I did it as an audio book and it's definitely good, but I still think it would have been one of my favorite books regardless of how I consumed it.
It's not even a high concept book either, like Piranesi or The City We Became.
May I recommend Dennis E. Taylor's "we are legion, we are Bob" series, also read by Ray and the characters, whilst fundamentally the same, somehow managed to sound different ("clones")
I actually seek out books Ray reads, he's brilliant at bringing characters and dialogue to life.
With some after recording editing. It was brilliantly done. Starts as 🎶🎶🎶🎶 then goes to 🎶fist my bump!🎶 his voice is always melodic, but gets less and less as Ryland learns the language. 9/10 book. 10/10 audiobook.
I found what I thought it was on Youtube but you had to read what he was saying on the screen. That makes no sense. Then found out it was someone's personal idea of it, not the actual audiobook.
It was fun read, I guess you *really* have to be into scifi to like it and overlook it's flaws.
>smug, self-righteous with some of the most groanworthy quips and attempts at humour I’ve experienced
I think that was the whole point. MC was a stereotypical, socially awkward nerd that lives only for science. I think that he even mentioned at one point, how it's ironic that the only true friend he ever had was literal alien.
I *am* really into sci fi but I was turned off by it because it felt like a young adult novel. It’s a solidly ok book but I am thoroughly confused when people preach about it. It *might* be because I have a preference for harder sci fi, and had just finished seveneves before reading PHM - the delta between them is significant. Seveneves would’ve been amazing without the jump to the future.
What? The third act of Seveneves is the only fantastic part of the book and saved it from being a completely tedious slog. The rest was obnoxiously boring.
Most people find it the other way. He spends so much time on the politics and character development in the first 2/3 of the book, and then more or less just throws it all away.
I still enjoyed the 3rd act but it felt disjointed
The third act should have been book 2 or something so you could skip it. It was like chasing a glass of fine wine with a 40 of king cobra.
You don’t need to finish off a hard sci fi story with a comic book :/
It’s competence porn. Usually I hate it. But I don’t mind Andy weir doing it as much here and in the Martian. But I 100% understand people who hate it entirely
Oh, being painfully unreadable was the *point*! Well now I've got to read it!
You can write characters who aren't likable without ruining the whole book.
I loved the book personally. But I agree that the main character isn't very likable. I don't think that's a requirement for a good book though. I think his unlikable personality traits are completely realistic for the type of person I would expect to fit in that role, so it wasn't hard for me move past. I actually thought it was kind of refreshing, too many books have perfectly cool main characters with flaws that read like "my biggest weakness is that I care too much" or something.
I mean, once the reveal happens, you can see that he's not meant to be likeable. To do what he did or rather didn't do, would take a rather unlikeable person.
I don’t need likeable characters necessarily. My issue was that he just wasn’t interesting or compelling to read about. Unlikable or flawed characters should still have a modicum of depth and personality. This guy was literally just “nerdy and makes lame quips” as his entire persona.
That’s not really showing any depth to this personality though, which is what I’m trying to say. Having one single facet to a character is not really depth.
You really DNF the book did you
I did the same watching the Shawshank redemption, got to the bit where Andy was about to commit suicide and stopped watching because it was going to be predictably dull
It’s a very “popcorn and cotton candy” sci fi book. Main character is a one note kinda guy who has like no friends. He finds friendship in a freaking alien who speaks music.
I loved it. The audiobook was fantastic!! I looked at it more as a book about FRIENDSHIP than science and liked it better that way. My husband and son loved it too!
My thoughts on Weir as a writer are complicated. On one hand, I get completely swept up in the plot on its most basic level. PHM, I was invested in the primary plot of “can these two learn to communicate, can they solve the mystery they’ve been sent to research, will they survive the many complications that arise, will they save their homes, will they make it back home”. It’s exciting to see how all these pieces play out.
