By Andy Weir

In our occasional series of looking outside the Worlds of Warhammer, I recently finished Andy Weir’s book which follows on the success of The Martian.

From Goodreads:

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian–while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

First up and to be honest — this is not a follow up to The Martian. It is a stand alone book. That said it includes all the styles and things that made the Martian so successful. Science… and lots of it – with some Engineering thrown in for good measure. There are also two story-lines here — one of Ryland Grace and his new companion trying to find the reason why the star they have visited is safe – and the second of the build up to the Earth mission.

This method is well executed by Weir and allows us to find out information at the same rate as the hero. It also allows for twists and turns in the story and some suprises and ‘ohhhhh’ moments which is great fun.

Meanwhile the main story is all about the difficulty of communication, new technologies, space, and science and Andy Weir does it superbly. It was a great read and definitely one worth considering if you’re looking for stories outside the Warhammer worlds.

— Declan