These 6 sci-fi books take Project Hail Mary’s best idea even further

The best thing about Project Hail Mary is the bond between the human astronaut Ryland Grace and the alien Rocky. The Faded Sun trilogy does something similar, embedding the human soldier Sten Duncan among the Mri aliens, who have just finished fighting a decades-long war against humanity on behalf of a different alien race called the Regul. The Mri are a mercenary people hired to do a job, and while Duncan initially views them as hostile and dangerous, he sympathizes when the Regul betray the Mri and attempt to exterminate them.

Project Hail Mary ends with Ryland Grace making a new home on Rocky’s planet, although it’s implied he could eventually go back to Earth. In The Faded Sun trilogy, Sten Duncan “goes native” to the point where he formally becomes one of the Mri people, learning their ways and customs. It’s moving to see someone capable of bridging vastly different cultures like this.

That said, one of the fun things about The Faded Sun trilogy is that it’s told mostly from the perspective of the Mri characters, so the human being is something of a supporting player.

Credit: Harper Voyager

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is an easygoing sci-fi novel that concerns itself more with character development than with action. Rosemary Harper, a human woman born on Mars, leaves her old life behind when she joins the crew of the Wayfarer, which constructs wormholes to aid in interstellar travel. That means she travels all over the universe with a diverse crew of humans and aliens alike, and we get to know all of them. That includes the reptile-esque pilot Sissix, the highly intuitive navigator Ohan, and Dr. Chef, a Gorm alien who is both the doctor and the chef on the ship.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet takes its time getting to know each of the grew members, who forge bonds as they negotiate the intricacies of inter-species socializing. Project Hail Mary may have been a little more like this had Ryland and Rocky’s crews not died on their way to the healthy star.

Credit: Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency

Starting with We Are Legion in 2016, the Bobiverse books tell the story of Bob Johansson, a 21st century software engineer who dies unexpectedly, and then wakes up over 100 years later to find that he is the controlling AI of a self-replicating probe designed to go into outer space and find other planets capable of hosting what remains of humanity.

Johansson creates many copies of himself, although over time their personalities and priorities diverge as they have different experiences. The Bobs meet many alien species during their travels, although the Bobiverse books are most similar to Project Hail Mary in terms of tone. They’re funny, quippy, and feature a lot of ingenious problem-solving rooted in real-life science, which should please fans of Andy Weir’s work.

Dennis E. Taylor has written five Bobiverse books so far, with more on the way.

Credit: Recorded Books, Inc. and Blackstone Publishing

The Murderbot Diaries are unique in that all the books written from the perspective of the main non-human character, in this case a security android who has hacked itself to the point where it has free will. The android, which calls itself Murderbot, is cynical, grumpy, and would prefer to be left alone so it can watch soap operas all day, but finds itself forced to interact with its human employers. And yet, despite itself, Murderbot comes to grudgingly bond with some of his human colleagues, even if it wouldn’t admit it.

Like the Bobiverse series, The Murderbot Diaries is an ongoing series. Martha Wells has written eight books so far and has at least one more planned. Also, of all the series on this list, The Murderbot Diaries is the only one so far to get a proper screen adaptation. The Murderbot TV show on Apple TV is excellent, and a second season is on the way.

Credit: Orbit

Orson Scott Card’s most famous book is 1985’s Ender’s Game, about a young man who attends a brutal military school where he and his fellow students are trained to fight against a serious alien threat, only to find out at the end that it was all too real. The sequel, Speaker for the Dead, isn’t as well-known, but might be even better.

In this book, an adult Ender is summoned to a faraway colony planet to investigate the death of an anthropologist who was studying the native aliens, the Pequeninos. Humanity’s governing bodies want the Pequeninos destroyed, but the more Ender delves into the mystery, the more it becomes clear that they are an intelligent species deserving of respect, and that there’s much more to the anthropologist’s death than meets the eye.

Speaking for the Dead is a book all about empathy for those who are different than us, and how it’s impossible to completely understand another without loving them. Fans of the relationship between Ryland and Rocky in Project Hail Mary could find a lot to love here, although it’s less comedic and more dramatic.

Credit: Pocket Books

The Mote in God’s Eye is more what you’d expect from a story about humans and aliens in that the two species are in conflict, although there are some granularities that still make it worth reading for fans of Project Hail Mary.

In the distant future, humanity makes first contact with an alien species who come to be known as the “Moties.” They are charming and intelligent and appear to be willing to work with humanity for the good of both species, but they’re hiding some terrifying about their own biology that threatens not only humans but potentially all civilization in the galaxy, including the Motie civilization itself.

It’s not that the Moties are evil, but more that they have a biological imperative that makes them a threat whether they want to be or not. In the sequel, The Gripping Hand, we learn more about the Moties, and find that there are factions within Motie society just as there are among us Earthlings. As in Speaker for the Dead, the more we understand the aliens, the harder it is to just think of them as threats and nothing more.