Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir

A junior high school teacher finds himself alone in another solar system, looking to find the solution to a seemingly alien infestation that is dimming the sun and will destroy life on Earth.  An encounter with another ship, and another species, trying to do the same leads to an unlikely friendship and, eventually, the cure for both of their worlds.  But when nature shows itself to be a force worth reckoning with, will he sacrifice his friend to ensure Earth’s survival?  Or potentially doom his home world to help save his friend and an alien civilization?

Andy Weir’s latest, Project Hail Mary, is the second of his three novels that I’ve read this year.  I was worried at first that this was going to follow a very similar general plotline, of a lone man stranded far from Earth left to devise ways to stay alive, but the introduction of the alien species and the resulting friendship between the two was a nice twist away from what had been done before.  Weir is now 2 for 2 with me, and I may just have to track down that third novel sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, I will anxiously await the film adaptation, although there’s probably enough here for a limited series on HBO or Netflix or something.