Book Notices | Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir / Helpless by Daniel Palmer

Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

Amazon   Project Hail Mary is another likable-smart-guy-in-space story from The Martian author Andy Weir. Ryland Grace isn’t stuck on Mars with a bunch of spuds. He’s been sent on an interstellar space mission with packets of food slurry so he can save the world. If you liked The Martian, in book or movie form, you’ll like this one too. And if you know anything about science — I don’t — you’ll probably enjoy it on a different level than I was able to because you’ll be better able to appreciate what Grace gets up to in space. (That’s assuming the details are believable enough that science types won’t find fault; I don’t know enough to comment on that aspect intelligently.) This was definitely a fun read. I guess Matt Damon can’t star in the movie version of this book too, so I’ll nominate Ryan Reynolds for the role.

Daniel Palmer, Helpless

Amazon   An ex-Navy Seal/high school soccer coach is framed for child pornography in a complex conspiracy that leaves him a pariah in small-town Shilo, New Hampshire. Plus, his destroyed reputation puts him on the outs with his daughter, who’s newly in his custody and unsure whether she can trust him. This book was very middle-of-the-road for me. I didn’t care about the characters very much and wasn’t interested enough in the details of the conspiracy to keep track of the plot. In general, too, I couldn’t get past the feeling that I was not in the hands of a confident storyteller.