If you devoured Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary and found yourself craving more adventures among the stars, you're in luck. The universe of science fiction is packed with incredible stories featuring impossible missions and mind-bending science.
Whether you want more of Weir's signature style, complex alien civilizations or humanity banding together to face extinction, this list has something for every type of space adventure fan.
Here are 15 books that capture that same spirit of discovery, problem-solving and wonder that made Project Hail Mary such a joy to read.
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
- Artemis by Andy Weir
- Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
- We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
- Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
- Old Man's War by John Scalzi
- A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
- Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
- To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Martian by Andy Weir
If you loved watching Ryland Grace MacGyver his way through impossible problems in space, you need to meet Mark Watney. He's stranded alone on Mars after a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate and now he's got to survive with limited supplies, no way to communicate with Earth, and years before anyone can rescue him.
Weir's The Martian is where it all started for him, and it's got the same DNA as Project Hail Mary. Mark engineers solutions to grow food in Martian soil, creates water from rocket fuel and finds clever ways to tell NASA he's alive. Back on Earth, scientists work around the clock to bring him home.
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Remember how Project Hail Mary made first contact feel both terrifying and hopeful? This book takes that concept and cranks the stakes way up. During China's Cultural Revolution, scientist Ye Wenjie sends a message into space that gets picked up by the Trisolarans, aliens whose planet orbits three suns in chaotic patterns. Turns out they're dying and Earth looks like the perfect new home.
The Three-Body Problem is hard science fiction that asks massive philosophical questions. The novel jumps between past and present as nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao investigates scientist suicides and gets sucked into a VR game simulating alien life. He uncovers a secret organization split between helping the aliens conquer Earth or fighting the invasion. The Trisolarans won't arrive for 400 years, but they've already sent sophons (tiny supercomputers sabotaging our scientific progress). Liu Cixin blends real physics with mind-bending concepts, creating something intellectually stimulating and deeply engaging.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
You know that sinking feeling when Grace realizes Earth is doomed? Neal Stephenson gives you that exact feeling in the first sentence of Seveneves: the moon explodes. Scientists figure out they've got two years before debris rains down and makes Earth uninhabitable for thousands of years, which means humanity needs to get into space fast.
Neal Stephenson's Seveneves is a masterclass in technical problem-solving under pressure. The story follows brilliant engineers and leaders building a swarm of habitats called the Cloud Ark around the International Space Station. And Stephenson doesn't hold back on the details. You'll get deep dives into space habitats, survival engineering and the physics of keeping people alive in orbit. (And there is a 5,000 year time jump).
Artemis by Andy Weir
If you're craving more of Andy Weir's signature blend of science and humor, this one's set on the Moon instead of Mars. Jazz Bashara is a smuggler living in humanity's first lunar city, doing odd jobs and sneaking contraband past security. When a billionaire offers her serious money to sabotage his competitor's operation, she figures it's just another sketchy gig until everything goes sideways.
Andy Weir's Artemis trades survival for a heist thriller, but keeps that same level of technical detail. What starts as corporate sabotage spirals into a city-wide conspiracy involving Earth crime syndicates trying to take over the Moon. Jazz uses her welding skills and knowledge of lunar mechanics to save Artemis from becoming a criminal empire. You'll learn about aluminum smelting in low gravity, oxygen production and the economics of space tourism, all wrapped up in a fast-paced adventure with Weir's characteristic wit.
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Want that same sense of regular people stumbling into something galaxy-threatening? Jim Holden and his ice hauler crew answer a distress signal and find an abandoned ship which kicks off a conspiracy that could ignite war across the entire solar system. Humanity's colonized Mars, the asteroid belt and beyond, but we're still fighting over resources and power.
