Hail Mary, plot holes…
As I get older (and who doesn't right...), I find that my tolerance of quite (obvious to me) plot holes is becoming increasingly strained. It certainly makes care free enjoyment of certain works of fiction difficult. Even more so when the fiction is heavily dependent on and even tries to show off its technical and scientific knowledge.
The one that has caused me enough trouble, such that it resulted in this post, has been "Project Hail Mary" by "Andy Weir".
Plot spoilers obviously follow...
The book is based ultimately on a novel concept of a 'cosmic superbug' - a highly unlikely organism capable of exploiting energy at the nuclear fusion level such that it obeys the energy is equal to mass times the square of the speed of light formula. Huge amounts of energy in other words.
The plot involves firstly discovering, in an internationally cosmopolitan way the presence of a solar dimming being caused by this superbug "Astrophage", meaning ostensibly 'star-eater'. The Sun's energy is being consumed at an accelerated rate by the effects of this cosmic superbug; and that means trouble for the Earth in terms of a thermodynamic death as it receives diminishing amounts of solar energy over time.
The solution?
Here's where the entire story eventually unravels.
The plot takes a crew of three, well actually one, as the other two non American astronauts don't survive the journey to a star 11 light years away that has been detected to be immune to this superbug. The reason being that whatever is giving that star system (Tau-seti) its resistance. It turns out to be a competing and balancing organism which uses 'Astrophage' as its own food source.
The story takes great troubles to explain and inform the reader about science and maths, as well as touching on topics of communication between entities. Of course, since a trip to a star system 11 light years away to accomplish the impossible needs an impossibly implausible alien lifeform which the sole surviving American astronaut ends up depending on for so much of the plot holes that require this 'deus ex machina' in order to have any semblance of being a story worthy of anyone's attention.
The problem is that the entire mission to Tau-seti requires the invention of a galactic propulsion system that turns out to use Astrophage as its fuel. Late in the story, the entire premise of the story begins to unravel when the human-alien team repairs a generator that use the Astrophage fuel in nanogram quantities to sustain quite enormous amounts of power.
Remembering that the mission required the breeding on Earth of a vast quantity of this Astrophage creature to act as fuel for the mission, the question becomes...
Why isn't the Astrophage being used on Earth in these nanogram generators to accomplish all sorts of things?
The entire 'problem' of Astrophage goes away if it is such a remarkable organism that we can breed and harvest it for use as a nuclear fusion level energy source. Think about it.