Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

I’m a huge fan of the science fiction genre, but I’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t without its flaws. I’ve been known to say that a lot of authors in the genre get a little too caught up in their big ideas and forget that characters, you know, matter! The result is there are no shortage of sci-fi books in my DNF graveyard; books with shallow, unchanging characters who exist to just move the plot along.

I’ve not read a lot of books by Andy Weir–The Martian is the only other novel of his that I’ve tackled–but somehow Mr. Weir somehow manages to consistently escape this trap. While, in “Project Hail Mary”, science and the scientific method absolutely sit front-and-center, ultimately it’s the characters that truly shine through in this book. The result is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat story that has us cheering, hoping, and despairing as we’re shown what it truly means to be a hero.

As an aside, I want to note that the main reason this review exists is because my wife went and publicly called me out in her review of the book! Though now I feel like I’m encouraging her to publicly shame me, given it clearly produced results…

When a ghost ship is discovered, its crew presumed dead after trying to reach the storm-shrouded island Akinah, Navani Kholin must send an expedition to make sure the island hasn't fallen into enemy hands. Knights Radiant who fly too near find their Stormlight suddenly drained, so the voyage must be by sea.

Shipowner Rysn Ftori lost the use of her legs but gained the companionship of Chiri-Chiri, a Stormlight-ingesting winged larkin, a species once thought extinct. Now Rysn's pet is ill, and any hope for Chiri-Chiri’s recovery can be found only at the ancestral home of the larkin: Akinah. With the help of Lopen, the formerly one-armed Windrunner, Rysn must accept Navani's quest and sail into the perilous storm from which no one has returned alive. If the crew cannot uncover the secrets of the hidden island city before the wrath of its ancient guardians falls upon them, the fate of Roshar and the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

Shipowner Rysn Ftori lost the use of her legs but gained the companionship of Chiri-Chiri, a Stormlight-ingesting winged larkin, a species once thought extinct. Now Rysn's pet is ill, and any hope for Chiri-Chiri’s recovery can be found only at the ancestral home of the larkin: Akinah. With the help of Lopen, the formerly one-armed Windrunner, Rysn must accept Navani's quest and sail into the perilous storm from which no one has returned alive. If the crew cannot uncover the secrets of the hidden island city before the wrath of its ancient guardians falls upon them, the fate of Roshar and the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.

When Mr. Sanderson’s Rhythm of War came out, I made the decision to go back and re-read the Stormlight Archives from the start in order to really immerse myself in the narrative before starting the new book. After months of re-reading (and once again loving every minute of it!) I finally did it! I was finally ready to start the new book!

I didn’t get very far before Navani made mention of a certain voyage upon which they discovered some new fabrial technology, and I realized, damnit, there was a novella and I should probably read this one (I have to admit I didn’t get around to fitting Edgedancer into my re-read… next time!) I guess I was gonna have to take a detour.

Well, I’m glad I did! Dawnshard really was a delightful little story in its own right, centering on a couple of side characters that really deserved some time in the spotlight. In the process, the book also introduced some important lore that I have no doubt will play an important part in the overall Stormlight narrative and the Cosmere more broadly.

Smooth black tea that packs a punch of spicy heat.

Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely love wickedly spicy food. I also happen to enjoy a nice black tea from time to time (though given the choice I prefer a fragrant, earthy oolong). So I was very curious what this one would be like.

It turns out the answer is: quite good!

The black tea is very nice. I’d describe it as a solid Assam-style black (and I wrote that before checking the label, so, well done Vintage Fork!)

But the question I’m sure everyone is asking is: how spicy was it? I’d personally describe it as present but gentle, producing a nice warming without being too assertive. Though I should caveat that by noting I tend to eat very spicy food, so my scale for heat might be a little… askew. As was the case with the Garlic Tea, I was genuinely surprised how well this pairing worked.

All in all, I really enjoyed this one, and unlike their Garlic Tea, I can see enjoying this at any time, even when I’m not eating a savoury meal.