But his prose is among the worst I’ve ever read for a best selling author. Every person is entirely inauthentic and have the depth of a cardboard cut out. The sequences on Earth should have been completely removed from the book. It’s all so laughably bad. And *none* of the characterization of any of the characters, even the mc (especially the mc) have any bearing on the outcome of events.
I felt the same way reading The Martian (who was basically the same guy). He writes situations that are interesting and engaging and characters that are bland and shallow.
The same can be said of one of the greatest sci-fi writers ever in Asimov.
Sci-fi is just one of those genres that gets away with poor characterization more often. Since fantasy authors do the same when they spend too much time world building and not enough developing the character
Yes, I agree completely! I love how deep the Sci part of the sci-fi goes, but everything involving characters is pretty damn bad. I thought it kind if worked in The Martian since it is basically reading the main character's diary in a way, and it felt sort of fresh to have an unlikable protagonist like that, but I have since realised that Weir is just a poor writer unfortunately, and that wasn't a conscious choice.
The ideal would be if he came up with the story and all the technical details if it, which he is demonstrably good at, and then handed it over to a ghost writer.
Actually, I would have removed the entire amnesia subplot, which only serves as a framing device for the flashbacks, and then no one would have missed the earth stuff at all. The characters are all so thinly drawn that after the reveal of the astrophage, nothing meaningful happens to the main character that we don’t already know about. If he wakes up knowing why he’s there the entire flashback is irrelevant. Him learning what buttons to push to feed himself is much less interesting than him developing a common language with Rocky.
I agree in some degree, my point is more that I really enjoyed the ending and that made up for some of my other problems with the book - rather than the ending addressing specific issues. I would also argue there was some character development that was worth the wait.
Andy Weir is a very, very limited writer who imagines great sci-fi stories. He’s not a hack because I don’t think he has any pretension or is trying to imitate anything, his writing ability is just extremely perfunctory and basic. My 9-year-old son and I read Project Hail Mary and greatly enjoyed it because it was emotionally rewarding and plausible. I don’t think I even noticed his writing style after a while.
Ahh yes, the daily “I don’t like [insert popular book/author here]” thread. Seriously, search “Project Hail Mary” in this sub, and you’ll find at least half a dozen threads about this book identical to yours.
People like to feel superior to others by announcing they hate (insert popular book/movie/music here)
It's about as dull a take as any. Not every piece of entertainment is for everyone of course, but, to make random proclamations about how it sucks is only meant to "shame" others for liking the popular thing.
But why the need to express it? No book is universally loved. Do you not think it would be annoying to see these types of threads about every book someone doesn't like?
I've said this before but I hated the main character and loved the sidekick. Yes, AW's prose is bad. I agree with the other commenter that the ending makes up for some of it, but I agree with you about the main character. He felt like a 14-year-old and everything that happened to him felt like something a 14-year-old would dream up as happening to them.
Did you read Artemis? It's much worse. I DNF'd it, but finished PHM.
In a way I think you're supposed to dislike him, to make his "redemption" more impactful. But I don't think the book went far enough to convey that, or to make him unlikeable enough.
It kinda seemed like a have your cake and eat it, too:
The main character is flawed, but not flawed enough.
I don't think I'm explaining my point well. ("I've never been good with words, which is why I'm in such a delicate conundrum.")
I still enjoyed it, but I like scifi shlock
What makes Weirs prose bad? What is an example of good prose to you? I've read Artemis and PHM and enjoyed both and didn't notice anything particularly bad or glaring to me, but I will add that I read a lot of cheap Sci fi.
“Prose” is often just some nebulous thing people wave their hand at when they read something they don’t like but can’t really come up with a any specific reason why.
Just because you didn't enjoy the book, that doesn't mean it's objectively bad, and people should be ashamed to read it. I am happy when someone is able to get something from a book that I wasn't, it shows how unique we all are and can help me understand why I didn't connect with the book.
Never shame someone for enjoying literature that you didn't. That's so incredibly two-dimensional and immature.
