you feel it just below the ribs

CH 1 pg 7

Foundanuscript from Dr Miriam Gregory.  She lived before the reckoning.  Back when people had families.  Her family (dad, mom and brother) died in the war.

CH 2 pg 19

This is an alternate universe where world war 1 went really bad.

People rioted in the midst of the war and the plague and society collapsed around the world.

Miriam is living all alone in the world.  She scavenges and runs away whenever she sees people and she survives that way.  But one night she's sleeping in what she thinks is an empty house and she's confronted by a group of girls.  They say she can stay for a few days.  But then it starts snowing and she just becomes part of the group.

CH 3 pg 29

The group of girls goes around from place to place searching for food.  There's plenty of clothing and shelter, but food is hard to come by.  Girls come and go from the group.  Some leave to army recruiters, some leave to other groups.  There's one girl named Naija who always cleans up the dead bodies when the house they find to stay in has them.

There's also a man that they periodically run into who gives them food for their stories.  We think he was a spy.

The army finds them at one point and declares that they're all enemy spies and arrests them.

CH 4 pg 39

into thin air CH 15 through epilogue

CH 15 pg 205

This chapter would be really dramatic if I cared if these people lived or died.  With the storm that came in after narrator headed down to camp 4 everyone is in real bad shape.  You couldn't see more than a few yards ahead of you.  As a result, everyone is lost.  The eastern European guide tried to bring up few oxygen tanks, but nobody has radios to tell him where they are so his efforts are for naught.  The Japanese lady dies.  So do some less remarkable people.

CH 16 pg 225

The south Africans had the only radio at camp 4 and wouldn't share even though people were dying up the mountain.  Narrator was all confused when he got near the tents at camp 4 and misidentified someone he thought he saw die.

CH 17 pg 233

Rob Hall didn't make it.  He was trying to get Doug and Andy back down and they didn't make it he went by himself.  That didn't turn out so great.  He has a perfectly working radio and he was able to talk to base camp and the folks at camp 4 and through some sort of radio sat phone transfer at base camp his wife.  They tried to send some Sherpas up to bring him down but the freezing wind was too strong.  Their summit day was May 10th, they found his body on May 12th.

CH 18 pg 249

This chapter has some tidbits about some Indian and Japanese teams that were climbing everest from the Tibetan side the same day.  It went badly for most of them.

CH 19 pg 255

Turns out there were a couple they thought were dead that it turns out were still alive.  But just barely and they were in no shape to make it back down to camp 3.  So they left them.  Also, the wind has pretty much destroyed the tents, so the able boddied folks have no choice but to take the trip down to camp 3.  This means having to leave behind anyone that needs help.  29,000 feet is no place for morality, just survival.  There are no more guides left to take them down.  A guy from Montreal takes the lead.

Narrator volunteers to take up the rear.

CH 20 pg 269

They make it down to camp 2 but a couple of the climbers have severe frostbite.  There's a couple real dramatic helicopter rescues and the frost bitten are rescued.  And thank goodness cause in between camp 2 and 1 is the ice shelf.  It's inconceivable to think that you could head down the ice shelf dragging a couple of frostbitten guys.  So the able bodied are gonna head down to camp 1.  They might be able  boddied, but they're sure not able minded.  Everyone has to check everyone elses masks and harnesses and what not cause none of them are doing a great job of doing their own stuff.

CH 21 pg 277

This is the crying chapter.  Narrator makes it to base camp and they have a beer and they cry.  He flies back to Seattle and he cries.  Loved ones of people that died on the mountain call him and he cries.  A week later the IMAX team and what's left of the south African team go up the mountain and people cry because at the very least its disrespectful to the people that died the previous week.  But also cause it's just really dangerous.  One guy dies.

Epilogue pg 293

Narrator and others involved in the climb get a lot of hate mail.

project hail Mary CH 16 through 20

CH 16 pg 262

Narrator tells rocky an out his suicide mission.  Rocky asks him how much astrophage it took to get him here.  Rocky says he can easily spare that much.  So narrator isn't on a suicide mission anymore.  There's a flashback to a bit where the astronauts for the hail Mary mission are being introduced.  Narrator isn't one of them.  Talking to the astronauts one of them tells him that he also has the coma gene and he's a little uppity that Stratt didn't tell him.