Leviathan Wakes opens The Expanse series by blending hard sci-fi with detective noir. Detective Joe Miller hunts for missing heiress Julie Mao and his investigation collides with Holden's mystery. Together they uncover an alien protomolecule that hijacks human biology. The series nails realistic space travel including acceleration physics, gravity, the works, while mixing in political intrigue and body horror. If you loved the science and adventure mix in Project Hail Mary, this nine-book series will keep you busy for months.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
Here's a fun twist on the "lone astronaut" trope: what if you were the spaceship? Bob sells his software company, signs up for cryogenic freezing, then immediately gets hit by a car. He wakes up a century later as an AI controlling a self-replicating space probe. His mission is to explore the galaxy and make copies of himself to cover more ground.
Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse series is like Project Hail Mary if Grace could clone himself and have philosophical debates with his duplicates. Bob escapes into space and starts making more Bobs, each developing their own personality where some become explorers, others try saving endangered alien species and some just geek out over the mysteries of the universe.
There's humor, tons of pop culture references and surprisingly deep questions about consciousness and identity. The self-replicating probe concept is based on actual science (Von Neumann probes), making it both entertaining and thought-provoking.
Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
If Rocky and the Hail Mary got your heart racing with alien mystery, you'll love this classic. In 2130, a massive cylindrical object enters our solar system, and it's definitely not an asteroid. Turns out, it's an alien spacecraft the size of a small country. A human crew has to board it and figure out what it is before Rama swings past the sun and vanishes forever.
Arthur C. Clarke masterpiece is a sense-of-wonder science fiction. Commander Norton and his crew explore this hollow world with its own ocean, cities and mysterious machinery but the creators are completely absent. Clarke's writing focuses on mystery and awe with stunning descriptions of Rama's interior that'll stick with you. If you loved everything Eridian in Project Hail Mary, this classic delivers pure exploration and discovery.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Not every space book needs to be about saving humanity. Sometimes it's just about finding your people. Rosemary joins the crew of the Wayfarer, a ship that punches wormholes through space for a living. The crew's a mix of humans, aliens and an AI, and they've just scored a massive job that'll take them a year through dangerous space.
Becky Chambers's The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is more about the people. You'll meet Sissix the reptilian pilot, Dr. Chef (last of his species) and Lovey the AI who's fallen in love with a crew member. It's lighter on hard science than Project Hail Mary, but shares that optimistic view of diverse people working together. This is heartwarming space opera that proves sci-fi doesn't need universe-saving stakes to be meaningful.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Giant intelligent spiders. Woop! Humans wrecked Earth and found a terraformed planet that was supposed to have uplifted monkeys on it. Plot twist: the experiment went sideways and now the planet's got civilized spiders instead. Meanwhile, the last humans are circling overhead, desperate for somewhere to land.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time pulls off something incredible in making you genuinely care about spider protagonists. The story alternates between humanity's last remnants and the spider society as it evolves over generations, developing technology, culture and eventually space travel.
Tchaikovsky's exploration of alien intelligence feels fresh and creative, while the hard science focuses on evolution and sociology. It's thought-provoking stuff about survival, coexistence and what intelligence really means. If you appreciated the alien perspectives in Project Hail Mary, this takes that concept to fascinating new places.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
You loved watching humanity unite to save Earth in Project Hail Mary? This alternate history shows what that looks like in the 1950s. A meteorite slams into Earth in 1952 and scientists realize the planet's got maybe 30 years before it's toast. Elma York is a brilliant mathematician and pilot fighting to become one of the first female astronauts while humanity scrambles to colonize space.
Mary Robinette Kowal's The Calculating Stars brings the same problem-solving energy as Project Hail Mary, but layers in social commentary about 1950s discrimination. Elma battles sexism and her own anxiety while working with the International Aerospace Coalition to get humans off-planet. The book doesn't shy away from the science but it's also deeply human.
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Here's a wild premise: when you turn 75, you can sign up to fight aliens in exchange for a brand new, enhanced body. John Perry joins up after his wife dies, figuring he's got nothing left on Earth. He gets uploaded into a younger, stronger body and shipped off to defend human colonies from the hundreds of alien species who want those planets, too.
