A man wakes up on a spaceship. Alone. He doesn't remember who he is, why he's there, or why he has Ryan Gosling's face. A premise we've read and seen many, many times. It can be developed in any direction, but it always turns out to be horror - labyrinths of decks where monsters frolic, the nervous beeping of malfunctioning systems, misanthropic artificial intelligences. And something is always watching you from the darkness. Shoot off their legs, Ryan.

Everything could have been exactly the same here, if not for Andy Weir, whose novel "Project Hail Mary" is based on. Remember "The Martian" from 2015? The one where Matt Damon grew potatoes on the red planet and saved himself with science, humor, and an indomitable will to live. Weir knows how to write exactly such stories: with faith that a person with the right mindset can solve any problem, even if the problem is the size of a star. That the universe is not an enemy or an indifferent void, but rather something like a very complex puzzle. That people are generally decent beings and you can come to an agreement with anyone.

And no, this is not a "world of humane imagination" (like if you caught the reference) where schematically drawn characters exchange strictly functional lines. That's where Chris Nolan's heroes live. But Gosling here is alive. He's funny. He's stuffy. He's ridiculous. He mutters under his breath, sings off-key, curses the broken coffee machine, and absolutely cannot look cool.

He panics. Truly, ungracefully, with wet eyes and a cracking voice. And then he wipes his nose, opens his notebook, and starts calculating. Because it's interesting, whether it will work or not.

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