I've just read Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary novel, without realising it was top of the pops.
Now a movie too. The premise was good, similar to my own (Ed Adams) Sheep Dreams, but drifting off in another direction with the saviour physics teacher who does a lot of rudimentary calculation to turn that crazy bird around.
I could get the sense of loneliness and the wish to bond with the strange carapace being encountered along the way. The number of airlock moments and gravity/non gravity twists were another factor, which to me interfered with the Grace in Space forging an existential connection with a Rocky engineer-being.
Yet 'I choose you even if it costs me everything' (my words) runs through the closing sections.
My version would become weirder: “I didn’t choose—and yet everything aligned.”
And then I saw the suggestion to read Claire North's Slow Gods, which holds an intriguing premise. - exploring meaning in uncertainty, which is a riff I enjoy.
Especially when cracks appear.
I've previously used the cockroach, overriding the command to go through the flames. Reinstating 'the middle'. But doing it quietly, without over-explanation.
Slow Gods teaches me about leaving enough narrative space for reflection. Open the door. Explore the room. Which North does. I'd like to remove the walls as well.
A case of 'There is no meaning so we must create it.' vs 'meaning is irrelevant - the outcome is already aligned.'
I like the concept because it is systems-thinking fiction. It explores alignment, inevitability and decision structures. I'd prefer it to compress its ideas, explain less and lock into action.
Ambitious, intelligent, and worth a look, with some intriguing philosophy. If it were mine, I'd tighten it, but I like that it is adjacent to some of my own writing. As for the title - brilliant. And, indeed, the cover art.
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[it's an Austrian video, of Nazareth performing the Joni Mitchell song]
