I have descended from my ivory tower and read a fiction book that was written in the 2000s…and I had such a fun time doing it! Andy Weir weaves science into his stories so well, and I loved the relationship between Grace and Rocky. Finally, as far as tropes go, humans and aliens trying to teach each other their respective languages is one of my favorites.
I’m the outlier here, but I didn’t like Project Hail Mary. I loved the Martian and Artemis as I thought they were excellent science fiction, eg, events that could possibly happen in the future. The Martian might be a bit far-fetched, but the science was sound. Unfortunately, for me Project Hail Mary crossed the line into science fantasy. I just can’t do fantasy. I need to have a chance of a story actually being able to be believable.