Old Man's War balances intense military action with sharp humor and big philosophical questions about consciousness and identity. Perry fights battles across strange worlds, bonds with fellow soldiers and questions the morality of the war itself. The technology is fascinating (consciousness transfer, FTL travel, genetic modifications) and Scalzi keeps the pace brisk throughout.
While it's more action-oriented than Project Hail Mary, it shares that book's wit and optimistic take on human resilience.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
This book has one of the coolest ideas I've ever seen in sci-fi. The laws of physics change depending on where you are in the galaxy. Near the core, you can't even get faster-than-light travel. But out at the rim, civilizations become godlike. When humans accidentally wake up an ancient evil AI called the Blight, it starts eating the galaxy and the only hope might be stranded on a medieval planet inhabited by dog-like aliens with group consciousness. (Eridians say hello!)
A Fire Upon the Deep is hard sci-fi that goes big on wild concepts. A human research ship crashes on that medieval planet and the kids aboard become pawns in alien political conflicts while the rest of the galaxy scrambles for a weapon against the Blight.
The Tines (those dog-like aliens) have this genuinely alien group-mind thing going on that's fascinating to explore. Vinge's "zones of thought" concept brilliantly explains why different civilizations exist at different tech levels. If you loved the big ideas and alien mysteries in Project Hail Mary, this delivers on an epic scale.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Imagine waking up and the stars are just... gone. That's the nightmare scenario in this book. Earth gets wrapped in a mysterious membrane that blocks out the universe. The really scary part? Time outside moves way faster than inside as billions of years pass out there while only decades go by on Earth. The sun's aging and humanity's got maybe 30 years before it expands and fries the planet.
Robert Charles Wilson's Spin combines awe-inspiring science with big existential questions. Tyler Dupree watches his best friends respond to the crisis differently. Jason becomes a scientist desperately searching for solutions, while Diane joins a religious movement seeing the barrier as divine judgment.
As humanity races to understand the Spin, they discover they're not alone and whoever created this might've left them an escape route. Wilson's science is rigorous, his characters deeply human and the central mystery will keep you reading late into the night.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
You know how Grace accidentally became humanity's last hope? Xenobiologist Kira Navarez has a similar "wrong place, wrong time" moment when she discovers an alien artifact that bonds to her body like a living suit she can't take off. This kicks off an interstellar war and suddenly she's caught between humanity and two different alien species who all want what's attached to her.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is an 800-page space opera that delivers on scope and ambition. Kira struggles to control the alien entity (the "Soft Blade") while joining a salvage ship crew trying to survive in a suddenly dangerous universe. Paolini clearly loves worldbuilding.
The book features detailed space combat, fascinating alien biology and mysteries spanning galaxies. The pacing keeps you hooked despite the length. If you enjoyed the alien contact and high-stakes adventure in Project Hail Mary, this delivers both with plenty of heart.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
This classic tackles the "brilliant person solving impossible problems" theme from a totally different angle. Earth's been attacked twice by aliens called Formics and the military is recruiting genius kids to train as commanders. Ender Wiggin is the youngest, most talented recruit, a tactical prodigy who's also dealing with being manipulated and isolated by adults who think he's humanity's only shot at survival.
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game remains a masterpiece of science fiction decades after publication. Ender advances through increasingly difficult training simulations while being pushed to his psychological limits by instructors using manipulation and cruelty to forge the perfect commander.
The final chapters deliver a twist that reframes everything and raises massive ethical questions. The strategy and tactics are intellectually engaging, but this is ultimately about understanding the other and finding nonviolent solutions. A classic that explores leadership, morality and empathy in ways that still resonate.
What makes Project Hail Mary so special is its combination of hard science, humor, optimism and genuine heart. These 15 books each have different aspects of what makes that novel great. Some focus on scientific problem-solving, others on the wonder of first contact or the challenges of space survival. And all of them share a belief that intelligence, cooperation and determination can overcome impossible odds.
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