How Andy Weir's Novel Project Hail Mary Helps Gain a Better Understanding of What it is Like to be Human and Aliens

How Andy Weir's Novel Project Hail Mary Helps Gain a Better Understanding of What it is Like to be Human and Aliens 

By: Robert Tu 

Imagine what would the extinction event of humans be. Project Hail Mary incorporates this hypothetical crisis in which human life is at stake. The world bands together to research astrophage, which sucks the energy out of the sun. The world comes up with a three-person suicide mission to save Earth in this futuristic setting, including science, logic, and aliens. Among the three include Ryland Grace. Math teacher and research extraordinaire. He wrote a paper on how water is not essential to life because planets with different environments do not need to value water like on Earth. I love how the book comes up with examples like that. Not an absurd idea, but it is realistic enough that you can believe it is possible. This aspect of the book helped me connect with the characters. As we navigate his absurd circumstance aboard the Hail Mary, you gain a new appreciation of the things you already have. The book is also inspiring because humans did not go to war or give up. The characters are also selfless and go on a suicide mission to save Earth. Or are they?

Throughout the book, we find Ryland has amnesia because part of the trip requires him to go into a coma so he would not die of age. The mission the Project Hail Mary is to blast off to a different planet because their sun, plagued with astrophage, is not dimming like Earth's. They send the team to research the star, but it is not a team anymore because the two other crewmembers died in comas. Ryland's memories get sprinkled throughout the pages during the time on the ship. He rediscovers himself and finds his morals for going on the mission are not what he thought. 

One of my favorite parts of the book is the example of technological advancements. They are not so out of this world (get it) that they are unreasonable but rather the author's wandering imagination of what the future could behold. I can tell from this book that Andy Weir is probably a nerd in math, science, physics, or something similar. For example, gravity in space is currently unheard of, but in the setting, the rocket generates gravity by centripetal force. The theory is that a centrifuge could produce gravity on Earth, which does not sound too farfetched. There is even a graph of it in the legend of the book. Small details like these help you get engrossed in the book because it shows that the author cares enough to spend time thinking about the tiny details. You might be wondering, when writing a book, you will probably have some commitment to what you write about, but I think you can tell between well thought of books from the plot.

Ryland eventually remembers that he did not voluntarily go on the mission but rather cleverly tricked into it. I think this shows what human nature is. You have those who throw everything away for this slim chance to escape this extinction event, and you have people like Ryland. This idea makes you imagine what role you would play in the story. I love the ending of this book. It is very satisfying, and if human nature makes you feel depressed, then remember that humans can do anything if we work together. Even in impossible chances, when the odds are so low that failure is almost factual, we still have to try.