I'd second the recommendation of anathem, which is one of my favourite books.

Thanks for pointing out the new book by Neal Stephenson, I didn't know he'd released that and will probably check it out.

I also read the hail Mary project which I thought was an enjoyable light read, but nothing too special.

Project Hail Mary was special because it was so straightforward. It didn't try to beat you over the head with some grand message about society. It's just a science teacher doing cool stuff in space. Refreshing, in my opinion.

The thing I found the most funny about project hail Mary, was that the bits that most broke my immersion were the political bits.

(WARNING: minor spoilers follow)

In a story about someone travelling to another galaxy and investigating other life forms, the thing that I struggled with the most was that the entire planet unilaterally put their faith in one person and there wasn't a giant amount of infighting and countries at each other's throats.

Agreed, the geopolitics was very simplistic. I was always looking forward to the next space scene.

I also read Ministry for the Future which was pretty heavy on politics. It didn't grab me the way Project Hail Mary did, though.

It must be a bit strange for Andy Weir. He wrote 'The Martian' as a serial online, originally, and later published it on Kindle as a bit of a 'why not?'. (I bought the Kindle self-published version for $2!)

Fast forward a few years, and Barack Obama and Bill Gates are posting that his latest book was one of their favourites of the year.

I second this. The Hail Mary Project was a great read and even made it into Barack Obama's list[1]. I am working my way through The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and so far it's a page turner.

[1]: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1471168495312420877

Curious, I wouldn't call Three-Body Problem a page turner - there was a whole lot of nothing happening the whole time. Even fans of the book (which I am not) tend to retreat into "well actually it's the sequels that are good".

The Three-Body Problem certainly takes a _while_ to get going. I gave up the first time reading it on my phone. But I kept hearing others sing its praises.

Years later, I started playing the audio book on a roadtrip. At some point, I couldn't "put it down", so to speak--especially as the plot twist is gradually revealed. The sequels are extraordinary, and perhaps among the best sci-fi ever written.

I couldn't put the thing down. Then I had to immediately order the sequels. Different strokes for different folks. There have been plenty of books that people have recommended to me as page-turners and I just couldn't get through them at all.

Yep snooze fest for me too. DNF