I am Andy Weir, author of The Martian, and my new book Project Hail Mary, is out now. AMA!

Is my Catholic upbringing showing, or was this intentional?

Hail Mary, a spaceship, whose sole living occupant is a man named Grace.

Hail Mary, full of Grace.

It took me until midway through Chapter 4 to realize what you did to me.

I couldn't resist the pun.

What did you think of The Martian movie?

Fantastic! I couldn't have asked for a better adaptation.

My introduction to you was The Egg and it changed my teenaged life! Just wanted to say thank you!

My q: if you HAD to choose to be an inanimate object, what would you choose, and why?

Thanks again! All the best.

Um... I don't want to be an inanimate object. But since you're forcing me to choose, I'll say "your mom's dildo".

The Project Hail Mary Audiobook, narrated by Ray Porter, is so fantastic I will probably start a second time this week.

Did you get to choose or recommend Ray Porter? Because kudos on whomever made that call.

(For those who lack context, Ray Porter narrated the outstanding Bobiverse books by Dennis E. Taylor)

That was Audible's call. And boy did they pick a winner. Ray nailed it.

For the Martian, we know you had a LOT of great feedback to refine details that made the Martian scientifically more accurate. For your new book, how much did you have to lean on your community for this level of detail?

I couldn't lean on them at all. I had to do my own fact checking and hope I got it right. Spoiler:>! I didn't get it all right. But mostly I did.!<

Hi Andy! Congrats on the new book! I finished it a few days ago and absolutely loved it. I just found out last night that there’s already a movie in the planning with Ryan Gosling starring - what do you think of him playing Grace? Definitely nothing like who I pictured while reading PHM, but I was also pleasantly surprised with Matt Damon and The Martian.

(Unrelated follow-up - what have been your personal favorite or most anticipated to-read sci-fi novels?)

Thanks and congrats again!

Gosling will be fantastic as Grace! He's a great actor and I'm sure he'll nail the role.

I guess my most anticipated sci-fi novel recently was Recursion by Crouch. I love me a good Time Travel yarn.

Of all of the ideas for writing you've ever had, is there one you can say, undoubtedly, is the single worst idea that you decided to backpedal on? If so, can you share it?

I had an idea for a guy who appears to be really lucky, but in the end it turns out his cat is really lucky and good stuff happens to the guy because the cat likes him.

I decided not to develop that idea.

How cool was it to have your Martian character referred to in The Expanse? Think you might get a walk on before the show ends?

It was awesome! I don't think I'll be doing any guest starring though.

Hi Andy!

How much time do you put into the research for your books? How do you go about doing the research and formulating it into coherent words for people to read?

Also, as an aspiring scifi writer, favorite piece of advice?

(last thing) do you think Pluto is a planet?

I spend a ton of time researching. It's my favorite part of writing, so I tend to go way down the rabbit hole on stuff.

​

Best advice for writing: Don't tell your story to your friends. That satisfies your need for an audience and saps your will to actually write. Make a rule for yourself that the only way anyone experiences your story is to read it. Give your friends chapters as you write them if you want, but don't tell them the story verbally.

​

Pluto says "I was big enough for your mom".

Are there any artist renditions of Rocky?

There's fan art out there. Looks great!

If you had to name a single author who made you think: Yes I HAVE to write a novel, who would it be and why?

Asimov. I read his stuff as a kid and it has always stuck with me.

Just started Hail Mary, I'm a researcher and a high school teacher so I really see myself in the character! The Martian and Artemis were a blast. Thank you so much! Out of the three main protagonists from your books, who reflects you the most?

Probably Mark Watney. Though he's the idealized version of me. All the parts of myself that I like without any of my many, many flaws.

Did you change your writing style towards suitability for movies on purpose for Artemis?

No. I never focus on the film. I always just try to make a good book. Though I have a kind of cinematic storytelling style so it can look like I meant to be that way.

When Ryland uses solder and paraffin to indicate where his sun is on the star map Rocky sends over, wouldn’t both of those melt at the high temperatures and pressures on Blip-A when Rocky opens it, rendering his indication useless?

The paraffin would have melted, yeah. Oopsie. Most solder would survive Rocky's environment, though.

Have you spent any time playing Kerbal Space Program? It's a fun PC game built around rocket science. You could call it research!

I've never played it. I'm not that into video games. I know, I'll have to turn in my Nerd Card.

What brings you joy outside of writing?

Woodworking (furniture mostly) and clockwork.