He watches Rocky eat and its gross.  He basically opens up his belly carapace and puts chopped up meat inside and passes out.

  

Ch 17 pg 277

Narrator and Rocky make their way to the planet that the astrophage is going to from this solar system's sun.  They have a thing that can capture astrohphage.  They do that.  There's a flashback to narrator training the science officers on the astrophage.  The fun thing is that the primary and secondary science officers are having an affair.  

They examine the astrophage and they find a couple interesting things.  The first is that there's less astrophage than expected.  The second is that there's a bunch of other little animals in the sample.  The theory is that one of these is the natural predator of the astrophage and that's why this star isn't dwindling like outs is.  So the idea is that if we can introduce said predator to our solar systems it will eat the astrophage and the problem will be solved.

Ch 18 pg 292

Rocky and narrator are looking at the samples and they don't find the predator they're looking for.  They come up with the idea that the predator must not be in the apostrophage line,  but deeper down in the atmosphere.  They do some science and figure out it's 9 kilometres deeper than the ship can go.  So they're gonna build a chain that is 9 kilometres long to collect the predator.  

Also they talk about why rocky has so much extra astrophage.  The answer is that rocky and his people were basing their calculations based on newtonian physics, not Einstein's models so no relativity.

Then theres a flashback to the aircraft carrier and everyone is telling narrator hes Stratts number two and hes like, nah, im just another scientist.  Allso he talks to the guy that's working on the little ships to send back data to earth.  He calls them the beattles and the one hes using for earth testing is named Pete.

Jokes about the Beatles give me joy.  Thats what made the powerpuff girls so great.

Ch 19 pg 308 

Narrator and rocky have come up with a great system to lower the chain with the sampler down to the planet in the hopes of getting a sample of the astrophage predator.  They lower down and attach new links 50 meters at a time while having just the right amount of thrust at just the right angle to keep in close orbit.  The crank back up is more complicated.  They can't just pull up the whole chain cause it would wrap around the ship or trail behind and get destroyed by the ships exhaust or whatever and it'd be real bad.  So they come up with a system that pulls up the chain link by link and then removes the links individually so they fall harmlessly down to the planet.

That part seems to work OK and he gets the sample back inside.  But theres a hole in the fuel tank and he ejects a couple tanks but all the while he's being crushed by the force of the thrust.  He is saved by Rocky.  The problems has been solved, but Rocky is freezing to death in earth's atmosphere on the ship and tells narrator top save his planet.

Ch 20 pg 326

Through a lot of hard work and pain narrator gets Rocky into his containment unit with his alien atmosphere.  He's doing other science stuff with the samples he got from the planet.  He doesn't feel real good about any of this.  He's hurt and he's tired and he's not thinking straight but he's trying to save rocky and two solar systems so he keeps at it.  He basically creates a leaf blower and puts it in Rocky's area and he's able to blow a bunch of smoke and dust and what not out of what he refers to as Rocky's vents.

into thin air CH 8 - 14

Ch 8 pg 105

Aclimitizing is a lot of work.  You repeatedly have to climb up from base camp to camp one and then up to camp two and then back down and back up.  Some groups are real organized in their approach to this.  Other folks are kinda loosely goosey.  One example of the loosey goosey approach ended up with a Sherpa suffering from altitude sickness up at base two without any professionals.  The amateur climbers up there did their best to help and got him back down to base camp.  At base camp there was a bit of an oddly similar situation and there was a lack of urgency to treat the Sherpa.  The result was his tragic death.  

This chapter also talks a lot about a rich lady.

CH 9 pg 125

In this chapter they were supposed to go up to camp 3, but a storm rolled in and they went back to camp 2.  

There'a a lot of talk about how the Sherpas believe that premarital sex on the mountain, especially at higher altitudes makes the gods angry and then people die as punishment.

