Hacker News Reader

Comment by idoubtit | Hacker News Reader

It's strange to start a list of "books that you may never have heard of" with a novel which is a nominee to the 2020 Hugo Awards. I suppose that most of the regular readers of sci-fi haver heard of it.

A nitpick about the third recommandation with "robots modeled on Karel Čapek’s designs". I suppose that they have not read Čapek’s novels. His robots were not pure machines, they were made from a biological substrate. In a way, they were closer to golems than to what we're now calling robots.

If you want to read really different and lesser known novels, Karel Čapek’s are a good choice. I did not enjoy "R.O.R." much except for his surprising concept of robots, but I highly recommend "War with the newts".

View on HN

Yeah, Project Hail Mary was the only one of the three I'd ever heard of. Still, it was a great book (especially since I read it right on the heels of reading Artemis, which was only "okay").

I heard there might be a movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling.

oh wow, that could be cool! I love seeing more sci-fi come to the screen. I really liked The Expanse and wish they had kept that going...

Nah, that was just news coverage...You Inners really think it was just a show?

This is really a reddit moment but I can't resist, username truly checks out.

To add something to the conversation I am reading the expanse right now and I really like it. It's the mix of goofy and dark that gets me.

It's hard for me to picture Ryan Gosling in the role of Ryland Grace.

maybe he's the alien, then!

That I would be on board with.

It just completed filming, coming out in 2026.

I didn't read Project Hail Mary because I read Artemis. Maybe I'll have to check it out. :)

You should - it's significantly better.

I loved The Martian, actively disliked Artemis, and thought Project Hail Mary was all right. I liked it overall, but it never really clicked for me like The Martian did. Definitely worth a read, though! Most seem to have liked it more than I did.

I just finished Hail Mary this past week. Not as big a fan of it as most seem to be. I found the narrative style to get tedious about half way through the book. A few issues too with events late in the story. 7.5-8/10 by me, above average but not elite.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com