Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - Book Review 332

 

A good friend of mine sent me this book in the mail. And I am so glad he did.

Andy Weir is a terrific voice in Science Fiction.  He makes being smart, industrious and creative the hallmarks of his stories.  They are just as inspiring as they are entertaining. 

Learn all you can.  Follow your passions and interests.  You just never know when what you know can solve the problem.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor of a deep space mission sent to save all life on Earth from an environmental catastrophe.  Don't worry, it's not what you think. 

Trouble is he has no memory of his mission or who he is.  Never mind the two dead bodies that are in the ship with him.

Then he is faced with a first contact situation with another race from another star system. 

It's a terrific story of survival, solving the mystery of why Grace is on this mission, finding a way to communicate with the alien in the ship next door, and cooperation between them.

At 476 pages, I found myself going back to it for just a few more pages just to see what happens next.  The pace was quick without being frantic.  Kind of like space.  Things are so far away that time takes on a whole new scale.

Problem solving is still at the heart of Weir's writing, but this is different from his previous two books. It's his first interstellar story and I was glad his aliens were not humanoid.  Why would they be?  This presented a whole new set of mysteries to solve.  Communication. Environment. Technology.  But they had physics and mathematics in common. 

I look forward to the next adventure Mr. Weir takes me on.

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman - Book Review #328

 

Yes.  THAT Nick Offerman.

I was surprised by this book.  I was expecting an up front humour of the human condition.

What I got instead was a thoughtful look at our mixed up, crazy, complicated and nuanced world.  

The primary point of the book is to explore how we cannot continue living, as a society, the way that we have.  This will ruffle many feathers.  But feathers must be ruffled to create lift and move us forward.

Wow! That metaphor was a stretch, eh?

The book is broken into three parts, a hike with some friends, time spent on an English sheep farm (or is it a ranch?), and a cross-country camping trip with his wife.

Through these experiences Offerman offers insight into how so many people are getting things right, by respecting the land and the ecology.  How others are fixing the errors of the past.  How he was inspired, and in turn trying to inspire others to do better. 

I was reminded of Bill Bryson's excellent book A Walk in the Woods.  Both authors have a mastery of the English language.  Bryson's used with his excellent dry wit.  Offerman wrestles the language to the ground and bends it to his will.  He is a muscular linguist.

I was lucky to have enjoyed the stories in audio book format.  Nick Offerman reading his own work was a sublime experience. 

100 Things We've Lost to the Internet by Pamela Paul - Book Review #327

 

The author is the editor of the New York Times Book Review.

A lot of what is on the list is obvious, telephone booths, land lines, paper books, and cameras.

But she not only delves into what is lost and how it has changed but how personal each technology and interaction was.  

Some things have been gained while others are missed.

I found the book balanced and humane.

Would I go back?  No way.  I like living in the future.  Most of my everyday experience today is what I dreamed about when I was young. 

This book helped me remember where we've come from without feeling sad about it.

It's just an exploration of how things have changed in the span of half a human lifetime.  This kind of reflection is important to be aware of since all of the innovations in the book have crept up slowly.  It's easy not to notice.

Thank goodness there are people out there who do notice and take the time to share it with us.

The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield - Book Review #323

I am a space buff.  I was a kid during the Apollo missions.  I grew up with the promise of space travel and exploration.

Chris Hadfield is a Canadian hero and astronaut.

I enjoyed taking a ride on the fictional Apollo 18 mission.

But...

It missed the mark for me.  Not because it was a bad story.  For me, it was because it was historical fiction.  When a twist in the mission occurs, the decisions made struck me as being implausible.

I kept thinking to myself, "There is no way NASA and Mission Control would allow this to continue."

Had this story been inside a world of the author's creation it would have been terrific.  Inserting it into a known history is so much more difficult to pull off.

I very much look forward to his next novel.  I could see a series, where the settings change throughout the history of NASA.  The Shuttle era.  The ISS.  The new Artemis program.  SpaceX.  Missions to Mars.

Hadfield has the inside knowledge which makes his writing so very compelling. 

The Undiscovered Country by Katie Kovacs

I do love a collection.  Be it essays, short stories, whatever.  I can dip into the book whenever I please. Put it down again and it will be waiting for me to return.

Midlife is a terrific collection of essays from alumni of the University of Alberta's Gateway newspaper about reaching middle age in 2021.

Katie Kovacs's account of her divorce and return from France to Edmonton is moving and raw.

Life is not easy.  Divorce makes it ugly.  Add a pandemic.

An excellent entry to an already excellent collection.