Hail Mary

Saying too much here would definitely introduce spoilers, so I’ll limit my comments to the following bullet points:

• A few more characters than in The Martian

• Protagonist is an 8th grade science teacher who had been thrown out of university academia for writing a paper going against The Goldilocks Principle (organic life requires water)

• The sun is dimming for some reason, threatening life with mass starvation and multiple species extinction

• Nations decide to work collaboratively on a solution, with an infinite budget (imagine that)

• A woman is put in charge of coördinating the entire project with support from all governments

• A unique propulsion system is discovered and deployed for the Hail Mary

• Final destination for the Hail Mary lies beyond our solar system

  

I enjoyed it more than The Martian for the simple reason of how Ryland Grace (the junior high science teacher) “sciences” his way out of much more intricate problems, but, on top of that, uses his teaching know-how to sync-up empathically with a non-human lifeform.