This is science fiction at its very best—-factually based, credible, informative, fascinating, remotely possible, and with a fantastic plot that carries one along without slowing down until the final, beautiful pages.  Weir, in this his third book, has created a page turning novel which like all probes of outer space, starts slowly, builds steadily, and finishes in a flash of action and surprise.  Weighing in at nearly 600 pages, you’ll effortlessly (can I say  weightlessly?) fly through the second half in no time.

The story begins with Ryland Grace, a junior high school science teacher, waking up with amnesia on a spaceship.  Over time, Grace and the reader experience flashbacks in which he reconstructs the story that led to him being on the Hail Mary speeding towards , Tau, a star that differs from all of the others in the universe.  The differentiating factor is that Tau is not losing its brilliance and strength while our sun and all the other observable stars in the universe are dimming and cooling.  The decrease in our sun’s brightness will result in the annihilation of all earth’s creatures within 25-30 years, and the prospect of total extinction has united the world’s nations to build a spacecraft capable of reaching Tau, determining why it is immune to this stellar destruction, and sending the solution back to earth in time to save it.  The only problem is that it’s a one way trip, a suicide mission.  Grace, a self-confessed coward, was forced to go on this mission at the last minute and finds himself the only surviving astronaut among the original 3 person crew.  Oy!

What results is a rip-roaring tale of scientific creativity and friendship.  The latter is not between the crew of the Hail Mary (which due to the need to be in an induced coma for several years has resulted in the deaths of Grace’s two crewmates) but between Grace and Rocky, an alien life form from from Erid, another planet whose star’s decline threatens the inhabitants with extinction.   The interplay between Grace and Rocky (five armed, speaking in musical chords, blind and covered with a rock-like carapace) is clever and heart-warming, and by the book’s end, you feel a kindred spirit with this alien.

No more spoilers, but I urge you to read this book as one of my sons-in-law urged me.  You’ll have a great ride through outer space.  Or you can wait for the movie starring Ryan Gosling as Grace to come out in 2022. (Who’s going to play Rocky?  Maybe Joe Pesci?)   For my part, I intend to read Weir’s first two books, so stay tuned.