Summary: 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, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
MY THOUGHTS:
First off, my daughter was completely wowed by the movie and ranked it five stars. Then she brought me and her dad to see it with her. Trusting her discernment, I loved it too. And next, she grabbed the novel as an impulse buy from the book section of Big W and said, 'You read it first.' Having enjoyed the movie, I was up for the challenge.
So here's how it goes down.
Poor Ryland Grace wakes up with amnesia aboard a spacecraft, which he later learns is the Hail Mary. In other beds are the withered husks of two corpses. And strong gravity pull in the vessel makes him feel oddly weighted and weak. This is all the info he has to draw from until memory fragments begin to coalesce into a coherent story. Since his recent backstory is as vital and urgent as what later happens aboard the spaceship, the story keeps its momentum by switching back and forth between the two.
Ryland has a doctorate in microbiology but rejected the cutthroat academic lifestyle to become a humble High School science teacher. Only when life on Earth is severely threatened does a scientific paper he wrote come to light.
First global happening to rock his world occurs when a thin red line is evident in the solar system. This is named the 'Petrova Line' after the scientist who first noticed it. Coincidentally, the sun is 0.01% less bright than it should be. It seems the Petrova line is sucking it up, hurtling Earth toward an inevitable ice-age. Panic-driven research at a cellular level reveals the culprit that comprises the line to be 'astrophage' an invasive space algae.
Eva Stratt, head of the Petrova taskforce, demands Ryland's involvement. Although she doesn't introduce herself as the world's most powerful woman, (even if only temporarily), this is precisely who she is.
Astronomical research reveals that our sun is not the only star in the same fix. Stars across the galaxy are dimming, and seem to infect each other. The only untouched star in the cluster is Tau Ceti. That's where the immensely grand but hastily thrown together Hail Mary mission is headed. And Ryland's memory still lags when it comes to the question of how he ended up on board. He assumes he must've volunteered, right?
About a third of the way in begins a brilliant extraterrestrial bromance. Since multiple stars are affected, it stands to reason that earthlings can't be the only denizens of the cosmos in search of a solution. It is here that Ryland Grace meets Rocky, who's on the same mission.
This legendary support character is an ammonia breathing engineer from the solar system whose star is called 40-Eridani, therefore Ryland dubs him an 'Eridian.' Rocky speaks in strange musical chords and resembles a faceless spider composed of rocks. It was a tall order for the movie to retain Rocky's minimalistic appearance along with his compelling charm, and they nailed it.
I'll leave the awesome mathematics and science for other more switched-on reviewers to discuss. The novel's highlight for me is Ryland Grace's two key relationships, first with Eva Stratt and second with Rocky.
For some time Grace appears to be the dictatorial Stratt's right-hand-man, but when push comes to shove, he's a mere commodity like everyone else. Her character raises a fascinating, if uncomfortable question. Does it take a person as dispassionate and unemotional as Stratt to perform the ultimate altruistic act, which is saving the planet? Weir seems to hint that anyone even slightly softer or more compassionate might not be adequate for the job. I find her very admirable in a scary sort of way.
In Grace's second major relationship, he and Rocky start out as mere cohorts on a vital, mutual mission, but bond in a far more emotional and empathetic way, in which personal sacrifice is always bound to play a role. In other words, when we use the word 'human' as a verb, it seems to describe Rocky far more than Stratt. Perhaps that irony is the crux of the story.
Some of Ryland's off-the-cuff creativity tips should be easy for us to take on board in our less high stakes lives.
'It's a simple idea, but also stupid. Thing is, when stupid ideas work, they become genius. We'll see which way this one falls.'
Or how about:
'One thing I learned back in my graduate school days. When you're stupid tired, accept you're stupid tired. Don't try to solve things right then.'
Rocky places his finger (or rather claw!) on a fascinating point which I've considered before from other books. The pesky existence of altruism and self-sacrifice is not something that can be examined or quantified by science. Once again, the best of human (and in this case, Eridian) nature gets us pondering spiritual things. 'You and me both willing to die for our people. Why, question? Evolution hates death... You and me are good people.'
I believe we readers occasionally need a novel intelligent and expansive enough to humble us. This one ticks my boxes.
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