One of the best things I found about PHM was how my perception of Astrophage completely did a 180, as in the beginning it was this terrifying force that threatened the Earth, an alien unknowable menace that must be stopped. But by the end, I found myself rooting for these little guys survival, who were now mission critical and at the mercy of the relentless Taumoeba that would stop at nothing in their ruthless consumption efforts to sate their hunger.
I read this when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was completely pulled into the storyline and the problem-solving. I enjoyed the first person narration.
I would say that was a very good review. I quite enjoyed "Project Hail Mary" . It was one of those books that you truly get lost in and was a fast read for me. I try to venture outside of science fiction every once in awhile but its just my jam. "Project Hail Mary" gave me my fix for sure.
Well done Darrel. I didn't enjoy Project Hail Mary as much as you did but I very much enjoyed your review of it. Also, I'd like to purchase a Book Bot 5000 t-shirt please.
Great review! It was my favorite book I read last month. It definitely has the potential to get a movie adaptation. I still have to read The Martian, which I'm really looking forward to.
Thank you for your review, and I think it was pretty much spot on. I almost didn't read this book for two reasons. 1st, was a big fear of next book failure, after The Martian was done so well. 2nd, was a recently self imposed rule that the main story of new novels for me, must take place outside our solar system. Luckily, a friend had read it and let me know it was indeed interstellar. And I am so glad I did read it. It did not demand too much suspension of disbelief. I really liked the concept of Rocky the alien having a subtle sense of humor, and Grace's joy at finding it. There were some personality similarities between The Martian's Watney and Hail Mary's Grace, but not too much to pop my immersion bubble. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Edited: to correct book count.
Read it a couple of months ago, a lot like The Martian, 'John boy Walton' Grace "sciences the shit" out of the problem. A great page turner. Would make a great flik.
Having enjoyed the Martian and Artemis I couldn’t wait for this. After finishing the book I came away disappointed. I enjoyed a lot of it but I became worn out with the relentless description of how to solve problems. I liked it in the Martian but I find it is becoming of a bit tired concept. The flash backs were nice though I could see where some of it was going early in. I hope the next Andy Weir book has less of the science breakdowns . I was literally screaming at the end.
I only had one issue with the book itself. How the taumoeba got into his fuel. He says they must have gotten in from his samples on the ship. But nitrogen at that point is very lethal to them, so them getting out into the air on the ship would have killed them immediately.
I know it's a 2 year old comment, but the reason for it is that the air wasn't nitrogen at all. It was said in the book that they were at 1/3 of an atmosphere in pressure in pure oxygen in order to have the ability to do EVAs at any point without needing to slowly go to that atmospheric composition and pressure and to reduce stress in the haul
@Rh0mbus I just went back through and it's mentioned that the pressure is kept at 40% for the EVA transfers and no mention of atmospheric composition. Even at low pressure, 100% oxygen would be toxic and likely deadly.
@@mitchellspencer8730 well, I'm not so sure about that given we literally did pure oxygen environments for all of Mercury and Gemini, and we currently do it for EVA where the astronauts currently stay in the airlock for 24 hours straight for their bodies to adjust to 100% pure oxygen at 1/3 pressure on the ISS, as that is what out EVA suits do currently. If it was 40% then my bad on the book there.
Darrel, this is an enjoyable, informative video about a book I very much liked. On the topic of your published novels, which do you recommend starting with? And which version of the book should I buy if my main intent is to support your efforts? I have the following options: kindle unlimited, purchase of ebook, and the paperback. Please let me know which option compensates you best.
Hmmm, that's a tough question as I'm emotionally attached to both. I would probably say to start with Black Milk if you like space opera and Delphine Descends if you're a fan of more character-led sci-fi. In terms of reading it, tbh I get very little from a printed purchase (despite them being expensive) because they're so large and therefore cost a lot to print. Thanks for the question... made me think 🤔
Great review - I didn't enjoy the book at all, personally. It's was told from the POV of a dorky Reddit poster and the memory stuff was a really transparent convenience to the plot. A real shame because the idea was amazing.
@@TheKossoff87 that's the one I didn't read. Artemis was awful though. I wanted to burn that book. I also found an interesting opinion about him somewhere (reddit maybe), that he's a one trick pony and all the other novels are actually Martian 2, Martian 3.
The storyline seemed good but after the second "golly", I put it down for something else. Still haven't gone back to it. The character feels like a mormon Boy Scout. I'll try again at some point, I'm sure.
i got through it by making fun of Grace and calling him lame every single time he "cursed" and what saved it what the introduction of Rocky and their friendship.
