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Last Updated: 2026/08/27
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Started Book Title XYZ: 2026/00/00
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RAAAH! Ignore everything else
i listened to the audiobook for this. i listen to a lot of audiobooks. All of mistborn for one. Stormlight 1-4. Wheel of time 1. I dont talk about them.
This was probably the best audiobook I've ever listened to. The format helped. A single narrator in semi-stream-of-consciousness. But Ray Porter is incredibly good.
The book was great too. At least in the beginning, I would describe it as a sci fi escape room. But as a book. It kinda starts to morph away from that around the middle, but sci fi mystery still holds.
The beginning maybe... third of the book? Is like one of my favorite intros to a book. I was so hooked. such an incredibly interesting premise combined with the escape-room like feel of problem solving and the amnesia that actually both mattered and slowly added memories back. Constantly finding one problem and solving it and moving onto the next like I said was just so fun.
The twist about the amnesia was great. "I'm a coward" and "she was right" were the two things I was saying in my car when Grace popped out of the flashback.
The little ending/epilogue was cute. Grace teaching his classroom while living in Alien Area 51.
But.... this is a mystery book. Lets ask some questions.
- (Yes this is a full numbered list). Why did we have to kill off the others narratively? Was it purely so Grace would have enough food by the end? Interestingly, the Taumeoba solved that by the end even though grace had slurry available (especially considering the characters did not know they could just return beforehand lol). I just cant help but wonder how interesting the concept would have been of 3 humans on a suicide mission using human ingenuity to solve this problem. Because like, thats still an interesting concept. I honestly thought during the beginning that Grace was going to figure out how to get back by breeding Astrophage himself on the ship. Honestly, I thought that was gonna be how the ship held enough fuel. But I suppose part of that is getting both energy and CO2 to fuel the little guys. But its basically fantasy logic anyways. Although I suppose the big thing is energy, as the Astrophage were being used as energy. But still. Rocky also would have solved that problem if there were 3 humans. I just, really wanted to see how humanSSSSS approach this scenario.
- Why aliens narratively? Why did Rocky need to be there instead of 3 humans? Just so that Grace could survive somehow? Just because Weir wanted to write about intelligent aliens? I still think this would have been really cool just 3 humans raw-dogging the science. Thats what I found so interesting about the opening. Grace thinking through all these little challenges. And then he gets an alien engineer friend who can just use Xenonite and his excellent unexplained engineering ability to make literally anything because why not hes an alien. Honestly, when Grace first saw the spaceship I thought the thing was going to be that earth had sent another spaceship after Grace (lets say, an earth year later), but since its able to be fast enough with no humans, instead ai or robots or automated something or other, it got there before. But no just aliens I guess.
- How Rocky got hull robot but no computer???? Especially being like they first time in space
- How were the Astrophage sucking the power from the sun exactly? Were they like slurping it away like its juice? But like our solar panels dont just decrease the sun's output. Were they completely chilling all over the surface? But I thought they congregated on like poles due to the magnetic whatevers or whatever. Was there that many of them or something taking up one part of the surface that they jsut bleed so far it affects everything? Or do they really just chill all around and even if venus is unseeable they just... know to wait I guess. or maybe more specifically dont move and survive because they are magic beings that live on sun energy.
- How did Taumeoba DNA evolve the ability to manipulate Xenonite. No you know what dont answer that its fine. Random chance I guess
- Why didnt Rocky like offer to go with Grace at the end lol. Or like a whole little mini delegation of Erudian homies.
- Would a comically large scoop have worked to grab the astrophage out of the petrova line? Just wondering for the love of the game scientific inquiry and all that.
- Why didnt rocky go back or try to go back at some point in the 40 years just chilling. The trip only takes like 4 experienced years for him. Lol. Dude was just like ehhh I like doing nothing here at all
- More of a comment but I guess i find it interesting that grace is kinda rewarded for his "courage" in helping the Euridians by surviving like he wanted to. Also that we dont see earth directly and the effects other than the alleveated Astrophage. but that still could have been done with 3 humans on a suicide mission.
- Idk if this is a criticism or if this was the point. They kinda never really did anything about impatience. Impatience was constantly coming up and being generally negative but they just never changed. i kinda thought at some point grace might like acknowledge it and do something. I mean like It takes 13 earth years to travel back. We can take another month to be thorough. Or another day to sleep lol. But like spinning the centrifuge manually when they didnt need to just to do science like a week earlier while travelling away from the adrian planet. The whole not sleeping thing or taking painkillers and not waiting and both making Grace stupid. The whole doing the nitrogen taumeoba but not waiting to see the results. I mean how would they know it can permeate but at least wait to breed up some stronger ones and by then they probably would have been permeating. Also, they could have even just spent more time together lol. Man Im drawing blanks but i swear they kept getting punished by impatience but never changed. To be human is to err or something I guess.
Watched the movie. Its real good. Interestingly, I feel like it basically swaps the parts that i liked/didnt like. At least the first 2/3rds of the story.
I found Grace to be a lot more... dumb I guess in the movie. more rash, impulsive in the beginning. I mean it starts with him going on a drinking binge. Instead of sciencing it out in the beginning of the book. That beginning which I loved of the book, and was kinda iffy on the movie.
But its also a different medium. And i think Movie version of Project Hail Mary is very interesting in that it doesnt focus on Grace's thoughts. I mean you literally dont hear them at all, while you live with them in the book.
