(Grace and the reader eventually learn why he had amnesia.) The story alternates from 'present day' (roughly contemporary, as there are references to Alexa and Siri) as Grace wakes up in deep space with amnesia, and flashbacks to several years before as he slowly recovers his memory and we learn why he's there. The science is very interesting regarding the peril to Earth, and the main character Ryland Grace being a Junior High School science teacher allows the science to be explained fairly simply to audiences that aren't all that scientifically literate. The plot starts off very similar to Weir's earlier The Martian, but after a few chapters takes a major left turn and it is no longer 'one guy all alone in deep space'. I just finished Project Hail Mary and enjoyed it greatly.

I really think that his concept could have / hopefully will been expanded to something like the Ender series by Orson Scott Card or Rama series by Arthur C Clark. There also definitely something left to be desired with the ending with Astrophage technology feeling like it suddenly no longer existed / advancing but I hope this is just Weir leaving himself an opening to fulfil his original goal of multiple volumes with Earth and 40 Eaidani as the future volumes) The longer, multiple volumes could have really let us feel the time spent on the rocket, travel (the years spent back in transit to 40 Eridani), the period at Tau Ceti (slow research, the breeders etc), and Grace's arrival at 40 Eridani. That being said, I wish Weir has stuck to the original concept for Zehk. I do appreciate the final sacrifice by Grace but the lack of expansion on his hardships at the end cheapened it for me. Whereas with all Weir's books he applies the science wand to work around or fix most things for his characters. Seveneves, in my opinion, does a better job of applying a cost / penalty to the hard science choices made earlier / by previous generations and shows the product of the 'sins' on the future generation.

The containerized writing style (problem -> solve problem, sudden disaster -> science fix) came through stronger and was very similar to the Martian and Artemis but didn't put me off too much and is clearly a product of the hard science / science based writing that we all appreciate.

Andy weir the astronaut