Where Ryland Goes Way Out of His Way

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You've probably heard that this is a good book. Tons of Booktokers and Booktubers have all said so. They're so right. It's really good. I usually read a few pages a day from a book (well, 20--it's my normal chunk) but I read the whole thing in a couple days. It's the fastest I've read anything in ages, because it's too fun to set aside.

The world might be dying; a worldwide effort to crew a starship and find a solution sends our MC to one of the closer stars, where most of the story takes place. Like The Martian, this is both a hard science fiction book (with accurate physics and science in general) and very funny book (like a John Scalzi SF novel), but it's also about character and important themes and deep ideas.

And it's super fun.

No need for a synopsis with spoilers. You've probably either read the book or run across the spoilers already, but if not I'm not gonna mess with it. If you like reading books, especially science fiction, it's very unlikely you won't love this. Sweet, funny, tough, touching, exciting, terrifying--it's all in there. Too good a book not to give my highest recommendation.

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Where Humans Are the New Kids on the Block

Sundiver by David Brin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(This is a reread.)

I like David Brin a lot, and this is the first thing I read by him about 40 years ago. I thought I loved this book a little more on the first read than I probably did. I forgot that it's sluggish at times and has a couple problems, as far as I'm concerned. But it's still fun to read, mostly, and deserves a 4 at least for ideas.

The ideas:

The idea of a ship that can survive the heat and turbulence and gravity of the sun long enough to visit the surface to do science is very cool. The idea of long-lived beings existing on the surface of our sun is also very cool. The idea of a galaxy-spanning library is very cool. And the coolest idea behind the novel, that every sentient race in the universe was uplifted sometime in the past by another race (except maybe humans), is super cool. Younger races are clients of older races, and on earth, chimps and dolphins are being lifted to sentience in a similar way. That uplifting is the basis of the rest of the series, and it's the one that makes this SF setting so exciting. However, it's not the main idea here. The uplift stuff *matters* in this book, but it simmers in the background more than I remembered.

The ending is also a bit off for me. It's okay; I like how the characters come out pretty well. But some of the action amounts to a crime that needs to solved, and the solution doesn't really make sense, and has to be explained to us like Sherlock working through the details for Watson and Scotland Yard. It's clunky, IMO. It's as if he wrote the book, racking his brains till the end for a reason certain characters would do certain inexplicable things...

Anyway, the book is still a good read with interesting ideas. Maybe a 3.5, if you give half-points and don't wanna round up. But it kicks off a series that is better than that, and I'm glad after so long to be getting into it again. I traded all the books in long ago, but that's okay--part of the fun is hunting them all down again.

Recommended for hard science readers. David Brin knows his physics. And he's astute about politics. Worth it just for that.

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Patrick Rothfuss* Told Me to Read This, And He Was Right

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great read. Much fun.

The novella is told in first person by the security bot who calls themselves "Murderbot." (I read the character as female, but realized there was no indication and could be read as male, female, or no gender. Not sure why I made the leap I did. But I'm sticking with it.) The character is quirky and odd, inhuman in a way, but is still sympathetic and well drawn, which is key for me to like a book; I need to have someone to root for. Murderbot was fun to root for.

The action is quick and the internal monologue engaging and entertaining. (I don't always like first person narration. I liked it a lot here.) It's also a short work, but I feel like novella is the perfect length for this book. No down time. From the first moment of danger to the conclusion, things were in motion.

I have the second book queued up, and I'm glad to have that bit of entertainment waiting for me. :)

Recommended.

*In his review. Not personally. But that woulda been cool.

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