Project Hail Mary Writer Andy Weir Has One Sci-Fi Book Recommendation For Political Thriller Fans

Thanks to the success of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's acclaimed "Project Hail Mary" this year, and the equal success of Ridley Scott's celebrated "The Martian" back in 2015, sci-fi author Andy Weir has become a household name. In addition to writing the books that "Project Hail Mary" and "The Martian" are based on, he has also written the hit 2017 novel "Artemis" and "The Egg" (a short story that was adapted into an animated short streaming for free on YouTube). When interviewed, Weir is pleased to share his favorite novels with anyone who asks. He had admitted that his favorite authors are all well-known sci-fi legends (like Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov), and he has shared his recommendations for sci-fi books everyone should read, including Matt Dinniman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl," John Scalzi's "The Kaiju Preservation Society," and Cixin Liu's "The Three-Body Problem." He is well-read, and one would be wise to heed Weir's recommendations.

Back when Weir's "Project Hail Mary" was first published in 2021, the author took to Reddit to engage in an AMA session with his fans, and, as one might predict, many of them asked for additional book recommendations. One fan noted that they like sci-fi novels that deal with the sociopolitical dimension of any potential off-world colonization. There are many books about the hard science of colonization, the fan wrote, but they implored Weir to recommend a newer book in the vein of, say, Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles."

Weir responded by writing that he's not so fond of such stories, as he considers them political thrillers and not sci-fi. But, he added, that as such thrillers go, he's fond of Pierce Brown's "Red Rising" novel series.

Andy Weir was frank when it came to sci-fi stories with a political dimension, explaining: 

"I'm not interested in that kind of storytelling. To me, that's a political thriller — a perfectly fine genre but just not the kind I write (though I read and enjoy them). If you're looking for a good recent example of that, I recommend the 'Red Rising' series."

2014's "Red Rising" is a dystopian novel about Earth in the very distant future, after it has been separated into color-coded castes. Of the 14 colors, Golds live at the top, made up of physically fit, super-intelligent rulers. They are, however, cruel dictators who regularly execute dissidents. They have classical names like the not-so-subtle Nero Augustus. At the bottom of society are Reds, who only do menial labor. They've essentially been enslaved. Many Reds live on Mars and mine for helium-3, which is required to terraform Mars and eventually make it inhabitable. 

The plot of the first "Red Rising" novel follows Darrow, a Red whose wife is unjustly hanged by the state, spurring him to join an underground resistance movement against the Golds. He is thereafter physically transformed to infiltrate the Gold caste, gain information, and, basically, topple society. 

Just reading the description, one can see that Pierce Brown was aiming for the same audience of readers who enjoyed Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" book series. Both are about unjust, caste-based sci-fi dystopias and follow the adventures of righteous rebels who aim to topple the system. One may also intuit that "Red Rising" is more about castes and rebellion than terraforming Mars, so it's apparent Weir isn't interested in that kind of storytelling.

Andy Weir recommended "Red Rising" as a good example of recent dystopian fiction, but he didn't elucidate which elements of "Red Rising" he liked or even if he was keeping up with Pierce Brown's follow-up books. As of this writing, there have been six "Red Rising" novels published, with a seventh on the way. The more recent books in the series involve an interplanetary battle between Society (the caste-loving bad guys) and the Solar Republic. The first three "Red Rising" books — "Red Rising" (2014), "Golden Son" (2015), and "Morning Star" (2016) — comprise a trilogy. The following four books begin a decade after the end of that trilogy and are made up of "Iron Gold" (2018), "Dark Age" (2019), and "Light Bringer" (2023). "Red God" hasn't been published yet. 

Weir seemed much more in his element talking about math. Indeed, one reader pointed out a mistake that Weir had made when, in "Project Hail Mary," he talked about the time oscillation equation of a pendulum. The reader noted that it was actually T ≈ 2π√(L/g), and they did some quick calculations to prove that Weir had done his math wrong. Yes, science and math nerds love Weir's works. When his incorrect calculations were pointed out to him, Weir acerbically responded by writing, "Yes, I got the pendulum wrong. I will, of course, go into exile as a result."

One might be able to guess from their descriptions that there isn't a lot of pendulum-based physics in the "Red Rising" books. They're more about fighting and action and a badass protagonist armed with a sickle. That might be exciting, but it's hardly hard science.