Have you read Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary? Seen the Ryan Gosling movie? Loved either? If you’re looking for your next gripping premise, more high-stakes space-based missions, or you just want another story on the wavelength of a sarcastic but ultimately charming middle-school teacher and his brilliant alien companion, this is the book list for you.
Here are three SFF titles Project Hail Mary fans will enjoy, whether you’re in the mood for a sentient moss overtaking a spaceship or the tale of a tea monk and their robot companion.
With a title that is clearly a reference to the 1960s television show Lost in Space, Moss’d in Space is an early contender for one of the most charming sci-fi novels on the way in 2026.
When Torian Razner spends what little money she has to buy a spaceship in a bid to save her ailing sister’s life (and to put as much distance between herself and her former captain as possible), the last thing she expects is for it to be overgrown with moss. Stranger still, the moss reveals it’s a sentient, organic computer with abandonment issues. (Who wouldn’t have those after being left behind for a century?) Moss loves to talk back to Torian. When the alien that abandoned Moss in the first place accuses Torian of stealing the ship, computer and human must let bygones be bygones in order to survive what space has in store for them.
Moss’d in Space is available to pre-order for $18.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
One day, on the peaceful post-utopian planet of Panga, robots gained self-awareness, stopped what they were doing, and wandered into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Years later, a young tea monk’s life is turned upside down by the sudden appearance of one of these robots, and its determination to find out what humans want most in life.
While Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built and its sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, don’t take place in outer space like the Wayfarers series, it’s necessary reading for anyone who loves Ryland and Rocky’s relationship in Project Hail Mary. Both novellas are gorgeous meditations on the beauty of nature and what it means to be human, and they each feature a delightful companion for their human lead.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is available for $19.32 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
In Yume Kitasei’s sci-fi thriller debut, The Deep Sky, Earth is dying. Far away, a lone ship called the Phoenix, carrying aboard 80 graduates entrusted with the task of giving birth to the next generation of humans, hurtles through deep space. When an explosion kills three people and causes the ship to veer off course, Asuka, the sole surviving witness to the incident, must clear her name while coping with her own feelings of inadequacy.
Told through alternating timelines that shift between the present, as the Phoenix hurtles dangerously through space, and 10 years in the past, The Deep Sky weaves a taut tale of bravery and grappling with survivor’s guilt.
The Deep Sky is available for $11.96 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org
