Project Hail Mary

I rarely leave reviews but occasionally a book grabs my heart and soul and I can't simply walk away once it's finished. Brilliant story line (brought me in mind of Enemy Mine without the initial hostility), brilliant reading by Ray Porter and if you love science fiction then don't hesitate to launch yourself into the stars!

What do you do when your planet is about to be consumed by an apocalyptic event and the only solution is for you to go on a one-way ticket journey that may or may not save the world? That is the dilemma at the heart of this book. Do you lay your life down for your children....your family....your friends....a stranger? How about an alien being? At what point does your own life become secondary to the needs of others? Or as Spock put it: the needs of the many are outweighed by the needs of the few - or one.

Only an occasional audio book 'reader', to this point I thought Willem Defoe's 'Langoliers' couldn't be topped for quality, but this rendition of another Amazing Andy Weir novel has taken that title. I had read the book so had doubts that the technical aspects of the story would be too much for a narrated version to convey. Ray Porter knocks it out of the park. Just amazing. His normal tone is so spot on - but where he hits the stratosphere is in the dialects and voices for other characters. Just a stellar performance, that makes the story flow to an amazing level. As always, it's hard to gauge if it would have been better to 'read' this version before I'd read the printed word, but I think anyone coming into this cold would be more than satisfied whichever way they approach this.

Mr. Weir has created a Sci-Fi tour de force! This masterfully-told story combines a captivating character-driven drama with a spellbinding sci-fi adventure. If I had read the printed book (I listened to the audiobook), I would say it was the best page-turner I have read in a long, long time. I could barely force myself to stop listening to sleep over the 16+ hours duration of the audiobook. The science behind the sci-fi plot is awesome, understandable and impeccable. Not a person who is easily moved, the conclusion had me verklempt with happy tears. I can enthusiastically recommend this for all readers, not just hardcore scifi fans.