Andy Weir is back in space with Project Hail Mary has the feel of two book ideas jammed into one. The initial premise of a person waking up to find himself on a spaceship is a great start. Remembering slowly how he got there is another good bit. But about halfway through, the hero, the badly named Ryland Grace encounters another ship and the sci-fi novel turns into a buddy film.
Will keep spoilers to a minimum since this is being made into a film like Weir’s previous book, The Martian which also had a lead character MacGyver’ing. This time it is two. Guess the next book will have three.
This is a book that had me spinning possible better book ideas once the Rocky character shows up. Part of the issue is that, as opposed to the Martian, this plot is stuffed to the gills. The Martian was simple. Survive on Mars. This was the sun going out, earth is in danger and must figure out why but have to figure that out light years away. And when the stakes are that high the problems become larger and larger and the solutions to those problems become more and more implausible.
How Grace and Rocky can fix all the issues seems way past the grasp of two beings no matter how smart or resourceful. I wish the book has just stayed with the amnesiac astronaut plot all the way through.
For beer, since the book is about, ostensibly, two different cultures working together. See if you can find worldwide collaboration beers. Or barring that, finding an East Coast meets West Coast on a beer style that is not often seen like an altbier or a beer with a strange adjunct.