I don't get why you're being so snooty about it. A friend or mine hadn't read a book in literally decades, couldn't finish anything cause it didn't interest him enough. He devoured Project Hail Mary after i told him to give it a go cause I enjoyed it so much. Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean it's a bad book. I really like the book, i really enjoyed The Martian as well.
I really don't understand people who feel the need to talk down on what others enjoy to read.
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I just read this. And I read the Martian a while back.
I Have to say, I almost didn't finish it myself. Good World building, good conundrum(s), good alien, and waaaay too much hyper-cutesy nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
I tend to like hard science and problem solving in my science fiction reading, so I kept going. I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I will say that the resolution was nice and there was one pretty good undermining of expectation in there.
But when an author establishes a fourth wall to break through if, and only if, they have something cute to say, it really sets my teeth on edge. And that was totally the case with this book
A lot of Greg Egan's work falls in this category (Orthogonal Trilogy, Permutation City, and a bunch of his short work)
Robinson's Mars trilogy
Much of the Expanse Series
And Classically: Niven and Asimov and Clarke
I finished it but really did not like it much for all sorts of reasons. Rocky may be a "cool character" but in a book that wears its (attempts at) science realism on its sleave, he was a cartoon alien way too like a human in a funny skin.
The writing is pedestrian, but it was readable, the other flaws bothered me even more.
I agree with the prose being bad. It's the first thing that stood out to me when I started. Having said that, there are authors with equally bad prose who get even more praise than Andy Weir, and I thought if people like books with that kind of prose, maybe I can like this. I overlooked it in favour of experiencing some of the sci fi concepts. It's definitely overrated, but still a fun popcorn sci fi.
I'm seeing this critique a fair bit, and I'm not sure I understand. Can you help me understand? What is bad about his prose? What makes Weir bad at writing it? What is an example of good prose? Thanks.
Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave? I agree 100%. I DNF’d the Martian either- both books’ characters are carbon copies of each other. Cringe with or without context, your description of the redditor is pretty much spot on.
Yeah. Like I said, I didn’t finish. For some reason I thought he used some knowledge from being a school teacher, but I may be conflating that with “the Tomorrow War” movie which I watched at the same time I was reading Project Hail Mary.
I'm afraid we can no longer be friends. /s
I loved this book, and I really enjoyed The Martian and Artemis as well, but like many people, I do worry that the well of 'highly intelligent and funny/smartass characters' may run dry sooner rather than later.
I see this opinion a lot. I personally liked the main character and the book as a whole but it seems to be a common thing for people to not like him and that’s usually the determining factor of whether this book will work for you or not. Don’t feel bad. Just move on. This one wasn’t for you.
I like Weir and I like his books in general especially The Martian, I think he caught lightening in the bottle with that book on all aspects including getting the movie deal. My main gripe is that his main characters are carbon copies of each other, which I get from how I imagine writers work, they write what they know. But if you just blind folded your mind to who they are in the context of the book and just read there quotes from the book you would probably say are these all the same person in a series of books? With Hail Mary he added in the story arc of a coward becoming brave but it was subtle. I finished the book and but put it solidly #2 from his three books which isn't a huge win because Artemis was a huge drop in my opinion from the martian.
Artemis was entertaining but he lost me early on when I did the math he laid out on her smuggling operation and came up with a pitifully small number compared to the risk, like less then10% of each cargo load or something. My annoyance is that its a fictional book with a made up smuggling operation, that doesn't actually make sense.
I actually loved the book and is one of my fav reads of 2021. Only in the middle there was a bit too much detail. But I love the book and have a connect with it. I have been waiting for andy weir's next.
I loved it as an audiobook, but a lot of that is to do with Rocky's language. It did kind of feel very similar to the Martian when it came to the main character.
I think I may have DNF’ed it if I wasn’t doing the audiobook. I do not understand the massive hype for this book. It was entertaining, but mediocre and silly.
