History Literature / ProjectHailMary

* MeaningfulName: Hail Mary, full of [Ryland] Grace.

* TheEngineer: Ilyukhina.

* Benevolent Dictator: Stratt, in a manner of speaking.

* SchizoTech: Vice versa–one has incredibly advanced metarials science, the other has incredibly advanced computation.

* SchizoTech: Vice versa–one has incredibly advanced metallurgy, the other has incredibly advanced computation.

* BookEnds: [[spoiler: Grant both begins (at least as of the first flashback) and ends the novel as a science teacher. Slight difference in [[AlienSky location]], though.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Grant has to use what fuel he has left to save not only Rocky, but the Eridian race itself, by carrying Rocky home, leaving the Beetles to bring info back to Earth. Fortunately, the Eridians treat him very well, doing everything they can to make his new home pleasant. It also turns out that he succeeded in his own mission, as Sol is observed to be brightening. And he is doing the thing he loved most, teaching again (to Eridian children, who are as excited as Earth children would be to be in a class taught by an actual alien!) But he is still basically stuck in a small domed habitat on an alien world that he can never really explore, and Erid's high gravity is starting to take its toll on his body.]]

* DeathWorld: Erid 40 is like this for anyone from Earth. Almost twice Earth's gravity, an atmosphere 29 times thicker (read: 29 times more atmospheric pressure and heat), and mostly made of ammonia.

* PromotedToScapegoat: What Stratt envisions her future to entail.

* CentrifugalGravity: The ''Hail Mary'' when she’s coasting. To be more accurate, it’s a tumbling pigeon.

* BookEnds: [[spoiler: Grant both begins (at least as of the first flashback) and ends the novel as a science teacher. Slight difference in [[AlienSky location]], though.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Grant has to use what fuel he has left to save not only Rocky, but the Eridian race itself, by carrying Rocky home, leaving the Beetles to bring info back to Earth. Fortunately, the Eridians treat him very well, doing everything they can to make his new home pleasant. It also turns out that he succeeded in his own mission, as Sol is observed to be brightening. And he is doing the thing he loved most, teaching again (to Eridian children, who are as excited as Earth children would be to be in a class taught by an actual alien!)]]

* NecessarilyEvil: What Stratt acknowledges herself to be, but she’s weighing whatever she does against the odds of humankind’s survival, even if that includes [[spoiler: nuking the Antarctic]]. Repeatedly.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: A decent 4. The astrophage’s capabilities’ explanation gets gut off on-screen.

* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: [[spoiler:Eridians never invented transistors. Or Einsteinian physics. Or a concept of radiation poisonning. Or a dozen other things humans needed to know to manage interstellar travel. And they ''still'' managed to do it!]]

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Played with, again by the astrophage’s energy storage and physics-fuckery - it's opaque to ''neutrons''. Before it gets explained in-universe, the conversation shifts topics.

* BizzarreAlienBiology: [[spoiler:Eridians are 400 pound, dog-sized, five-limbed, echo-locating spiders made principly of metal and ceramics only loosely shot through with anything humans recognize as biological matter. They have two circulatory systems, one hot and one cold, that they use to power their muscles and doubles as their immune system. Sleep is involuntary and can last anywhere from 2 to 14 hours. The list goes on. Needless to say, they find humans equally bizarre.]]

* AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: [[spoiler:Eridians never invented transistors. Or Einsteinian physics. Or a dozen other things humans needed to know to manage interstellar travel. And they ''still'' managed to do it!]]

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Played with by, again by the astrophage’s energy storage and physics-fuckery. Before it gets explained in-universe, the conversation shifts topics. But it’s played straight with xenonite, which gets no explanation whatsoever.

* BizarreAlienReproduction: [[spoiler: Eridians are hermaphroditic, with subsequently odd reproduction.]]

* CyanidePill: Personalised options for every crew member of the ''Hail Mary''.

Warning: Beware of unmarked spoilers related to the FirstEpisodeSpoiler. If you don't know about the twist already, it ''will'' be spoiled by reading below.

* [[spoiler: AliensNeverInventedDemocracy]]
* [[spoiler: AliensNeverInventedTheWheel: Eridians]] never invented transistors.
* TheAloner: Grace [[spoiler: thinks he is the only person for light years around. The actual loner was Rocky, arriving in Tau Ceti decades before Grace.]]

* ApocalypseHow: Class 4–5 looms for Earth on the generational horizon, curtesy of the sun’s cooling.
* CentrifugalGravity: The ''Hail Mary'' when she’s coasting. To be more accurate, it’s a tumbling pidgeon.

* BenevolentDictator: Stratt, in a manner of speaking.

* [[spoiler: BizarreAlienReproduction]]: [[spoiler: Eridians]] are hermaphroditic, with subsequently odd reproduction.

* Enhance Button: Grace is repeatedly in awe at the software running the ''Hail Mary''. [[spoiler: Not unexpected given he was never intended to fly her.]]
* [[spoiler: ETGaveUsWiFi]]: Inverted, curtesy of a laptop gifted, filled to the brim with Earth data.

* [[spoiler: FirstContact]]
* [[spoiler: FirstContactMath]]: Grace is a science teacher, of course that’s his approach.
* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: [[spoiler:The introduction of the Eridians]] occurs about a quarter of the way into the book. As you can see from the rest of the page, this greatly effects the rest of the book.

* [[spoiler: {{Heavyworlder}}: Erid has roughly double Earth’s gravity.]]

* [[spoiler: HumansThroughAlienEyes]]
* [[spoiler: HumorlessAliens]]: Averted. 'Sarcasm' is one of the squishier words, but it gets added to the dictionary.
* [[spoiler: InnocentAliens]]: This might be a result of who survived, but both are quite benevolent to each other.
* [[spoiler: InsectoidAliens]]: [[spoiler: Eridians]] for us, somewhat. For them humans are [[BlobMonster leaky space blobs]] of sorts.

* [[spoiler: OneGenderRace: Eridians]]
* {{Panspermia}}: How astrophage spreads, and later on discussed by Grace and Rocky.

* [[spoiler: SleeperStarship: The ''Hail Mary'', as a first of its kind.]]

* [[spoiler: StandardAlienSpaceship:]] Played with. The ''Blip-A'' is decidedly unsleek, being made of flat panels and panes with straight edges and odd discolourations all over.

* [[spoiler: TwoOfYourEarthMinutes]]: Since Grace is 'bad at math', Rocky always accommodates him.

* {{Flashback}}: Grace’s amnesia subsides with these, providing him—and the reader—with not always relevant information.

* ArtificialGravity: Of the spinning kind.

* TheEngineer: Rocky, Ilyukhina.

* [[spoiler: {{Heavyworlder}}: Erid has roughly double Earth gravity.]]

* Long-Lived: [[spoiler: Eridians]] have a life expectancy of about 700 years.

* TimeDilation: [[spoiler: Eridians didn’t know about this, nor general relativity, and assumed newtonian physics held true.