Ryland Grace
Grace has earned a doctorate in molecular biology and has taught middle school science. But when the novel opens, he’s not even able to correctly answer what’s two plus two. Suffering from temporary amnesia, Grace slowly comes back to the realization that he is on a rocket traveling through space on a desperate mission to save humanity from extinction.
Yáo Li-Jie and Olesya Ilyukhina
When he comes out of his amnesia, Grace realizes he is alone on the space vessel called the Hail Mary. The mission did not start out that way. Yáo Li-Jie was the commander of the small crew and Olesya Ilyukhina was the engineer. They die on the way to their destination within the 40 Eridani planetary system, leaving Grace to carry it out alone.
Rocky
Well, not entirely alone. One Grace makes it to the 40 Eridani system he makes first contact with an alien life form that he proceeds to refer to as Rocky. After establishing an ability to communicate with each other, Grace begins to work with Rocky in his scientific research that, if successful, will not only save humanity from extinction, but also Rocky’s civilization. At one point, Grace says to Rocky that he looks like a creature we have on earth called a spider.
Eva Stratt
Even though the story commences with the other two members of the Hail Mary already dead and Grace struggling to make his way out of his amnesiac state, Eva Stratt has been appointed as the head of a special United Nations task force long before. The task force has been charged with figuring the cause behind a solar phenomenon capable of wiping out the entire human population of earth. A microbe which Grace calls “Astrophage” is reproducing out of control and absorbing so much energy from the sun that an ice age is inevitable within just a few decades. Stratt recruits Grace to serve in his capacity as a molecular biologist aboard the Hail Mary.
