Project Hail Mary book club questions, by chapter
A man wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is, and has to work out where he is and why before he can save anyone.
The questions are grouped by how far you have read. Each group asks only about what has happened by that point, so you can talk about the book before everyone has finished it. The first two groups are here. The rest are inside EpyLog and show up as you read.
The first pages
Assumes you have read the first chapter or so
- The computer asking "What's two plus two?" over and over before it will let him move. What did that opening do to you?
- He works out the gravity with a pendulum before he knows his own name. What did that tell you about who he is?
- The two bodies in the other beds. What did you assume had happened to them?
- He remembers a classroom of kids before he remembers anything else about himself. Did you trust that memory?
- The moment he understands he is not on Earth. Did you believe it before he did?
Through chapter 6
Assumes you have read through chapter 6
- The Petrova line, and the sun getting dimmer. When did the size of the problem land for you?
- Astrophage: a living thing that eats light. Which detail about it unsettled you most?
- Eva Stratt, and the authority she is handed. Did you want someone like her in charge?
- He was a junior high science teacher. What did that fact change about how you read his decisions on the ship?
- Yáo and Ilyukhina, dead in their beds. What did you feel about the two people he never got to know?
- The ship is called the Hail Mary. What did the name tell you about how much hope Earth had?
- The centrifuge spinning up for gravity after all that floating. Did you realize you had been picturing him standing the whole time?
The rest of the book
Through chapter 14 · Through chapter 21 · When you have finished
20 more questions for Project Hail Mary are inside EpyLog. Add the book and they show up as you read: 6 through chapter 14, 7 through chapter 21, 7 when you have finished. Send your friends the link and each of them sees the questions at their own chapter, and nothing past it.
Add Project Hail Mary