I had high hopes for this novel when I started reading it, after having read The Martian and Project Hail Mary. But this isn’t a man-is-stuck-in-space-alone-and-needs-to-go-into-details-about-niche-science-knowledge themed book, so it feels outside of Weir’s really strong toolkit.
I enjoyed the mystery side of things, and the inevitable Weir-esque delves into the science of various processes. It’s like reading Neal Stephenson without the huge slowdown as the novel descends into treacly textbook-style explanations of the physics behind things.
All in all a decent novel that kept me mostly entertained.
My lovely friend Nick recommended this Andy Weir novel to me. I’d read The Martian previously, so jumped PHM immediately. I was in the depths of being frustrated with Shantaram at the time, so jumping onto something fun and interesting was an easy decision to make.
I loved the premise of the book, and the unlikely-hero trope. I found Grace frustrating as a character, but I get the feeling that I was meant to.
I enjoyed the thought that Weir put into the alien non-humanoid design and language, and their scientific limitations.
Largely an enjoyable book, and I look forward to the film.
This is going to look like it’s a New Year’s Resolution thing, but it isn’t.
I’m currently reading Foundation, by Isaac Asimov.
I was lead to it, maybe embarrassingly, by a mention in the previous novel I read: The One Impossible Labyrinth by Matthew Reilly. Would I recommend the Jack West Junior series of books? No. Are they good? No. Are they enjoyable in the same way as The Expendables series of movies are? Yes. They’re ridiculous, have illustrations to help visualise the ridiculously over the top scenarios, and just never stop.
Foundation was published in 1951, and is the fourth book in the series, with three prequels written much later. Much like Star Wars. It’s set many thousands of years into the future, and, if I’ve understood it correctly, is about the prediction of the fall of the Galactic Empire by a mathematician, and his plan to prevent a 30,000 year dark age. We’ll see.
