Books like Project Hail Mary, according to Reddit

The read-alike list

Ranked by co-mention strength — how often each book shares a thread with Project Hail Mary, normalized so ubiquitous books don't dominate.

#1

The Martian

Andy Weir

A botanist gets left for dead on Mars and has to grow food on a planet that wants him gone, one duct-taped fix at a time.

404 shared threads · mixed

#2

Children of Time

Adrian Tchaikovsky

A terraforming experiment goes wrong, a nanovirus lands on spiders instead of monkeys, and evolution builds a civilization nobody planned for.

432 shared threads · praised

#3

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries)

Martha Wells

A security robot hacks its own governor module, gains free will, and spends its days streaming soap operas instead of killing anyone.

352 shared threads · mixed

#4

Blindsight

Peter Watts

A crew of post-human specialists meets first contact and reports back that consciousness might be what's holding humanity back.

319 shared threads · praised

#5

The Three-Body Problem

Liu Cixin

A Chinese radio astronomer's decades-old reply to an alien signal puts Earth on a collision course with an invasion fleet centuries out.

230 shared threads · panned

#6

Hyperion

Dan Simmons

Seven pilgrims journey toward a monster that grants one wish and kills everyone else, and each tells the story of why they came.

309 shared threads · mixed

#7

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Becky Chambers

A ragtag crew takes a multi-year tunneling job to punch a wormhole through space and mostly just has to get along with each other for the ride.

172 shared threads · praised

#8

Dune

Frank Herbert

A duke's son survives his family's betrayal on a desert planet and becomes the prophet who leads its people to war.

264 shared threads · mixed

#9

Red Rising

Pierce Brown

A miner's son fakes his way into the ruling class's brutal war-games academy to bring down the system that executed his wife.

153 shared threads · praised

#10

The Left Hand of Darkness

Ursula K. Le Guin

An envoy is sent alone to a planet where everyone is genderless most of the month, and he has to unlearn who he assumes is in charge.

179 shared threads · praised

#11

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

A six-year-old is drafted into a war academy that trains him to command a fleet, and he doesn't find out what he actually did until it's over.

165 shared threads · praised

#12

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson

A pizza-delivery samurai and a skateboard courier chase a mind-hacking virus through a franchised, corporate America.

163 shared threads · mixed

The overlap, in numbers

Where each pairing actually shows up. Click through for the full Reddit verdict on each book.

1. #1 The Martian by Andy Weir — 404 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
2. #2 Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky — 432 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
3. #3 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells — 352 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
4. #4 Blindsight by Peter Watts — 319 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
5. #5 The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin — 230 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
6. #6 Hyperion by Dan Simmons — 309 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
7. #7 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers — 172 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
8. #8 Dune by Frank Herbert — 264 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
9. #9 Red Rising by Pierce Brown — 153 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
10. #10 The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin — 179 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
11. #11 Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card — 165 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
12. #12 Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson — 163 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF