i really do think about stratt heavily, especially after reading the novel, the position of grace relative to her (witness/second in command/friend/colleague/sacrifice), and their position relative to the world as they shape the project hail mary mission. and the feelings there are complicated, because in a lot of ways i do dislike her, and by extension grace, for their roles as arbiters of the worlds destiny. because i find the novel reflects weir's perceptions of real-world power dynamics between what we consider the global south/north and makes little effort to critique them. while this is present throughout, the sahara desert section of the novel is the most direct example.
even though redell caused deaths, even though he embezzled money from a project that was supposedly supposed to help countries in northern africa (and which countries are those, weir?), and even though he expresses racist viewpoints in that section, he is courted by stratt and grace for his ideas. and even though those ideas will have stark ecological repercussions for the countries in africa especially, grace meets this with protest once before the conversation moves on instantly to the science and the concept of implementation. no further critique can be leveraged against the idea, because the science is sound, and grace christens the idea with merit when he can find no flaws in it. so in the end who cares about the sacrifice of those unnamed others? the science checks out and its for the "greater good" and the only opinions that matter are of those three in the room right there.
ultimately redell is rewarded for his idea with time off his sentence. because stratt, grace, and redell are all part of the same system - at least in regards to world power dynamics. they are the ones who hold this decision making in their hands, and this goes unquestioned throughout the entirety of the novel.
granted i know the novel is mostly about grace and his choices and the exploration of characters in his orbit. i do find myself compelled by the explorations of sacrifice in both grace and stratt. but what about the sacrifice of everyone else they ask to bend to their will? no weight is put into what any diplomat, scientist, or politician from libya or egypt or sudan or any other country in northern africa thinks about this issue or how they would feel. the novel moves on: it gets done and the sahara gets destroyed because stratt willed it and grace enabled it and underneath that is a deep, deep unacknowledged devastation. the lack of any perspectives from those who will suffer the most burns like a hole in the pages for me throughout the entirety of this book.
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