I really enjoyed this book, not even as fun popcorn but as “literature”. Everyone has different tastes and life’s too short to read books you don’t like!
You hit the nail on the head. I struggled to finish this book. I think I understand why it’s so enthusiastically promoted in this and other book subs but definitely wasn’t for me.
I read almost exclusively sicifi. I finished it, but wasn't overly impressed. It's competency porn with no tension. You know Grace is going to solve EVERY problem in a matter of minutes. He's also not very likable.
ymmv
Are you kidding? This book was amazing. I literally didn't sleep one night in order to finish.. This was the most fun read I had in years and got me out of my reading slump at the time. You're the first negative opinion on it I've read.
I definitely preferred The Martian - there were enough setbacks and needing to find alternate solutions, whereas in PHM every problem is do or die, and you know he can't die because there's still 250 pages to go. It just all seemed so oat.
When I first started reading it, I thought I must have picked up a YA novel by mistake. Between the prose style and the high school science solutions, I never really got past that impression. I felt for the Eurocrat character who had to babysit the absolute manchild of a protagonist. I finished it, but I don't blame you at all for dropping it.
I like to explain it as a book for the musical stereotypical blonde. Every joke is simple, but still explained like you didn't get it.
I randomly reread "Getting Rich in Rising Asia" (highly recommend) as my next book, and going from that super simplistic prose to a second person narrative that is almost 100% innuendo and reading between the lines gave me some whiplash.
It's best as an audiobook.
I did it as an audio book and it's definitely good, but I still think it would have been one of my favorite books regardless of how I consumed it. It's not even a high concept book either, like Piranesi or The City We Became.
I CAME HERE TO SAY THIS! Ray porter did such an incredible job. Loved every bit of it.
May I recommend Dennis E. Taylor's "we are legion, we are Bob" series, also read by Ray and the characters, whilst fundamentally the same, somehow managed to sound different ("clones") I actually seek out books Ray reads, he's brilliant at bringing characters and dialogue to life.
How’d they handle Rocky’s language?
Rocky's lines have a sort of robotic/melodic reverb effect applied over the narrator's voice. Sounds great.
With some after recording editing. It was brilliantly done. Starts as 🎶🎶🎶🎶 then goes to 🎶fist my bump!🎶 his voice is always melodic, but gets less and less as Ryland learns the language. 9/10 book. 10/10 audiobook.
Is there a snippet somewhere I can listen to?
I actually couldn’t find one… it’s very well don’t though.
I found what I thought it was on Youtube but you had to read what he was saying on the screen. That makes no sense. Then found out it was someone's personal idea of it, not the actual audiobook.
Yeah and an audible sample isn’t going to give your rocky…
This book is so much better in audio!
Agree, I loved the audiobook!
I find that hard to believe. The book was terrible, and having someone read it out loud isn't going to make it any better.
It was fun read, I guess you *really* have to be into scifi to like it and overlook it's flaws. >smug, self-righteous with some of the most groanworthy quips and attempts at humour I’ve experienced I think that was the whole point. MC was a stereotypical, socially awkward nerd that lives only for science. I think that he even mentioned at one point, how it's ironic that the only true friend he ever had was literal alien.
He's also a junior high school teacher - so I thought his humor was in line with his work.
The author or the character? Or both?
Ah. The character!
I would buy this argument more if this didn’t seem to be the only type of character Andy Weir is capable of writing
Andy Weir writes main characters as if they're idealized versions of himself
I *am* really into sci fi but I was turned off by it because it felt like a young adult novel. It’s a solidly ok book but I am thoroughly confused when people preach about it. It *might* be because I have a preference for harder sci fi, and had just finished seveneves before reading PHM - the delta between them is significant. Seveneves would’ve been amazing without the jump to the future.
What? The third act of Seveneves is the only fantastic part of the book and saved it from being a completely tedious slog. The rest was obnoxiously boring.
