And I absolutely loved it. It is honestly one of my new favorite books. I am going to tag basically this whole post as spoilers because the thing that truly makes this book amazing does not start until almost 100 pages in.
SPOILERS
FOR THOSE ON APPS THAT CAN'T HANDLE THEM
SPOILERS
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I love stories about friendship and the friendship between Grace and Rocky was truly beautiful. They are both lost and confused and in a horrible situation but they both take everything in stride. They see a way to help eachother and to not have to do it alone and they grab onto it with both (all five) hands. The way they both accept the other's habits knowing there are things that are fundamentally different between each other is a lesson for everyone.
The growth we see from Grace is also some of the best I've read. We learn later that he chose the self-centered path by refusing to join the Hail Mary crew on his own. Then, when faced with a very similar choice he chooses to save Rocky and his people instead of himself. I honestly cried.
Not only are our two main characters amazing but they are FUNNY! I laughed out loud so many times!
Overall I cant wait to re-read this one a bit down the line.
I loved it too. It got me out of a really long reading funk.
Sure, it's kind of hand-wavey in parts, and the science doesn't always make sense, but it's just so damn fun. I thought the character of Rocky never fell into tropes, and it was great how much personality and humor we get out of him.
Weir is definitely hit or miss from novel to novel, but when he hits he knocks it out of the park.