Project Hail Mary

I listened to Project Hail Mary and honestly… it was just so much fun. I really wasn’t expecting to laugh that much, but I did. And Rocky… I mean, how does an author even pull that off? Making you genuinely love a rock-like alien/robot. He’s just so sweet in his own weird way.

I ended up loving it enough that I wanted to see it in theatres, so I went with one of my sisters and her husband. And it was just as great as the book.

So the story itself… it starts with Ryland Grace waking up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or why he’s there. Bit by bit, things come back. Turns out Earth is in serious trouble, like end-of-the-world kind of trouble. The sun is dimming because of this weird microorganism called astrophage, and humanity basically sends him on a last-ditch mission to figure out how to stop it.

At first, it feels like a solo survival story. Just him, science, and a lot of problem-solving. Then things take a turn when he encounters another ship… and that’s where Rocky comes in. An alien from another system, dealing with the exact same problem on his own planet.

And the two of them… that’s really the heart of it. They don’t even speak the same language at first, but they figure it out. Slowly. Awkwardly. And it turns into this really unexpected friendship. They help each other, save each other more than once, and somehow it’s both emotional and funny at the same time.

What stuck with me is how human it all feels, even though it’s literally about space, aliens, and science experiments. It’s about trust, sacrifice, and just doing the right thing… even when it’s not easy.

Anyway, I didn’t expect to get that attached to a rock alien, but here we are.