Hi Andy! Loved PHM! What came first, the alien or the exoplanet? Did you look at different exoplanet properties and use that to create the aliens, or did you have an idea in mind for the aliens and go looking for suitable exoplanets?

The exoplanet. Erid (Rocky's homeworld) is a real exoplanet called 40 Eridani b. I started with what was known about that planet and worked outward from there to design a life form native to it.

Hi Andy. BIG fan from Brazil! Congrats on the new book! Do you plan to expand the universe (pun intended) of the space exploration frontiers in future books/works? I would love to see some kind of Asimov-like 500 years into the future kind of story to pick your brain on where to you think humanity is heading. Europa? Enceladus? Asteroid belt? Floating cities on Venus?

Yes. That's all I'll say for now. :)

What made you decide to go with sightless creatures for the Eridians? Did it fall out of other design choices you made or did you start there and design the rest of the alien around it?

It came naturally from the environment of their homeworld. With such a thick, opaque atmosphere, no light would reach the surface. So there would be no reason for them to evolve vision.

Been reading your stuff since about Chapter 5 of the Martian was posted on your site. Can't wait to read Project Hail Mary. How did the response to Artemis influence the direction of PHM?

I feel like my greatest weakness is character depth. So I tried to make Jazz (protagonist of Artemis) more nuanced, flawed, and having a character arc. But I made her too flawed and drove a lot of readers away. It's hard to root for someone who is too often the agent of their own problems. So I learned to moderate those flaws a bit. Ryland (protagonist of PHM) has his flaws but you still like him (hopefully)

Loved the style and the slow reveal of the whole story. How much did the science guide the story, and was there any science that was annoyingly in the way of the story you wanted to tell?

Not really. I have some hand-wave science down at the quantum level: (there's no way to make a material that will contain neutrinos) but for the most part, science helps with the storytelling, not hinders. At least, for me.

hey andy weir!! the martian is one of my most absolute favorite books and ive recently read project hail mary and have been thinking about it pretty much every single day. didn't think i'd ever cry to a scene about a spider alien and a human on space but i did!! PHM is such a wonderful book in so many levels its insane. i really love how its very science-y but so very very very human. thank you for writing and publishing it, it made me very feel very happy and hopeful about humanity, which i think is something we all desperately need right now. my question is: who is adrian? was adrian ever going to be somebody relevant for ryland? when he decided on the name for the planet i was SO SURE he was later gonna remember adrian was a loved one of his! either way, love your books very very much. sending love from brasil ♥

Ryland made Rocky name the planet because Rocky discovered it first. So Rocky chose the name of his spouse. Of course that's just a series of musical notes, so Ryland decided to call Rocky's spouse "Adrian" (which was the name of Rocky Balboa's wife in the Rocky films).

Do you mostly research your way on how to solve a problem, or do you take things you have learned and develop a problem that the information would be useful to solve?

(And PHM was fantastic!)

I come up with the problem first, then research how to solve it.

I am sure you get this a lot! But what was your inspiration for The Egg?

I wanted to come up with a system where it turns out life is fair after all. That's what I came up with. To be clear, though, I don't believe it's true. People need to stop emailing me asking if it's true. I'm not L Ron Hubbard, okay? I don't want to start a religion.

Did you pick Rosario Dawson to narrate Artemis? She was spectacular in my opinion.

She was! But no, it wasn't my call. That was Audible's decision. And it was a good decision.

Have you been told of any updates on the Artemis movie adaptation? I’m excited to see how the filmmakers will pull it off.

It's moving along slowly. Covid pretty much shut down Hollywood for quite a while.

Does the drug used on Ryland real or was it made up for the book?

It was made up.

I'm listening to Project Hail Mary right now and I absolutely enjoy it! I'm constantly rewarded by my decision to go into it without any prior knowledge.

Rocky's voice is one of my favorite bits of narration in an audio book. Did you work with them to get that particular sound? How close is it to what you imagined while writing the book?

There was a lot of back and forth on that. I love the solution they ultimately came up with.

Can I assume Rocky would have otherwise looked like a cuddly Ewok but for the surface temperature issues of its homeworld? Follow-up: will there be Rocky plushies, or do I need to purchase my own Ewok and blowtorch?

Never planned for Rocky to be "cute". No idea about plushies. Maybe after the film comes out.

Xenonite! We don’t get a good look at Rocky’s fabrication process. Do you feel like his methods involved milling, 3D printing, extrusion, some process of hardening the liquid form, or something far more “hand-wavey?”

We see that Xenonite is a binary reaction similar to epoxy. Two liquids combine and then harden into it.

