will make you do the Science with the character, it’s light hearted, funny, action packed, and does have a happy ending!
Goodbye, until the next time!