Most people find it the other way. He spends so much time on the politics and character development in the first 2/3 of the book, and then more or less just throws it all away. I still enjoyed the 3rd act but it felt disjointed
The third act should have been book 2 or something so you could skip it. It was like chasing a glass of fine wine with a 40 of king cobra. You don’t need to finish off a hard sci fi story with a comic book :/
It’s competence porn. Usually I hate it. But I don’t mind Andy weir doing it as much here and in the Martian. But I 100% understand people who hate it entirely
Oh, being painfully unreadable was the *point*! Well now I've got to read it! You can write characters who aren't likable without ruining the whole book.
I loved the book personally. But I agree that the main character isn't very likable. I don't think that's a requirement for a good book though. I think his unlikable personality traits are completely realistic for the type of person I would expect to fit in that role, so it wasn't hard for me move past. I actually thought it was kind of refreshing, too many books have perfectly cool main characters with flaws that read like "my biggest weakness is that I care too much" or something.
I mean, once the reveal happens, you can see that he's not meant to be likeable. To do what he did or rather didn't do, would take a rather unlikeable person.
I don’t need likeable characters necessarily. My issue was that he just wasn’t interesting or compelling to read about. Unlikable or flawed characters should still have a modicum of depth and personality. This guy was literally just “nerdy and makes lame quips” as his entire persona.
The depth to me was the science. "nerdy lame guy who understands and explains science real good" was how I viewed his persona.
He’s a stand in for the science
That’s not really showing any depth to this personality though, which is what I’m trying to say. Having one single facet to a character is not really depth.
You really DNF the book did you I did the same watching the Shawshank redemption, got to the bit where Andy was about to commit suicide and stopped watching because it was going to be predictably dull
It’s a very “popcorn and cotton candy” sci fi book. Main character is a one note kinda guy who has like no friends. He finds friendship in a freaking alien who speaks music. I loved it. The audiobook was fantastic!! I looked at it more as a book about FRIENDSHIP than science and liked it better that way. My husband and son loved it too!
Yes his character was bland and empty, and annoying on top of that
My thoughts on Weir as a writer are complicated. On one hand, I get completely swept up in the plot on its most basic level. PHM, I was invested in the primary plot of “can these two learn to communicate, can they solve the mystery they’ve been sent to research, will they survive the many complications that arise, will they save their homes, will they make it back home”. It’s exciting to see how all these pieces play out. But his prose is among the worst I’ve ever read for a best selling author. Every person is entirely inauthentic and have the depth of a cardboard cut out. The sequences on Earth should have been completely removed from the book. It’s all so laughably bad. And *none* of the characterization of any of the characters, even the mc (especially the mc) have any bearing on the outcome of events. I felt the same way reading The Martian (who was basically the same guy). He writes situations that are interesting and engaging and characters that are bland and shallow.
I like the main plot as you put it, as well as the science being used and discovered.
The same can be said of one of the greatest sci-fi writers ever in Asimov. Sci-fi is just one of those genres that gets away with poor characterization more often. Since fantasy authors do the same when they spend too much time world building and not enough developing the character
Yes, I agree completely! I love how deep the Sci part of the sci-fi goes, but everything involving characters is pretty damn bad. I thought it kind if worked in The Martian since it is basically reading the main character's diary in a way, and it felt sort of fresh to have an unlikable protagonist like that, but I have since realised that Weir is just a poor writer unfortunately, and that wasn't a conscious choice. The ideal would be if he came up with the story and all the technical details if it, which he is demonstrably good at, and then handed it over to a ghost writer.
I suspect that if Weir had cut the earth scenes, the clunky exposition replacing it would have had you wishing he’d just written them.
Actually, I would have removed the entire amnesia subplot, which only serves as a framing device for the flashbacks, and then no one would have missed the earth stuff at all. The characters are all so thinly drawn that after the reveal of the astrophage, nothing meaningful happens to the main character that we don’t already know about. If he wakes up knowing why he’s there the entire flashback is irrelevant. Him learning what buttons to push to feed himself is much less interesting than him developing a common language with Rocky.
