Project Hail Mary - And Sad Puppy Scars

I’m currently reading a book called Debarkle. It’s written by an Australian author named Camestros Felapton (not his real name). Debarkle is a historical recounting of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies fiasco that ruined the Hugo Awards ceremony in 2015. And this book is really amazing. I’m enjoying it a lot, and I think Camestros Felapton deserves serious consideration for the Hugo category of Best Fan Writer. But going over the Sad Puppies fiasco again (and if you don’t know about the Sad Puppies slash Rabid Puppies kerfuffle, please look it up on Wikipedia, it’s fascinating), going over that has made me realize that the Hugos have been badly scarred. And those scars are preventing many in the sci fi community from considering Project Hail Mary.

I mean, let’s be honest: Project Hail Mary has a white, male protagonist who saves all of humanity on his own and does so not only in spite of a strong female antagonist, but because of said female antagonist. But the Puppies travesty happened in large part because most in the sci fi community wanted high-brow literature which featured strong female protagonists or heroes of black or indigenous backgrounds.

Project Hail Mary follows the old standard – the sort of science fiction which was written ages ago.

Now, I don’t know if someone like Vox Day or Larry Correia (two of the ringleaders of the Puppy movements) would have endorsed Project Hail Mary, but I think they just might possibly have.

And I don’t know if Andy Weir would have withdrawn his novel from consideration as a result of the right-wing views of Vox Day and Larry Correia, but I imagine he definitely would have.

But there’s no doubt in my mind that sci fi people, especially the ones at Locus, are scarred against considering a book like Project Hail Mary precisely because it comes too close to the old sci fi standard – the pre-Puppygate standard. And to their mind, they think this rules Project Hail Mary out.

Me? I hate the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies and everything they stand for. But they did have one, and only one, legitimate point, and that is – sometimes science fiction is supposed to be fun! We don’t have to necessarily favor sci fi which is written like Marcel Proust. Sometimes we can just let ‘er rip and have fun!

Project Hail Mary was not only fun, it was the most fun I’ve had reading a science fiction novel in over a decade! To me, that means it should have been considered in the top 30, not only of last year, but top 30 of ALL TIME!

Weir may have gotten his science facts only 98% right, but we should have no problem moving his novel into the science fantasy category. But even then, we should recognize that Weir’s book gets people excited about the subject of science! It teaches kids and adults to love science! It’s a science-positive book, and if that isn’t antithetical to the Sad Puppies, nothing is!

I say this to Locus magazine, I say this to anybody, and I will DIE on that hill!

Eric

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