I recently finished reading “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir. The book’s introduction says:
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he?
Yes, it’s a science fiction novel.
Lately, the only books I’ve been reading were about investments, and I hadn’t read a novel in a while. However, I picked up this book because it was recommended somewhere.
The book is in two volumes. Initially, I started reading it quite eagerly, but I stopped halfway through the first volume. Novels and stories often have points where it’s easy to get stuck, and I felt I hit one of those points.
I think a few weeks passed. However, the story kept lingering in my mind. What happened to the protagonist, Grace? Did they solve the problems? How does it end?
I picked it up again and started reading from where I left off. From there, I read it non-stop until the end. It was incredibly interesting and thrilling.
Since I majored in physics, I have a special attachment to it. I understand the importance of comparing through experiments, uncovering truths from results, and achieving this isn’t easy and requires patience.
The beauty of science lies in inheriting the wisdom of those who came before us and further advancing it for the next generation. This accumulation is a crystallization of hundreds, thousands, or even more years of progress. Reading this book made me appreciate how wonderful physics is and how great science can be.