When you submit your manuscript to your editor, do you haggle or fully accept their changes?

We haggle. Well, more accurately, we work together. We're on the same team - we both want the book to be good. I'd say I do about 90% of the changes he asks for and push back on 10%.

Just picked up my copy of Project Hail Mary today! Yet to start reading it that though I do have a question regarding the Martian.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the reason the oxygenator or the water reclaimer never broke down was because you couldn't come up with a feasible way to fix it, with that in mind were there any other problems you wanted to throw at Mark Watney that you couldn't solve?

I was going to have the RTG crack open when he crashed the rover. Then there's a radiation threat and he has to abandon it. But I just couldn't come up with a way for him to survive without that heat source.

Did you do any sketches for what the Hail Mary or the Blip A looked like?

Yes. And you can see the Hail Mary in the first couple pages of the book.

Are all your books separate worlds or have you ever considered any cross overs?

Something like: the door closed, Stratt wiped a tear, it was the right decision. But Project Hail Mary wasn’t over, the world still had a famine crisis, and she had a meeting with the worlds greatest botanist, she rushed along the vessel and burst into the room, “Eva” he said. “Mark” she said. 🥔

Well, Mark would be a teen-ager during the events of PHM. And also it would raise questions like "Why isn't Hermes Astrophage powered?"

Really loved the book Andy, definitely some of the best sci-if I’ve read in a long time. One thing that has been bugging me since I’ve read it, does Grace ever meet Adrian?

Presumably, because he lives on Erid now, and Adrian is his best friend's spouse.

When you started your new book, how well sketched out were your characters and plot lines? Did you define your limitations ahead of time or did you build out as needed?

I had the main beats of the plot worked out in advance. Not deeply - just the main turning points. I didn't have the characters worked out at all. In fact I had to get about 5 chapters in before Ryland's personality gelled. Then I went back and rewrote the previous chapters to match what had developed.

Were you behind the group hug airlock scene in the Martian movie?

I liked it. Books are different than movies. It wouldn't have worked well in a book but in a film it was very satisfying.

What was your favorite book growing up? (Or still?)

Probably "I, Robot" by Asimov.

I'm about 80% done with Hail Mary so no spoilers but how did you Come up with the physical description of Rocky?

Also, I've asked this question on Twitter a few times but I guess you didn't see it - Time period of a pendulum is 2*pi*sqrt(l/g) right? At 346 oscillations in 10mins, and l=2.5m, I'm getting g=32.8m/s^2, i.e; more than twice the initial test tube falling experiment. Did I make a calculation mistake? Care to check my math please? Or am I getting the length of the pendulum wrong?

Rocky's biology is based on the environment of his homeworld, which is a real exoplanet that we have discovered.

Yes I got the pendulum wrong. I will of course go into exile as a result.

What consideration did you put into developing Rocky's language?

I'd decided that Eridians are sealed off from their environment. They only open their bodies to eat, excrete, and lay eggs. With that in mind, it means he can't just blow air out to make noise like humans do. But he could have bladders inside that move air back and forth across vocal-chord-like things. So I realized he would kind of sound like whale-song. And since Eridians tend to have 5 of everything, why not five such noise organs? This enables them to make chords and there's the language.

Heeey! How would you describe Joe Scott in real life compared to his videos? Is he really that funny and nice and whatnot?

I can honestly say that Joe hasn't had any Heroin at all in the last five months. And he was NEVER CONVICTED of sex trafficking.

Is the “hole in the wall” from ‘Artemis’ based on an actual pub you’ve visited before, and if so, what’s the story behind it?

Nope. Just a pub I made up.

Andy, What do your friends and family think of you becoming a best selling author? Has it all gone well? Has it changed anyone's opinion of you?

My friends and most of my family are all proud of me. Though there is a family member who never liked me much and really ramped up their hostility the more successful I got.

Do you have any thoughts about China's Mars Rover and their planned space station? It seems like Earth bound competition between the US and China is progressing into space. Is this a good thing or bad thing for humanities exploration into space?

I'm thrilled when anyone puts a rover on Mars. A new space race would be okay I guess. But I'm mor4e excited by the commercial sector continuing to drive down the cost of putting mass into orbit. When that gets low enough for a middle-class person to have a space vacation we're going to see the birth of a new trillion-dollar industry.

Hi Andy! If you could rewrite the ending to any book/movie which book/movie would you choose?

Can I pick TV shows instead? I'm going to say yes.

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• I would rewrite the entire final season of Gam of Thrones. That's a given.

