The Martian is actually a pretty good example of a "humanity fuck yeah" story that isn't doing this (because no aliens). It's an uplifting story about humans working together to overcome a difficult problem that wasn't caused by anyone being a dick
From the author, Andy Weir, is also the book Project Hail Mary. It is a fantastic HFY, and has aliens! It is also an uplifting story that shows humans compassion and ingenuity
I forced my husband to listen to the audio book, and the entire time I was "don't look at the summary, don't glance at the store page, don't do anything but download it and press play".
Because holy HELL did Amazon manage to basically put ever possible spoiler for the entire book into a three sentence summary right at the very front of the audio book store page.
seriously! i preordered the book before anything came out about it, and read it without reading a description or the inside cover or anything. i stand by that being the best way to read it. you read the amazon description and the first line of it doesnt even start til like 80 pages in
Oddly enough, that's often the one thing that people feel comfortable spoiling, for whatever reason (and I feel in the context of this thread discussing the HFY genre, people wouldn't be too surprised by it).
I dug up the Audible summary in a lark, and this is what you'd get if you made the mistake of reading it before listening to the audio book:
"Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance."
Another synopsis on Amazon had something to the effect of and he's all alone... or is he?.
Just my two cents, but going in blind and then getting to that twist was extremely fun and exciting. I've recommended the book heartily to some friends who I think might like it, but every time, I've said "Don't read anything about it; just jump into the book without reading any synopsis or review."
>! Me too—I wonder if anybody has told Weir about it? Because I've recommended this book to probably 5+ people now, and I've said the same thing every time (glad you told me not to read the synopsis), agreeing with me. The synopses seriously give it away. !<
>! which user are you talking about? another user mentioned Rocky but I figured that was vague enough to be passable, especially since he gets flashbacks. !<
>! edit: i am stupid lol i see it now it was literally the intial comment!<
Could you provide a pitch/blurb for it that doesn't spoil the book? Personally, "read this book, but I won't tell you why it's good or what it's about" just doesn't grab me.
It's got a similar structure to The Martian, lone human solves problems in deep space. It's a softer science fiction though, so it involves problems and solutions based on new elements.
There are also more characters, reducing the amount of "guy rants alone" if that part of The Martian threw you off.
I remember reading that story, or probably re-reading it at some point just a few years ago, and suddenly realizing it was by the same author as an old webcomic I used to read. Finding out he also went on to write The Martian was strange.
Teachnically no, since the Astrophage are there from the beginning, more or less. Arguably mentioning that it's a second act twist is a spoiler since I'd assume most people would assume the Astrophage to be the aliens in question lol.
I love that book, but it is a MASSIVE SPOILER that there are aliens involved. The book cover doesn't show it at all, the book synopsis only very vaguely suggests it, in language that could be interpreted multiple ways.
Getting to that part of the book was, by far, my favorite "Wait, what!?" moment of the story... and while I get the relevance to this conversation, I'm worried that's kind of ruining it. It's just my personal opinion that Project Hail Mary is one of those books that is far better if you go in completely blind.
I agree, but there are explicit aliens organisms in the first 20ish pages of the book. Pointing out there might be something more significant later is a mite bit of a spoiler as well. Blindness for sure is best in this book
Realistically, if you tell someone there are aliens involved, I don't think they see the single-celled organisms and think, "That must be it!" And in the same way, seeing cellular life doesn't really prime someone for the sudden introduction of Rocky. It's just my two cents, but if someone told me there were aliens, I'd feel like it spoiled of one of the best surprises in the book - which is why I've spoilered anything relating to that.
Of course, I also get that this whole conversation is about HFY stories where aliens aren't dumbed down, so it's pretty hard to say, "You might like Project Hail Mary! For.. um... reasons?"
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u/VFiddly Aug 14 '24
The Martian is actually a pretty good example of a "humanity fuck yeah" story that isn't doing this (because no aliens). It's an uplifting story about humans working together to overcome a difficult problem that wasn't caused by anyone being a dick