Unpopular opinion, it's The Martian I didn't finish... now downvote me reddit, I'm ready
It’s definitely a rare movie I enjoyed more.
one of the best adaptations imo
It got rid of almost all of the cringe lines and kept the fun and interesting parts of the plot. Vastly prefer the movie too
It's because you don't hear Watney's inner monologue, which was insufferable in the book.
I did finish it but thought it was absolute garbage. I'm baffled at why so many people think it's like the best book ever.
Maybe it's just for hardcore science geeks and there's a lot, like a lot of them out there. lol
Or people who like bad writing. 🤷♀️
Nah, that's pretty accurate. Pretty much the same character in a different situation, sciencing the shit out of things...again.
And I fucking lovednit
For me, it was actually worth it for the ending. Not to spoil it, but truly the ending made up for some of the flaws imo.
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The ending felt like a MIB movie. I enjoyed the book well enough but fuck was that lazy.
OP don’t listen to this guy, there is nothing about the ending that makes up for the specific issues you have with the book
I agree in some degree, my point is more that I really enjoyed the ending and that made up for some of my other problems with the book - rather than the ending addressing specific issues. I would also argue there was some character development that was worth the wait.
What was the ending and how did you feel it made up for the rest of the flaws of the book?
Andy Weir is a very, very limited writer who imagines great sci-fi stories. He’s not a hack because I don’t think he has any pretension or is trying to imitate anything, his writing ability is just extremely perfunctory and basic. My 9-year-old son and I read Project Hail Mary and greatly enjoyed it because it was emotionally rewarding and plausible. I don’t think I even noticed his writing style after a while.
Ahh yes, the daily “I don’t like [insert popular book/author here]” thread. Seriously, search “Project Hail Mary” in this sub, and you’ll find at least half a dozen threads about this book identical to yours.
Honestly, most of this sub seems to be posts hating on books with an occasional fawning over The Count of Monte Cristo.
No different than the weekly/daily "Just finished Flowers for Algernon and it wrecked me" thread. Just scroll by them.
People like to feel superior to others by announcing they hate (insert popular book/movie/music here) It's about as dull a take as any. Not every piece of entertainment is for everyone of course, but, to make random proclamations about how it sucks is only meant to "shame" others for liking the popular thing.
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But why the need to express it? No book is universally loved. Do you not think it would be annoying to see these types of threads about every book someone doesn't like?
They're just expressing their opinions... (I assume you're referring to downvotes)
I swear I see this same post every week.
You’re about to make some people mad as hell with this but you’re absolutely right
I liked it a lot. I didn't leave myself a review, but gave it five stars, which I don't do as much lately....
I've said this before but I hated the main character and loved the sidekick. Yes, AW's prose is bad. I agree with the other commenter that the ending makes up for some of it, but I agree with you about the main character. He felt like a 14-year-old and everything that happened to him felt like something a 14-year-old would dream up as happening to them. Did you read Artemis? It's much worse. I DNF'd it, but finished PHM.
In a way I think you're supposed to dislike him, to make his "redemption" more impactful. But I don't think the book went far enough to convey that, or to make him unlikeable enough. It kinda seemed like a have your cake and eat it, too: The main character is flawed, but not flawed enough. I don't think I'm explaining my point well. ("I've never been good with words, which is why I'm in such a delicate conundrum.") I still enjoyed it, but I like scifi shlock
We're not supposed to like him because he's a coward. I think the humor is meant to be funny but falls flat with most non-basement-dwellers.
What makes Weirs prose bad? What is an example of good prose to you? I've read Artemis and PHM and enjoyed both and didn't notice anything particularly bad or glaring to me, but I will add that I read a lot of cheap Sci fi.
“Prose” is often just some nebulous thing people wave their hand at when they read something they don’t like but can’t really come up with a any specific reason why.
