The Martian
Andy Weir
An astronaut stranded alone on Mars survives on engineering and jokes, by the same author.
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Books like Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary sends a lone scientist and a spaceship on a mission to save Earth, built on science and ingenuity. These six science fiction novels share different parts of that appeal.
Books to read next
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams
A man escapes Earth's destruction with a friend who is secretly an alien, in a comic space romp that trades rigor for laughs.
Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky
An ark ship searches for a habitable world, and on a planet prepared for humans, something else has been evolving.
Dark Matter
Blake Crouch
A physics professor is abducted one evening and wakes in a life that is not quite his own, in a breakneck science-fiction thriller.
Rendezvous with Rama
Arthur C. Clarke
A crew explores a huge, silent alien craft passing through the solar system, in a classic that favors curiosity over characters.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Becky Chambers
A new hire joins the mixed-species crew of a tunneling ship, in a warm, character-driven story rather than a race against time.
How to choose
If you want more of the same problem-solving and humor, read The Martian next; it is by the same author. For bigger, stranger ideas, go to Children of Time or Rendezvous with Rama. Rama is an older classic that puts ideas ahead of characters. Dark Matter is the most thriller-like, with a breakneck pace. If it was the book's warmth you loved most, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is gentler and slower. Pick The Hitchhiker's Guide when you want laughs more than rigor. Hitchhiker's, Children of Time, Rama and The Long Way all begin series. Like Project Hail Mary, several of these reward going in without reading ahead.
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