But more importantly: I would have changed the ending of "Breaking Bad" to have Walter get away, and I would have changed the end of Dexter to reveal that Dexter is at the logging camp because he's tracking Walter, who is hiding out there.

The Martian film is probably one of my favorite film adaptations. Is there any interest in films of your other books? Also is there anywhere that sales signed copies of The Martian?

Artemis and PHM both have film projects ongoing.

Hi Andy! The Martian is my favorite movie version of a book ever made, how did that happen? I imagine you had a lot of input, but what didn't you have a say in?

Also, as someone who wants to write a book that could potentially turn into a movie, did you have any hopes it would be adapted while writing it?

Thank you also I like your cat.

I didn't have any say - my only job was to cash the check. They chose to include me which was cool. But mostly I was there as a technical advisor.

I never imagined while I was writing it that it would become a film.

I like my cat, too, thanks. Her name is Demi and she's my precious perfect little angel.

I have heard you like research! What is the most obscure rabbit hole you have found yourself down? Do you do your own research or do you employ your local reference librarian for help?

I do my own research. Not sure what the most "obscure" thing was. One fun tidbit I learned: Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest mountain in our solar system. But if you were standing on it, you wouldn't know you were on a mountain at all. While it's very tall it's also very, VERY wide. So the slope is actually less than the curvature of the planet. You would think you're standing on a flat plane.

Hello Andy! Big fan here, haven't read Project Hail Mary yet, but love your previous work. Two questions, what's your favorite science fiction movie and what's your favorite SF author?

Movie: Back to the future

Author: Isaac Asimov

What is your research process? Do you start with an idea of what you know and then dig into the data, or come across random cool information and get inspired?

I start with an idea and research it.

Hey there. I loved The Martian, The Egg, and Artemis. Especially The Martian (read it about 3 times and listened to it about 4 times). Just starting with Project Hail Mary. But my question is: What's next? Do you have another secret project in the works? Any teasers?

I don't talk about current projects until I'm sure I'm going to finish and release them. And I'm not there yet with my current project.

The Martian was a rad book. How do you feel about the changes that were made in the Hollywood rendition? I personally thought the 'Iron Man' maneuver being used was a little silly. Good for drama, but I liked the realistic response of Commander Lewis being more or less "shut the fuck up and let us save you."

Loved the film. they nailed it.

*Project Hail Mary Spoilers*

I loved Project Hail Mary so much! I was surprised to see how you incorporated more fantastical science fiction (alien life) as compared to the extremely grounded style of your previous 2 books, even though your approach to Rocky and the Eridians was very grounded as well. What was your research and writing process to come up with alien life, keeping it believable ,and in keeping with your grounded style? Can't wait to see Artemis and PHM made into movies!

I based the alien life on the environment it evolved in. Rocky's homeworld is a real exoplanet. So I started with everything we know about it.

Hi Mr. Weir. I just finished the PHM audiobook today and it was brilliant. Thanks for another great ride!

Something I was wondering regarding The Martian and PHM:

How come both novels mostly refer to national space agencies and make no mention or use of commercial companies like Space X? Wouldn't they be more likely to be able to innovate and deliver on a short notice when there are global emergencies and the like?

The Martian was written before the commercial space companies had really taken root. SpaceX wasn't a thing yet when I wrote it. PHM does mention SpaceX, and it's presumed that many private companies were used to lift freight up to the orbital construction of the Hail Mary. But mostly they used Russian heavy launch vehicles because they wanted the maximum reliability.

Artemis, by the way, is 100% commercial space companies. Though they are fictional.

As soon as Ryland discovered how to kill an Astrophage, why didn't the humans build their own mechanical predators to "poke Astrophage with a stick" around Venus? Seems a lot easier than nuking Antarctica or going on an interstellar research mission.

Why not make mechanical predators to poke cancer with a stick? Consider the problems and complexities of that and you'll have your answer.

SPOILER

In The Martian and PHM, the characters don't achieve their goal of returning to earth in the book. I've read the deleted afterward from The Martian, and totally agree that it took away from the ending, but is that something that is a part of your writing style? Optimistic but uncompleted journeys?

I like to end stories where they end. No need to press on further. I'd rather the readers finish the book wanting more than feel like it dragged on too long.

I'm sure you get a lot of ideas thrown at you by completely random people. Are there any spectacular ones you can share that you know you will never action?

Nothing comes to mind, but yeah I've had some dumb stuff thrown my way.

Would you encourage and aspiring Sci-fi novelist to write first, then shop around for publishers or to build an online personality first, then get an agent and only get to writing once a book deal is secured?

