Books like Project Hail Mary: 10 award-recognized picks
Project Hail Mary combines a science teacher solving one impossible problem after another, a race to save Earth and one of the best alien friendships in fiction. These books share at least one of those pleasures.
If you read just one: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, because it mixes clever science, survival against the odds and an alien intelligence you end up rooting for.
For problem-solving and science that matters
1. Rendezvous with Rama
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1974) ·
A crew has a few weeks to explore a vast alien object passing through the solar system. Pure curiosity and engineering, one discovery at a time.
2. Seveneves
Finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards (2016) ·
The Moon breaks apart and humanity has two years to get people into orbit. Engineering under impossible pressure, told in obsessive and satisfying detail.
Good to know: Very long, with a big jump forward in time for the final third.
3. The Calculating Stars
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (2019) ·
A meteorite strike in 1952 forces a crash space program, and a mathematician fights to become an astronaut. Optimistic, competent people solving real problems.
4. Spin
Won the Hugo Award; finalist for the Locus Award (2006) ·
One night the stars vanish: Earth is sealed inside a barrier where time runs far slower than outside. Three friends spend decades trying to understand why.
For unlikely friendships and alien minds
5. Children of Time
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2016) ·
The last humans search for a new home while, on a terraformed world, a species of spiders evolves a civilization. Two very different minds, heading toward each other.
6. Speaker for the Dead
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1987) ·
Ender arrives at a colony struggling to understand the alien pequeninos after a series of deaths. A story about learning to see an alien point of view.
7. All Systems Red
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (2018) ·
A security android that secretly hacked its controls would rather watch TV than protect its clients, but protects them anyway. Funny, warm and very short.
Good to know: The first of the Murderbot novellas; they are best read in order.
8. The Sparrow
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1998) ·
A Jesuit-led mission travels to a planet after hearing music from its people. Warm, funny friendships among the crew make the first contact all the more powerful.
Good to know: Emotionally heavy and, in places, very dark.
For a lone voice against the odds
9. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2016) ·
A found family of humans and aliens on a tunneling ship take a long job across the galaxy. Character-driven, kind and funny.
10. Blindsight
Finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards (2007) ·
A crew is sent to meet an alien object at the edge of the solar system. If you liked the science of Project Hail Mary but want something darker and stranger, this is it.
Good to know: Demanding and unsettling; far less cheerful than Project Hail Mary.
How we chose
Every book in this guide won or was a finalist for at least one of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus or Arthur C. Clarke awards. Each book page lists its full award history with sources. Page counts come from English print editions and vary by edition. 10 books in all.