I know, everyone is going to comment about this being another PHM post on a sub riddled with PHM posts. Hopefully, this post will be different as I explore what I liked, didn’t like, and the reason I initially shelved this book before returning months later.

This post has been flared for spoilers, so naturally, there will be spoilers below. Please, proceed at your own risk!

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Alright, let me begin by stating: I absolutely fell in love with this book… at the tail end of Chapter 6, when Grace discovers the Eridian spacecraft. The 120 pages prior to this, while interesting, didn’t grip me. It’s actually why I shelved the book for a few months. I think the reason why boils down to two areas: the flashback sequences and who I presumed to be the buddy.

Starting with the flashback sequences: I did not like how they were done in the beginning of the book. Trying to parse my feelings here, I felt like the sequences in the latter-half of the novel are more bite-sized and flowed into the action better (more thoughts on this later). Meanwhile, the beginning flashbacks were much longer, which I can understand from the standpoint of setting up the storyline, but were harder to digest and keep me in the action of Grace being on the spacecraft. I’m not sure there would have been a better way for Weir to write this introduction since there was a lot of hard science that had to be done to sell the plotline. Just giving away the knowledge that Grace accumulates in this section would have felt unearned.

On the other hand, I was not engaged by who I thought the ‘buddy’ (alluded to on the back cover of the book) was supposed to be. Seeing how the robot on the Hail Mary had a voice, highly mobile arms, and what I read to be a bit of snark - I thought we were headed towards a HAL 9000 scenario, albeit friendlier. And, were that the case, I don’t think I would’ve turned around on this book and seen it through.

All that changed at the end of Chapter 6 when Grace discovered alien life. Immediately, I was hooked, and my concerns about the AI buddy went away. A door had been opened and I could see where the plot was going. I loved the way Weir brought us along on the journey of learning more about Rocky and the Eridian race - it was engaging and kept me looking for nuances in Rocky’s mannerisms, seeing if I could glean any further meaning that may be hidden there. I could argue that the relationship between Rocky and Grace was what kept me and many others reading, more so than the astrophage plot. I mean, come on: terrible outcomes at the ending of a book didn’t match up with the Weir I know from The Martian.

A few things also stuck out to me as well. Maybe they’re “me” things, maybe not.

Grace's flashbacks in the latter-half tended to be shorter than in the beginning, which I liked. That said, I felt like the flashbacks were a bit simple. In most cases, Weir writes the flashbacks as it relates to an upcoming problem that Grace and Rocky need to solve… a problem that tends to present itself within a few pages of when the flashback occurs. While that makes for easy reading, it doesn’t reward the reader from being able to recall an innocuous nugget of information presented earlier in the novel. I believe there are ways to achieve this (in any story) and still come around to spelling it out for the viewer at a later time.

Another point I found myself struggling with, albeit infrequently, was the sciences presented in the book. This is most definitely a “me” thing, but curious how others experience it. Overall, the science in PHM is presented in a way that I can follow along and understand. Yet, a couple of times in the book I found myself glazing over the science being explained or discussed between our dynamic duo. I found myself stuck between: am I glazing over this because I don’t understand it, or am I glazing over it because it’s a scenario of ‘yeah yeah yeah, science things, solution, let’s move on’. I couldn’t come to an answer on this - just an observation I had as I was reading the book. Do other readers glaze over at a certain point when deep into the scientific explanation, too, or how do they handle it?

In general, I thought the ending was fitting. A bit predictable that he’d end up on Erid - though, for whatever reason, I didn’t foresee Grace becoming a teacher to the Eridian youth - even if it's obvious in hindsight. Made me smile. Plot aside, I did feel the ending was a bit rushed, or perhaps it was me just wishing it would go on a bit longer. Maybe it was a bit of both, but I recall feeling this way at the end of The Martian as well.

Looking forward to the next book from Weir, whatever that may be.

/ fist my bump

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Some fleeting thoughts:

I don’t recall at any point Grace having a camera in the ship. Did he ever take a photo of Rocky to send to Earth? Not at all critical to the plot, I’m just imagining people on Earth having their imagination run wild as they try to piece together descriptions of Rocky without a photo.

If the Earth was falling into global conflict, what pulled them back together to retrieve the beetles and launch an additional mission to Sol? Would they even have the infrastructure or organization to launch such a mission by the time the beetles returned?

What do you want to see next? Would a sequel in the same setting of PHM work?