Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ryland Grace, a teacher and former molecular biologist, wakes up alone in a spaceship with amnesia. He’s supposed to save the world by figuring out why this star, Tau Ceti, is not dying from alien microbes like the Sun and all other stars in the galaxy. Will he be able to save Earth? And what about this weird-looking spaceship next to his?

This book has it all: Thrilling close calls from improvising in outer space, friends who help each other out and plausible technical explanations¹. And because it’s set in the near future and this mission is only possible because of the very alien microbes that threaten Earth, everything just feels more realistic².

I loved this book.

1. E.g., the decision to build a spaceship that can rotate to generate 1G of gravity, so the lab devices work reliably. ↩

2. Show me one Sci-Fi book that speaks of Microsoft Excel. ↩