CH 10 pg 137

Going from camp two to camp 3 is hard.  Lots of virticle ice climbing. Camp 3 itself is a narrow ice shelf with some tents.  Up at that altitude there's lots of worry about the different high altitude sicknesses.  But they did it and acclimatization appears to have been accomplished as narrator is able to breathe easy going back down to base camp.  Every climbing team seems to be ready and they're talking turkey about who is gonna go when.  Except for the dick from south Africa.  He says hell go whenever he damn well pleases.  This pisses narrator's guide Hall right off.

Also the dipshit from Texas isn't that bad I guess. 

CH 11 pg 149

Camp 3 is cold and ice and the air is to thin to support life, so you breath canned air.  At least you should.  But narrator gets claustrophobic and sleeps without it.  Camp 3 is really icey.  So much so that I'd you aren't careful when you go out to do your business you can slide down the mountain and into a crevasse and they find you and they pull you out, but your condition worsens and you die.  

CH 12 pg 165

Going from camp 4 to the col is serious business.  Guide tells narrator he needs to stick with the group.  Narrator is not a team player.  He's all pissed off that he has to wait for people.  There's a famous lady being led by the group with the guide from seattle that narrator knows from toher climbs and he's real dedicated to getting her to the top.  So much that he has a sherpa short line her (this involvles tying her to himself with a 3 foot rope, basically dragging her along) and it kinda sucks cause as narator is being a dick and trying to stomp to the head of the pack to get to the south ridge that they'll then climb to get to the summit, said sherpa is puking his guts out.

Ch 13 pg 179

This chapter is all about rope.  Or rather, the lack there of.  Usually before any paying guest gets anywhere near the summit, sherpas or guides or someone decides to be in charge and lays out rope so that everyone has something to hook onto so that when they're trying to breath the super thin air at 29,000 feet and they take a bad step, they don't plunge 7,000 feet to their doom.  But due to confusion or whatever narrator gets to that spot near the top where you really need rope and there isn't any.  So he volunteers to help a couple other guides set up the ropes.  Then when he's close enough he's like "hey, is it cool if I just go to the top" and the guide is like "sure, I'll finish up the ropes" and so he makes it to the top of Mount Everest.  In theory one should be overjoyed at this accomplishment.  But narrator has been listening to his guide and also has a bit of experience submitting mountains to know that making it to the top isn't really getting to the end.  It's getting to the half way point cause you gotta get back down.  The Southeast ridge of Everest is littered with the bodies of people that made it to the top but couldn't make it back down to camp 4.

ch 14 pg 191

On the way down narrator runs into a traffic jam he talks about at the beginning of the book.  He helps someone with their oxygen tank, which has frozen over and he asks them to close up his tank a bit so he can conserve his oxygen for later when the traffic jam has cleared up and he can get on the move.  But instead of closing it, this other person opens it up and then after 10 minutes of standing around, narrator's oxygen is out.

Narrator is looking forward to going back down after the traffic jam and getting a fresh bottle of oxygen.  One of the guides has kinda lost it and tells him that there isn't any.  That there's just a pile of empty bottles.  But narrator gets down there and hooks up a bottle and it's sure full of breathable oxygen.  Hindsight being 20/20 narrator feels like he should have raised some sort of alarm at that point so the guide knew there was something wrong with his breathing regulator or his brain or whatever it was that made him think all those tanks were empty.  

narrator runs into a guy on the team that basically can't see anymore and at that point he should have insisted he bring him down to the south col with him.  But narrator's not really a team player so he's like, there's a guide coming down with another person on our team and so the guy that can't see will just wait for them.  Narrator, being a selfish dick is psyched to go down alone.  And this is where the storm starts to get bad.  Narrator once again runs out of oxygen.  But he's able to clip onto a rope that takes him most of the way to the south col.  He runs into the guide the has already lost it but they keep moving and both of them make it safely into their tents on the south col.  Which is great for them, but not so great for the 19 people still trying to make their way down with the storm getting worse every second.

project hail Mary CH 11 - 15

CH 11 pg 185

Narrator is trying to explain our measurement system via the use of a tape measure.  Fun thing, the tape measure he sends to the alien (who he calls rocky) has a rubber coating and the alien atmosphere is so hot the rubber melts off.  Narrator tries to show Rocky the centimeters on the ruler but rocky doesn't seem to see it.  Theory, Rocky can't see, he uses an advanced form of eco location like bats to "see" things.  That's why the tape measure is no use, there's no texture to be echo located. Its just paint.