Start with the writing.

Just finished listening to Artemis on audio book. It was exactly what I was looking for, so thank you. How much were you involved in the production of the audio book? Did you have a particular reader or voice in mind? Rosario Dawson is a pretty big name.

Audible made all the decisions on the audiobook. Rosario was amazing, wasn't she!

Artemis references The Martian when bringing up issues with keeping a pressure seal using duct tape. Does PHM contain any of these types of references to either Artemis or The Martian and do any of these references hint at a connected universe for these books/film(s)?

Not really, no. No special references to earlier works of mine in PHM.

What prompted you to write the chapter on Ready Player One's Sorrento? Reading that story made me rethink the whole RPO :(

I really liked RPO and wanted more content. So I wrote some. :)

Hey Andy, love your books and can’t wait to get to the next one!

Would you ever venture into other genres? Fantasy, horror or pull elements of those genres into what you do best? Thanks!

I have vague ideas for stories in other genres but for now I'm going to stick to Sci-fi.

Is the Artemis movie adaptation still on? I heard some rumors long time ago but I have done some searching and found nothing new about it. Thank you so much. Im a huge fan from Spain.

Supposedly. There's a lot of work going on pre-production wise. But you never know with Hollywood.

Where’s your hat?

I'd just washed my hair and it was still a little wet. So no hat in that pic. :(

Hey Andy, reading The Martian brought me out of a reading and writing slump years ago, so thank you for that. I'm just curious how much time you spend writing and if you ever get writers block? Do you have a writing schedule or you you just write whenever inspiration strikes?

Also, what a gorgeous kitty!

I spend a few hours every day writing when I'm working on a first draft. I don't get "writer's block" but I do get "writer is a lazy ass". Sometimes it's REALLY hard to motivate.

Hi Andy! I just finished PHM last week and had to pause every now and again just to let some moments sink in. I haven't experienced that in a while so thank you so much!

My question: When Grace is at the Eradani System and has a habitat built for him, why wouldn't the Eradanians build a habitat for him in space where a comfortable spin gravity environment can be accomplished?

Thank you so much and take care!

They have a living, breathing alien to look at. They want him where scientists can easily get to him and talk to him.

Why should the US convert to the metric system, and what's the realistic plan to do it?

Because it's a global standard. Unfortunately there's no easy way to make it happen. It's not because people just don't want to think in metric - one generation of school kids being taught exclusively in metric would take care of that. The main problem is production and tooling. The US has a massive, MASSIVE industrial infrastructure and it's all in imperial units. Changing it all over the metric units would be incredibly expensive.

Hello Andy! Love PHM so much. Question: what year does it take place? Trying to place it timewise in the Weir-iverse :)

It's in its own continuity. Considering it takes place modern-day that should be pretty evident. Otherwise why didn't Mark Watney have astrophage to work with?

Are you involved in the Artemis or PHM film scenario’s?

Yes. I'm a producer on PHM. And they keep me in the loop on Artemis.

Hey Andy! Couple more: Martian. I'm sure you thought about storm-dust-situation replacement a lot. What would you have done differently if you wanted to rewrite that part? Also, you used to be a programmer (if I remember correctly). Did that background help you in writing in any way?

After The Martian was out in stores I learned that Mars has lightning. If I had it to do over again I'd probably have a lightning strike be the start of the problems that lead to the evac.

I wrote software to model the course trajectories of Hermies, including the Rich Purnell Maneuver.

Artemis was one of your first books I have read and I was wondering how you landed on the 'nationalities'/ethnicities in that book i.e. Jazz is of Saudi extraction, there is a fair bit of Kenya/Kenyans in the book besides other ethnicities being present. Just curious what prodded you to weave that texture into the narrative?

Artemis is a frontier town, similar to the American west in the mid 1800s. So it wouldn't just be people from one country. Anyone who can afford to get there is welcome.

Hi. First of all, loved the PHM immensely. Wanted to ask, do you really think the UN would have such power and moreover put all this power in the hands of a single person like Stratt? Don't you think it's a bit naive?

Probably, but it made for a really awesome character in Stratt. So I did it. Call the cops I don't give a f---.

I loved the Martian, especially the humor. What made you decide that Mark Watney would be funny?

With so much exposition I knew it had to be funny or it would really be boring.

Hi Andy, I love all three of the books. You have very diverse characters. How do you come up with the character's backrounds?

Well I'm not known for deep characters. I usually start with their nation of origin and work outward from there. But I'm not the guy you should take character-building advice from.