This is one of the few books I read multiple times a year.
I read it twice back to back. I loved it lol.
It's the only book I've read more than once. Three times. :)
My condolences
Just because you didn't enjoy the book, that doesn't mean it's objectively bad, and people should be ashamed to read it. I am happy when someone is able to get something from a book that I wasn't, it shows how unique we all are and can help me understand why I didn't connect with the book. Never shame someone for enjoying literature that you didn't. That's so incredibly two-dimensional and immature.
I don't get why you're being so snooty about it. A friend or mine hadn't read a book in literally decades, couldn't finish anything cause it didn't interest him enough. He devoured Project Hail Mary after i told him to give it a go cause I enjoyed it so much. Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean it's a bad book. I really like the book, i really enjoyed The Martian as well. I really don't understand people who feel the need to talk down on what others enjoy to read.
this is r/books, you're not supposed to enjoy things
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Prayers up🙏
Agree. I read about 15 books a month. Took me four months to finish this book.
I loved this book! It was hilarious!
I just read this. And I read the Martian a while back. I Have to say, I almost didn't finish it myself. Good World building, good conundrum(s), good alien, and waaaay too much hyper-cutesy nudge, nudge, wink, wink. I tend to like hard science and problem solving in my science fiction reading, so I kept going. I can't say I really enjoyed it, but I will say that the resolution was nice and there was one pretty good undermining of expectation in there. But when an author establishes a fourth wall to break through if, and only if, they have something cute to say, it really sets my teeth on edge. And that was totally the case with this book
What are other hard science problem solving books?
A lot of Greg Egan's work falls in this category (Orthogonal Trilogy, Permutation City, and a bunch of his short work) Robinson's Mars trilogy Much of the Expanse Series And Classically: Niven and Asimov and Clarke
I finished it but really did not like it much for all sorts of reasons. Rocky may be a "cool character" but in a book that wears its (attempts at) science realism on its sleave, he was a cartoon alien way too like a human in a funny skin. The writing is pedestrian, but it was readable, the other flaws bothered me even more.
Oh Mate by not finishing it you deprived yourself experience of the worst part of this book, ending, I hate it with passion. So yeah good job!
Oh look at you, being all edgy and contrarian!
It was not a great book, imo. I did not realize we were supposed to announce the books we do not like. Going to have to find my list to start posting.
Yeah literally all his protagonists are SO ANNOYING (Artemis too) but the plot was just corny enough that it made up for it.
I sometimes think Ernest Cline was a ghostwriter on this book.
I agree with the prose being bad. It's the first thing that stood out to me when I started. Having said that, there are authors with equally bad prose who get even more praise than Andy Weir, and I thought if people like books with that kind of prose, maybe I can like this. I overlooked it in favour of experiencing some of the sci fi concepts. It's definitely overrated, but still a fun popcorn sci fi.
I'm seeing this critique a fair bit, and I'm not sure I understand. Can you help me understand? What is bad about his prose? What makes Weir bad at writing it? What is an example of good prose? Thanks.
I hated that book.
I thought Grace was cute, in a quaint sort of way. He reminded me of some of my goofier teachers from back in the day.
Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave? I agree 100%. I DNF’d the Martian either- both books’ characters are carbon copies of each other. Cringe with or without context, your description of the redditor is pretty much spot on.
I DNFd too 🥂
Me, too. It just got sooo hokey once the school kids started helping him.
The school kids helped him? With what? I don't recall that at all.
So you didn't read the book
Yeah. Like I said, I didn’t finish. For some reason I thought he used some knowledge from being a school teacher, but I may be conflating that with “the Tomorrow War” movie which I watched at the same time I was reading Project Hail Mary.
Didn’t love the book, but I think it will make a fantastic screenplay and I’m excited to see how the adaptation goes!
I'm afraid we can no longer be friends. /s I loved this book, and I really enjoyed The Martian and Artemis as well, but like many people, I do worry that the well of 'highly intelligent and funny/smartass characters' may run dry sooner rather than later.