And Ironaically, to me, that makes the movie version of Grace much more personable, and the movie itself much more focused on emotions and relationships. I think thats waht I kinda disliked about the audiobook. To me it presented as a very science focused, escape-room type problem solving story. Thats why Rocky is so... eh to me in the book. Hes kinda just this alien thing that physically solves any problem because he is an alien engineer. Thats basically the only explanation is hes a smart engineer and then can just make whatever. Which kinda feels weird to me in a book that feels focused on solving problems in a human way.
But the movie is instead much more focused on the human emotion side and the relationship of Rocky and Grace. I was tearing up a little in the movie despite knowing everything that happens. I know Rocky is fakeout killed like 5 times, but its still really nice every time Grace goes to help his friend. I guess its not being teary about rocky possibly dying, wich I feel like thats the side the book focuses on, but being teary eyed about Grace's reaction to Rocky possibly dying which is what the movie and the protrayal of grace in the movie handles really well in my opinion. Maybe im just saying stuff though idk lol
I also liked how the language for rocky was handled. Its not grace is a language savant despite just being a random middle school teacher, its that Grace has a little program to handle the translation. And it works really well on movie format lol. And then the subtitles are whipped out in the epilogue which is just great handling of it.
Oh also walking into the spaceship of Rocky was cool lol. Didnt do that in the book which was crazy to me lol. The portaryal didnt make that much sense since it was just weird crystalline visuals but still a fun idea lol. honestly i lowkey imagined it as the FTL rock guy ship Im pretty sure lol
The Hail mary itself was... interesting. I guess I didnt think thats what it looked like. I thought it was more like a big cylinder separated in two halves. Instead of a bunch of corridors and long tubes. Also still crazy to me taht the centrifuge idea with the sketchy wires is more reliable and wont kill our saviours compared to trying to make 0g lab equipment lol.
THe visuals were insane. In the beginning I was kinda wondering how the 0g stuff was working inside, but there are plenty of planes that do 0g simulations. But then Ryan Gosling is doing spacewalks and backflips and moving around on a spaceship bungeecord network and wow. its probably a lot of greenscreens, wires, maybe water and some airplanes. but still, thats just for that part. The whole outside.... space. Crazy. Adrian beautiful. The petrova scope in adrian was just to make a cool moment even if it didnt make that much sense but man was it cool. just soo soo cool those CG artists definitely not getting paid enough since its lowkey a passion position and im pretty sure they aint part of sag so they kinda get boned paywise but man that was so well done. Just all the visuals in the second half of the movie when we start getting more spacey. Erid was cool cool. Just very well done. And i swear our modern day cgi is so good they could totally do a malazan movie, but i think the problem is Erikson likes malazan more for the comically large story than the world. Well he loves his world obviously but i mean the malazan media he likes to be very story focused so hed want the movie to be 5 hours long despite probably being able to make a cool story in the malazan world in a normal movie length. oh well lol
um yeah probably more about the movie but really good. Idk if i liekd reading the book first or if it would have been better after. Its mainyl the twists. i did like not knowing the twists in the book thats for sure, but admittely when nearing the end the twists start to become obvious once the conflict of the section is introduced, so idk.
Also because its one of my favorite character moments in the book, I do think the moment where Grace is told he is a coward by Stratt. I guess I just wish stratt said that to his face. especially because tbh grace in the movie is a lot more goofy because he is a coward lowkey. In the movie he still says "You were right" though on video so I cant hate too much still got that amazing line in my opinion in there. Yeah!
📖 Book Report
Overall Reaction
Before trying to analyze it neatly, what was your honest experience of the book? How did it feel to read, and what is the first thing that comes to mind now that it is over?
[Answer]
Summary
In 2–4 sentences, what is the book about? Focus on its central situation, characters, and goal rather than recounting every plot beat.
[Answer]
Reading Experience & Structure
How did the book feel over its full length? Consider pacing, POV changes, chapter structure, prose, density, and whether the structure helped or hurt your engagement and understanding.
[Answer]
Characters & Conflicts
Which characters or relationships mattered most? What did they want, what stood in their way, and did they change? Did their choices feel consistent with who they were?
[Answer]
What Worked
What genuinely succeeded? Use two or three concrete examples: a scene, character decision, structural choice, image, relationship, or payoff. Explain why each example worked.
[Answer]
What Didn't Work
What frustrated, bored, confused, or disappointed you? Was the underlying idea weak, or was the execution the problem? Use concrete examples rather than listing every complaint.
[Answer]
Central Interpretation — Themes, Motifs & Meaning
Choose one central idea the book seemed concerned with. What repeated character patterns, contrasts, images, objects, or structural choices support that reading? What do you think the book argues about that idea, and do you agree that the story expressed it successfully?
[Answer]
Favorite Moment / Passage
Which scene, line, relationship, or image stayed with you most? Why did it land emotionally or intellectually?
[Answer]
Ending & Payoff
What did the book spend its time building toward, and did the ending deliver an appropriate payoff? Consider plot resolution, emotional catharsis, thematic closure, and unresolved setup for later books.
[Answer]
Open Threads & Lingering Questions
Separate ordinary sequel setup from questions about the book itself. What future plot threads remain open? What interpretive or critical question are you still chewing on?
Future story threads:
[Answer]
Lingering thought about this book:
[Answer]
Comparison & Final Verdict
How does this compare with related books, earlier entries, or other stories attempting something similar? Did it justify its length? Who would you recommend it to, what warning would you give them, and how eager are you to continue?
[Answer]
Delayed Recall — One Week Later
Complete this without reopening the book or earlier notes. What five events, five characters, three ideas or recurring images, and one unresolved question do you still remember? What has changed in your opinion since finishing?
[Answer later]
Reading Log
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