Updated Project Hail Mary review after completion:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Please bear with me because this book is not entirely the execrable midden it may seem - there’s a reason it made this list - but I can’t talk about it without first the accumulated rant. I don’t mean to offend by suggesting that if Weir is not exactly the Dan Brown of SF, he may well be the Clive Cussler or the Robert Ludlum. Which is to say that he is a writer with redeeming ideas but lacking the craft to express them skillfully. He is either uninterested in character, or unable to invent a protagonist other than the one he already created for his breakout The Martian. And to the chagrin of fans who saw potential in that first novel, he has again written a story of a lone individual, stranded apart from all other humans, attempting to save the day using only his sheer problem solving skills and the memory of high school physics. (Do we really need another iteration of Mr Dimsdale’s 11th grade semester one physics formulas, like distance equals half gravity times the square of time?) In fact, if there is one thing that Weir’s books seem to be “about”, it’s setting up technical problems he has transparently already solved, and showing you how smart he is by offering the solution. His work is not as puerile as that of, for instance, Ernest Cline (Ready Player One), but on that very dimension is unfortunately considerably to the left of Steven Gould (Jumper).

That said, Weir has invented one of the most scientifically realized alien life forms I’ve ever encountered. Granted it is unicellular, but the microbial details are thoughtful and considered. So if you prefer your SF with a plausible dollop of biochemistry and a coherent bacterial lifecycle, this may be the book for you.

I have to admit that after my initial recoiling, I did get drawn into what might be described as an SF thriller. And he has spent a lot of energy on plot. Most of his energy it would seem. The fate of the Earth, after all, is at stake. Without giving away much, Weir does establish an engaging tete-a-tete between human and yet another plausible alien - nonmicrobial - so kudos for that.

Weir is committed to offering up literary comfort food, no need to chop or braise: it’s all ready to eat with no fuss or work. It’s not hard to see why his books sell; we are a busy people, and one is to be congratulated for reading at all. And yet, embarrassing as it is to admit, the book is almost a guilty pleasure.

I just finished Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison, set in the same universe as her Goblin Emperor. It was basically a murder mystery, which was kind of a fun twist given the elves and goblins populations. 
I also recently finished Naomi Novak’s The Last Graduate, the second book in the two book Scholomance series. As I see it it, these books are her take on Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, her swat of the ping pong ball right back at them. I thought they were quite successful. 

Kokipy wrote:

I just finished Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison, set in the same universe as her Goblin Emperor. It was basically a murder mystery, which was kind of a fun twist given the elves and goblins populations. 
I also recently finished Naomi Novak’s The Last Graduate, the second book in the two book Scholomance series. As I see it it, these books are her take on Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, her swat of the ping pong ball right back at them. I thought they were quite successful. 

I hope Novak will write some more in that universe, I'd like to see the "outside" world

After finishing KSRs Ministry for the Future, I went on to a couple of older Al Reynolds novellas  I hadn''t yet read: Slow Bullets and The Six Directions of Space.  Both are good examples of what Al can do well in that shorter length. Both are hard SF with well-written female protagonists and, in the case of Six Directions, the background premise is Mongols in space.  How can you go wrong?

I followed those with John M Ford's Scholars of Night. This was his homage to the Cold War espionage thrillers of Anthony Price - a wonderful set of books and stories with an excellent ensemble cast of characters, and well worth seeking out imo.

Heading back to SF now with Adrian Tchaikovsky's Bear Head.


 

Just finished The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow.  Highly recommended. Totally different from 10K Doors. 

Before that, Ring Shout, by P Djèli Clark.  Also recommended, although I’m sure I missed a lot due to almost complete ignorance of American southern black culture.  That alone is enough for a read IMO.