Table of contents
What this thing is
A guy wakes up after a bender (?) in a bed that isn’t his and tries to figure out what’s the deal with this space of yours, and why he has to talk to a rock.
Scroll through the Reddit posts about Xteink e-readers and you start to feel like reading the book is a rite of passage into the Xteink cult. Every other photo seemed to have that cover in it.
This one is a slightly awkward book to write about, because comparisons with the recent Gosling movie are unavoidable, along with the usual “which is better, the book or the movie?” arguments.
Personally, I think both are worth your time, because Rocky’s cuteness and Gosling’s charisma both land much better on screen. And Eva Stratt isn’t nearly as much of a bitch in the movie. The book is a lot more vivid overall, and the format lets it dig into far more detail and nuance.
The movie, for instance, has a much harder time justifying Stratt’s choices. Or how did Rocky and Grace start understanding each other so fast? Or why were only three people sent on the mission?
Somewhere online I once ran into a “scientific breakdown of why astrophages violate the laws of thermodynamics”. To me, the far less realistic detail is that EVERY country in the world (or near enough, the book makes it feel like all of them, all at once) handed one person essentially unlimited power. Microorganisms living somewhere out in space and feeding on stars somehow feels like the more plausible of the two.
For me this is what genuinely great sci-fi looks like. There’s plenty of philosophizing about what intelligence is and how it might come about, and enough back-of-the-envelope math along the lines of “so how much X do we need to get Y”. Andy Weir has once again created a character it’s very easy to get sad and happy alongside.
I won’t try to argue whether the space in it is realistic or not. To me it reads as pretty romantic, and there’s something calming about Grace’s journey all the way through. FTL gives me a similar feeling, the music especially. Like it’s playing somewhere in the background of most scenes.
That feeling of “comfortable emptiness” is a rare thing to find, and this book pulls it off pretty well.
Verdict
If you’re into sci-fi, this is required reading. And even if you’re not, you’ll still find something here, or you can just lose yourself in a mission to save humanity.
Or go watch the movie, seriously! As of writing this, it’s my film of 2026! You won’t regret it.
Take care of yourself and your loved ones!