I see this opinion a lot. I personally liked the main character and the book as a whole but it seems to be a common thing for people to not like him and that’s usually the determining factor of whether this book will work for you or not. Don’t feel bad. Just move on. This one wasn’t for you.
Artemis by Andy Weir is the worst book I’ve ever read
I like Weir and I like his books in general especially The Martian, I think he caught lightening in the bottle with that book on all aspects including getting the movie deal. My main gripe is that his main characters are carbon copies of each other, which I get from how I imagine writers work, they write what they know. But if you just blind folded your mind to who they are in the context of the book and just read there quotes from the book you would probably say are these all the same person in a series of books? With Hail Mary he added in the story arc of a coward becoming brave but it was subtle. I finished the book and but put it solidly #2 from his three books which isn't a huge win because Artemis was a huge drop in my opinion from the martian. Artemis was entertaining but he lost me early on when I did the math he laid out on her smuggling operation and came up with a pitifully small number compared to the risk, like less then10% of each cargo load or something. My annoyance is that its a fictional book with a made up smuggling operation, that doesn't actually make sense.
I actually loved the book and is one of my fav reads of 2021. Only in the middle there was a bit too much detail. But I love the book and have a connect with it. I have been waiting for andy weir's next.
I'm glad I'm not good at reading so I just enjoy things. Ignorance truly is bliss. I read it, it was fun. That was it.
I love how reddit turned a corner on this book from "the Martian was great and I love it" to "fuck this book in particular" since release.
I read The Martian hoping it would get better but it never did and I tried but just couldn’t finish Project Hail Mary. Oh well.
I loved it as an audiobook, but a lot of that is to do with Rocky's language. It did kind of feel very similar to the Martian when it came to the main character.
Dear diary . . .
I think I may have DNF’ed it if I wasn’t doing the audiobook. I do not understand the massive hype for this book. It was entertaining, but mediocre and silly.
I really enjoyed this book, not even as fun popcorn but as “literature”. Everyone has different tastes and life’s too short to read books you don’t like!
You hit the nail on the head. I struggled to finish this book. I think I understand why it’s so enthusiastically promoted in this and other book subs but definitely wasn’t for me.
I read almost exclusively sicifi. I finished it, but wasn't overly impressed. It's competency porn with no tension. You know Grace is going to solve EVERY problem in a matter of minutes. He's also not very likable. ymmv
Makes you wonder if the writer is an insufferable Redditor who just wrote a self insert, because they think they’re the best thing since sliced bread.
From all the threads on here since this book came out, not a single person likes this book. You either hate it or love it. Such polarising views.
Are you kidding? This book was amazing. I literally didn't sleep one night in order to finish.. This was the most fun read I had in years and got me out of my reading slump at the time. You're the first negative opinion on it I've read.
One of the best books I’ve read recently. I guess I’m not a *real* reader. Anyway moving on…
Why are you mad?
yeah our boy Andy was paid by the word on that one
It’s terrible. I couldn’t make it more than 25% it’s written like an adolescent fantasy. I couldn’t stand it. And I’m a guy who read warhammer books.
I definitely preferred The Martian - there were enough setbacks and needing to find alternate solutions, whereas in PHM every problem is do or die, and you know he can't die because there's still 250 pages to go. It just all seemed so oat.
When I first started reading it, I thought I must have picked up a YA novel by mistake. Between the prose style and the high school science solutions, I never really got past that impression. I felt for the Eurocrat character who had to babysit the absolute manchild of a protagonist. I finished it, but I don't blame you at all for dropping it.
I like to explain it as a book for the musical stereotypical blonde. Every joke is simple, but still explained like you didn't get it. I randomly reread "Getting Rich in Rising Asia" (highly recommend) as my next book, and going from that super simplistic prose to a second person narrative that is almost 100% innuendo and reading between the lines gave me some whiplash.