Paperback, 544 pages
Gaztelania language
Published Aug. 23, 2021 by Nova.
Un único astronauta.
Una misión imposible.
Un aliado que jamas habrás imaginado.
Ryland Grace es el único superviviente en una misión desesperada. Es la última oportunidad y, si fracasa, la humanidad y la Tierra misma perecerán.
Claro que, de momento, él no lo sabe. Ni siquiera puede recordar su propio nombre, y mucho menos la naturaleza de su misión o cómo llevarla a cabo.
Lo único que sabe es que ha estado en coma inducido durante mucho mucho tiempo. Acaba de despertar y se encuentra a millones de kilómetros de su hogar, sin más compañía que la de dos cadáveres.
Muertos sus compañeros de tripulación, y a medida que va recuperando confusamente los recuerdos, Grace se da cuenta de que se enfrenta a una misión imposible. Recorriendo el espacio en una pequeña nave, depende de él acabar con una amenaza de extinción para nuestra especie.
Sin apenas tiempo y con …
Un único astronauta.
Una misión imposible.
Un aliado que jamas habrás imaginado.
Ryland Grace es el único superviviente en una misión desesperada. Es la última oportunidad y, si fracasa, la humanidad y la Tierra misma perecerán.
Claro que, de momento, él no lo sabe. Ni siquiera puede recordar su propio nombre, y mucho menos la naturaleza de su misión o cómo llevarla a cabo.
Lo único que sabe es que ha estado en coma inducido durante mucho mucho tiempo. Acaba de despertar y se encuentra a millones de kilómetros de su hogar, sin más compañía que la de dos cadáveres.
Muertos sus compañeros de tripulación, y a medida que va recuperando confusamente los recuerdos, Grace se da cuenta de que se enfrenta a una misión imposible. Recorriendo el espacio en una pequeña nave, depende de él acabar con una amenaza de extinción para nuestra especie.
Sin apenas tiempo y con el ser humano más cercano a años luz de distancia, habrá de conseguirlo estando completamente solo.
¿O no?
Proyecto Hail Mary, una aventura interestelar irresistible como solo Andy Weir podía imaginar, es una historia de descubrimiento, especulación y supervivencia a la altura de El marciano, que nos lleva a lugares que nunca soñamos alcanzar.
Gave up. The amnesia/ suddenly remembering stuff as required really bugged me.
In taking a much larger scope than the Martian, repeating the same formula failed to entertain or engross me, instead the tricks and slick solutions to improbably back-tracked premises seemed to go a long way to nowhere.
I saw a theme in Weir's books about the heroic nature of his MCs, how they are always right and worthy, and I like how the author has disabused me of my presumptioon. A strong novel where the science is fundamental to the story. We can only hope that when it's time to understand the nature of alien life we have enlightened people like this in charge, even with their lovable shortcomings.
As with The Martian, this book is over the top with the heroic solutions to unsolvable problems, but it was still fantastic.
I don't understand the hype. My main gripes with this book:
- The characters are one-dimensional
- The constant snark is off-putting, especially in the Audible version of this book.
- It was obvious that Grace should be the one to go. His refusal to go willingly was unbelievable. Sure, he did not want to die, but the prospect of a failed mission should have been just as dreadful.
- The mission was about studying Astrophage – why wasn't there an option to at least try to refuel? Astophage has a doubling time of 8 days, so there would be twice as much fuel available if they'd went a week later. It makes no sense to not make it into a round trip. It seems as if the writer created a forced plot point to make it a suicide mission to add some drama, to make it believable for Grace …
I don't understand the hype. My main gripes with this book:
- The characters are one-dimensional
- The constant snark is off-putting, especially in the Audible version of this book.
- It was obvious that Grace should be the one to go. His refusal to go willingly was unbelievable. Sure, he did not want to die, but the prospect of a failed mission should have been just as dreadful.
- The mission was about studying Astrophage – why wasn't there an option to at least try to refuel? Astophage has a doubling time of 8 days, so there would be twice as much fuel available if they'd went a week later. It makes no sense to not make it into a round trip. It seems as if the writer created a forced plot point to make it a suicide mission to add some drama, to make it believable for Grace to not want to go. Still failed to make that believable, which pretty much ruins the character. He only remembers his initial unwillingness late in the mission, whereas he previously considered himself to be such a good human being for doing the mission. Wow, conflict! A potential for internal struggle! But it's not being put to use. It doesn't seem to weigh into his decision not to return home (he apparently does not feel shame, because he thinks he will be regarded as a hero).
- I found the speed with which Grace and Rocky learned to communicate by simply pointing at things and recording 1:1 translations of words and taking it from there within a day to be insultingly unbelievable, right from the start up to the point where Rocky effortlessly incorporates sarcasm and irony.
- There were also many missed opportunities. Look, when you're on a mission trying to defend your solar system from an invasive alien species that is on the verge of wiping out humanity, and you encounter another alien life form that is intelligent, breathes ammonia, looks like a giant spider with amazing engineering prowess, superior mental abilities and capable of interstellar flight, and the spider wants you to point out the exact location of your home planet on a model of your part of the galaxy, maybe you should have second thoughts about this? That would be not only believable, but trust issues would create much-needed tension and drama. Grace and Rocky hit it off from the start, are always kind and understanding and just work out a bunch of engineering challenges until they accomplish their goals. That was just boring.
- Everything about language, history and the nature of intelligence was unscientific and ill-informed. It utilizes an anthropocentric, essentialist conceptualization of 'intelligence' that betrays a misunderstanding of intelligence and natural selection. The whole tangent about intelligence being a function of the amount of gravity was utterly nonsensical.
That's why I'm only awarding two stars. The story lacked drama, the characters were one-dimensional and lacked development, the writing was bad; but the one quality that could have been redeemable – the science – was bad itself, which also made the rest worse. It's just a bad book.
Good:
The plot twist around Ryland's amnesia is great!
"Space amoeba" story done right.
Relationship between Ryland and Rocky is endearing.
Audiobook elevates the whole experience.
Bad:
Protagonist with amnesia trope has been done before.
Rocky has interesting alien physiology & boring human psychology.
* Earthbound story-line and characters seem childish & oversimplified compared to science in space sequences.
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!
Spannung, Spannung, Spannung, Spannung…
Spannung, Spannung, Spannung, Spannung…
