Project Hail Mary

I’m not a big science buff.  I mean, I like SciFi but if you put a bunch of sciencey information in front of me, my brain generally shuts off and I get 50 pages in without know what’s going on.  

I was skeptical about reading this book.  It already had great reviews, and the movie had already come out.  And who doesn’t love Ryan Gosling?  But what actually “sold me” was that this author also wrote The Martian.  Although I’ve never read that book either, I really like the movie, even though it has Matt Damon who I am not a huge fan of.

Anyway…  Not gonna lie, I did a total spoiler search when I was only a few chapters in, so I sort of knew the ending.  That did not impact how I read the book, only that I felt comfortable to finish reading the book and not be completely upset with the author about wasting my time.  If you’ve ever heard me rant about the end of the Divergent series, you know what I’m talking about.

So, here’s the deal, because I don’t do star ratings and I don’t want to tell you all of the spoilers…  The book was really good.  The science wasn’t so sciencey that a hot-mess-homeschool-mom couldn’t follow along.  I mean, don’t ask me about Earth’s air pressure or what other chemicals are in the air, and I have no idea how to use half of the equipment he talked about, but there is an easy style of writing that you just sort of accept that the dude is sciencey and he knows what he’s talking about so we believe him.  I was surprised that I have a better understanding of lightyears and why it might take an astronaut three years to get somewhere while thirteen years pass on the planet, but please do not make me explain that to you.  I love how Science Dude talks to himself and his humor.  Yes, I know Science Dude’s name, but if you haven’t read the book, that kind of plays into the storyline so I’m trying not to ruin things for you, okay.  

Emotional damage:  Mild