In a way, Project Hail Mary is something of a throwback to that era of science fiction-yes, there’s an existential threat, but there’s no dystopian government to overthrow, no complex social dynamics to navigate. That would have had a big effect on our history.” “If the moon rotated in the sky and you could see different parts of it over time-you’d immediately know, well, that’s a sphere. “I always wonder, ‘What would our scientific advancement be like if the moon wasn’t tidally locked?’” he says. Dick, whose short stories were often built on a single, small tweak to our world: What if the sun almost never set? What if the Nazis had won the war? In a way, the whole story flows from this one conceit-in the vein of classic sci-fi authors like Isaac Asimov of Phillip K. The fictional substance can absorb neutrinos, which in real life are unable to be contained.

In fact, Weir says, the least plausible thing in the book is right down at the quantum level-in the workings of the “black matter” which is renamed “astrophage” for Project Hail Mary. But rather than plucking a horrifying beast from the depths of his imagination, or going down the cash-strapped Star Trek wardrobe designers’ route of sticking some plastic bits on a human, Weir uses the same scientific approach that characterized The Martian to come up with a plausible alien life-form for his new book. (Mild spoilers follow.)ĭuring his journey, Grace encounters an alien life-form on a mission similar to his: a spiderlike creature with a thick exoskeleton that breathes ammonia and finds oxygen poisonous. In the book, which was released Tuesday, a wisecracking American man called Ryland Grace wakes up in a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there, and he has to rely on his wits and a series of science experiments to save not only himself but the human race. That idea became the seed of Project Hail Mary, Weir’s new book, which sees a return to what he calls the “isolated scientist story.” It’s clearly a winning formula-MGM has already picked up the movie rights, and Ryan Gosling is attached to star.

Andy weir the astronaut