Andy Weir’s 2021 novel Project Hail Mary starts off a lot like his 2011 debut novel The Martian, with an astronaut stranded in space relying on his wits and humor to do a lot of problem-solving. But while both works are very grounded in real science, Project Hail Mary gets much more speculative around page 125, when astronaut Ryland Grace makes contact with a highly intelligent alien he dubs Rocky.
