‘Project Hail Mary’ reaches for the stars

Editor’s note: “Project Hail Mary,” starring Ryan Gosling, opens in theaters on Friday.

The world is ending. Our sun is nearing the brink of annihilation, consumed by an unknown spacefaring organism called Astrophages. Only one human can save the planet, a high school science teacher named Dr. Ryland Grace, who has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and dad jokes.

“Project Hail Mary” begins with Ryland waking from a medically induced coma to a pesky robot, only to discover the rest of his crewmates are dead. He is the sole survivor of a mission that now teeters on the edge of impossible — a nod to Octavia Butler’s groundbreaking novel “Dawn.” He’s traveled 11.9 light-years away (because of relativistic speeds, he only aged about four years), heading to the one place that isn’t affected by the Astrophages. 

Ryland must figure out why Tau Ceti is not affected by this cosmic blight and send the data back in time to save Earth. No pressure, right?

The story is told through the perspective of Ryland, with flashback sequences narrating the creation of the Hail Mary Project on Earth. 

Ryland thinks he is by himself in the furthest recesses of space, but “Project Hail Mary” is like all great adventures: the hero is never alone.

He finds himself an unlikely companion, an alien named Rocky. With biology far stranger than we imagine, yet somewhat familiar, Rocky, like Ryland, is also a lone pilgrim whose home planet is also dying due to the Astrophages. Together they team up and work to figure out how to save their people.

Though the odds seem impossible, Ryland and Rocky use science, knowledge and love to find a way to save their planets.

As Ryland says, “Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.”

“Project Hail Mary” is a journey into this new normal where the world works together to save itself from annihilation, where borders melt away, and hearts and minds come together for one final improbable hope for a better tomorrow.

Heartfelt, hilarious, intriguing, nightmarish and wonderfully corny and sciency, Andy Weir brings readers on a cosmic adventure, an improbable mission to not just save our planet but to save our humanity. This is a book you will not be able to put down. A book that will make you smile and white-knuckle it until the very end, knowing and cheering for that one final Hail Mary to save not just Earth, but the many places that contain life and possibility. This one is for humans and aliens alike.

Bradley Nordell is a quantum physicist and author of “The Second Sky.” Nordell is also the moderator for Books on the Bosque’s science fiction book club. Learn more about Books on the Bosque at 6261 Riverside Plaza Lane, Suite A-2 or at booksonthebosque.com.