One man alone in space, one last chance to save the Sun

In Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir opens with Ryland Grace waking up in a medical bay on a silent spacecraft. Two bodies lie strapped near him, and he has no idea who he is, where he is or why he is the only one left alive. Memories return in fragments while he slowly pieces together that he is far from Earth and at the center of a mission no one else can finish.

As Ryland works through the ship's systems and his own past, he discovers just how desperate humanity's situation has become. The Sun is dimming because of a mysterious microscopic life form, and the Hail Mary is a one way trip to the only star that seems to be resisting the same fate. Every calculation, experiment and improvised fix could mean the difference between survival and extinction for the people he left behind.

What begins as a story of isolation turns into an unexpected partnership when Ryland realizes he might not be the only one fighting this cosmic threat. The further he travels into deep space, the more he must rely on curiosity, stubborn problem solving and a fragile new bond that could change the outcome of his mission.

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Preview Ray Porter's award winning narration as he brings Ryland's humor, fear and wonder to life among the stars.

Audiobook review ★★★★★

The audiobook that won the Audie Award. And earned every bit of it.

I picked this up mostly because I'd heard people compare it to The Martian, and I liked The Martian well enough. What I wasn't expecting was to still be thinking about it three days after I finished. The book opens with a man who doesn't know his own name, alone on a spacecraft, with two dead crewmates and no memory of how he got there. That's all it takes. Within ten minutes I'd cleared my afternoon.

What Weir does here that he didn't quite manage in Artemis is give Ryland Grace an emotional core to go with all the science. The flashback structure earns its place. You start each present-day chapter knowing a little less than you need to, and each memory that returns shifts the stakes. Grace isn't a hero in the conventional sense. He was a middle school science teacher who once wrote a paper on the possibility of non-water-based life, got laughed out of the academic community, and ended up on a one-way mission to another star more or less by accident. That gap between who he is and what he's been asked to do keeps the story grounded when the science threatens to take over.

The relationship at the center of the book, between Grace and the alien he eventually calls Rocky, is the thing I wasn't prepared for. Rocky communicates through musical chords and chimes, and the two of them spend weeks building a shared language from scratch. It shouldn't work as well as it does. I found myself laughing out loud at their exchanges, and then, without any warning, not laughing at all. Weir himself has called it a buddy story. That undersells it, but it's also exactly right.

Eva Stratt, the Dutch project director who essentially coerces Grace into the mission, deserves more attention than most reviews give her. She's not a villain, but she's not easy to like either. There's a late revelation about something she did that hit harder than I expected, partly because the book had spent so long making her case for her own ruthlessness. The moral weight of that scene sits with you.

Ray Porter's narration won the 2022 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, and it's not hard to understand why. He handles a full range of accents (Dutch, Chinese, Russian) and each one reads as a distinct person rather than a vocal party trick. The Rocky scenes are where the production becomes something genuinely unusual: Rocky's speech is represented as musical chords, and as Grace learns the language, Porter's voice gradually overlays the chimes until the alien is speaking in full sentences. It's a production choice that Weir approved specifically for the audio edition, and it transforms what would have been an awkward reading experience into something immersive. At 16 hours and 10 minutes, I never felt the length.

Hard sci-fi Space adventure Buddy story Award-winning narration Andy Weir

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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is an immersive listening experience that mixes hard science, survival and an unlikely friendship in deep space. Following Ryland Grace as he wakes alone aboard a ship headed for another star, the audiobook captures both the problem solving thrill of his mission and the quiet moments when he has to decide what kind of person he wants to be if no one is watching.

You can start this journey with a free trial that you can cancel at any time. Performed by Ray Porter with a runtime of 16 hrs and 10 mins, the narration balances technical detail with warmth and humor, and uses subtle audio touches to make the encounters and discoveries feel vivid without ever overwhelming the story.

The audiobook remains yours forever, even if you end the trial after choosing it. That same offer gives you access to thousands of other audiobooks and provides a simple, risk free way to explore more science fiction epics, character driven adventures and award winning stories. Press play and let this mission pull you all the way out to Tau Ceti and back.