There's a fun flashback scene where boss lady is in court being sued by all software intellectual property holders everywhere because the Hail Mary didn't pay for any of the software it's taking into space. She show off her universal presidential pardon and the judge is like, you still gotta do the trial.  She's like, no I don't.  You got an army to stop me from leaving?  Cause I've got the US army and a bunch of army guys come in and they leave.

This leads us to a scene where narrator is going to use this software to try to communicate with Rocky.  But Rocky's not there.  He thinks maybe rocky is sleeping.  So he figures he'll do the same and using Popsicle sticks leaves a be back in 8 hours sign using Rocky's numbers.

C12 pg 198

He sleeps 10 hours and Rocky is Not pleased.  He takes his laptops down to the tunnel and starts to "talk" to Rocky.  He starts with the clock numbers and within minutes he knows how Rocky speaks those numbers.  Things get more interesting when we get the the word yes and confusing when we try to say no.  

Then we are learning other words and it's a little clumsy as narrator has too look back and forth between laptops.  So he goes back and writes a script that can take the notes it hears and cross reference the spreadsheet and displays it to narrator.

Rocky doesn't seem to need to write things down or use computers or anything.  He just sort of remembers everything.  

They keep talking and its much faster now.  They get to the point where narrator can intelligently explain sleep to Rocky.  He'd like to sleep now.  Rocky wants to watch.  So narrator drags his bed to the tunnel to.sleep while Rocky tries to fix something.  

They talk a lot more first a few days and they are able to figure out how much a kilogram is relative to Rocky's weight UM.  Now Rocky needs to sleep and he wants narrator to watch him.  This is what the aliens do, tgwy watch each other sleep.  Narrator asks rocky why one of his shipmates can't watch him.  Rocky explains they're all dead.  They started with 23, but only rocky made it here.

CH 13/pg 221

They're flashing back to a guy in prison.    He's there because a bunch of people died on a project he was in charge of.  He claims he is innocent.  The problem is that he also imbezled a lot of .money and that makes you look real guilty.  

But  we're here for is he has a plan for growing astrophage.  It involves covering a quarter of the sahara desert with anodized aluminum foil and then in the hot sun and glass and some other details and vuala tons of astrophage.  

Back in the present narrator and rocky do all their sleeping in the tunnel together.  They have developed their language skills to the point where they can now real talk about the astrophage.

They understand they have the same problem and they're gonna work together to solve it.  They talk about why the rest of their crews died.  Narrator thinks Rocky's crew died from radiation.  But rocky has no idea what he's talking about.  Trying to explain radiation is hard.

We're flashed back to narrator talking to that lady that hates him cause of his no water life theory.  They talk about neutrinos and how the hailmary is going to have enough a radiation protection.

They figure out that the astrophage is pretty much radiation proof.  So the plan they come up with is to fill the hull of the ship with a thin layer of astrophage.

CH 14 pg 232

There's a flashback to a French climatologist.  He estimates the earth has about 19 years before half the human population is dead.  The solution is more global warming.  They blow up a chunk of Antarctica and release a bunch of methane into the atmosphere.  

In the present they figure out the way that rocky is alive when all the rest.of his crew died is because he was an engineer and spent most old his time surrounded by the fuel tanks and the fuel is astrophage, which protected him from radiation.

They talk a lot about their different biology.  Rocky makes himself a space suit so he can check out the human ship.  Human technology is far more advanced than Rocky's technology, but we think is technology is amazing cause he's got superior building materials.

Ch 15 pg 250

They meet the science lady that invented the coma technology.  Stratt and narrator get tested.

Rocky brings all his stuff over to narrators ship cause they are gonna do science together on narrator's ship.

Rocky is real sad and not very optimistic.  He's just an engineer.  He's not a scientist.  All the smart scientists that were on the ship died and rocky doesnt thinknhes smart enough to figure out the astrophahe problem.  Narrator has enough optimism for the two of them.  

They start talking about how much time they have to solve this thing and in doing so we learn that the aliens live way longer than people.  Like up to a thousand years.