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Artemis
Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Best Science Fiction (2017)Jazz Bashara is a criminal.
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.
Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.
Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.
335 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 14, 2017
About the author
Andy Weir
38 books45.1k followersANDY WEIR built a career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, THE MARTIAN, allowed him to live out his dream of writing fulltime. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects such as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail. He lives in California. Andy’s next book, ARTEMIS, is available now.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 25,590 reviews
January 23, 2020
1 1/2 stars. I really wish I could say I liked this. A couple of years back, I gave in to the hype and read Weir's The Martian, and I have to say-- I loved it. The scary scenario of being stranded so far away from everything and everyone you know, the very high probability that Mark Watney wouldn't survive, his chirpy sense of humour that keeps him going... unfortunately,Artemis's plot is convoluted and less exciting. And Jazz Bashara is SO ANNOYING.
Look, I completely get why Mark Watney annoyed some readers and, given that Weir transplanted his personality and awkward sense of humour into Jazz, it might seem a bit contradictory to have a problem with her personality. But, you know, Mark's narration worked for me because I could imagine this man in the middle of space needing to stay peppy and chatty. His inner narrative is conversational because he is talking to himself - and the reader - to avoid losing all hope. With Jazz, it doesn’t work so well.
Even though Jazz is a woman in her twenties and Arab, she is basically Mark Watney. You can tell Weir really struggled to adapt his writing style in order to write from the perspective of that most alien of all species - THE WOMAN. Jazz has the sense of humour of a twelve-year-old boy. Her constant quips feel forced and unnecessary. Some of the comments she makes about her sex life and body are just... not funny. She's the local lunar tramp, which is, apparently, so hilarious. But her whole narrative is just plain awkward.
And what grown woman responds like this:
The real problem for me, though, was that I could not get invested in this half-assed heist plot. I was bored out of my mind with the random talk of gangsters, smuggling, some scientific sabotage blah blah and - oh my god - the welding. Mark Watney talked science to explain how he was going to survive and feed himself on Mars; Jazz talks science to explain the mechanics of welding. I couldn't understand why we were supposed to give a damn about this heist, or the whole conspiracy that develops out of it. Who cares whether Jazz earns herself some slugs (lunar currency)? Who cares if that guy who I didn't give a shit about dies?
Weir takes some minor steps toward making the setting interesting, but then does nothing with it. This lunar colony is run by Kenyans, which is intriguing, but the culture is unmistakably American, and he never expands upon why or how Kenyans came to be controlling space travel. He throws out some fact about Kenya being near the equator, but never adequately explained it. The main story is also broken up with Jazz's letters to a Kenyan pen pal, starting when she is nine years old, but this never really goes anywhere and feels kind of pointless.
Also, the author chooses to have a Muslim (non-practicing) narrator, which could lead to important representation, but it's hard not to cringe when he addresses his narrative to a solely white, non-Muslim audience:
And then goes on to show Jazz using said niqab as a disguise while carrying out criminal activity. She pleasantly declares:
Yikes.
It's just a very messy book overall, with a narrator that tries to be Mark Watney and fails, and a plot that tries to be compelling but isn't. Where the science added thrills and realism in The Martian, here it bogs the story down with boring detail. Weir should stick to survival stories with male narrators.
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Look, I completely get why Mark Watney annoyed some readers and, given that Weir transplanted his personality and awkward sense of humour into Jazz, it might seem a bit contradictory to have a problem with her personality. But, you know, Mark's narration worked for me because I could imagine this man in the middle of space needing to stay peppy and chatty. His inner narrative is conversational because he is talking to himself - and the reader - to avoid losing all hope. With Jazz, it doesn’t work so well.
Even though Jazz is a woman in her twenties and Arab, she is basically Mark Watney. You can tell Weir really struggled to adapt his writing style in order to write from the perspective of that most alien of all species - THE WOMAN. Jazz has the sense of humour of a twelve-year-old boy. Her constant quips feel forced and unnecessary. Some of the comments she makes about her sex life and body are just... not funny. She's the local lunar tramp, which is, apparently, so hilarious. But her whole narrative is just plain awkward.
I turned my head inside the helmet, bit a nipple (try not to get excited), and sucked some water out.
***
“Billy, I’ve swallowed better-tasting stuff that came out of people.”
And what grown woman responds like this:
“What’s in there, anyway?”
“Porn, mostly. Starring your mom.”
The real problem for me, though, was that I could not get invested in this half-assed heist plot. I was bored out of my mind with the random talk of gangsters, smuggling, some scientific sabotage blah blah and - oh my god - the welding. Mark Watney talked science to explain how he was going to survive and feed himself on Mars; Jazz talks science to explain the mechanics of welding. I couldn't understand why we were supposed to give a damn about this heist, or the whole conspiracy that develops out of it. Who cares whether Jazz earns herself some slugs (lunar currency)? Who cares if that guy who I didn't give a shit about dies?
Weir takes some minor steps toward making the setting interesting, but then does nothing with it. This lunar colony is run by Kenyans, which is intriguing, but the culture is unmistakably American, and he never expands upon why or how Kenyans came to be controlling space travel. He throws out some fact about Kenya being near the equator, but never adequately explained it. The main story is also broken up with Jazz's letters to a Kenyan pen pal, starting when she is nine years old, but this never really goes anywhere and feels kind of pointless.
Also, the author chooses to have a Muslim (non-practicing) narrator, which could lead to important representation, but it's hard not to cringe when he addresses his narrative to a solely white, non-Muslim audience:
"Okay, you can stop pretending you know what a niqab is. It’s a traditional Islamic headwear that covers the lower face."
And then goes on to show Jazz using said niqab as a disguise while carrying out criminal activity. She pleasantly declares:
"Great way to wear a mask without arousing suspicion.”
Yikes.
It's just a very messy book overall, with a narrator that tries to be Mark Watney and fails, and a plot that tries to be compelling but isn't. Where the science added thrills and realism in The Martian, here it bogs the story down with boring detail. Weir should stick to survival stories with male narrators.
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September 27, 2017
Apologies in advance. You're not gonna like what I have to say.
This is not the review I was expecting to write, but this is not the book I was expecting to read.
Andy Weir has successfully taken the one element I didn't like in THE MARTIAN and expanded on that until ARTEMIS is almost a chore to read. Major disappointment.
Remember our hero, Mark, in The Martian? His jokey, sarcastic personality started to grate on my nerves towards the end of the book. It's like he never quit with the relentless joking. Staring death in the face? Make a joke. Starving to death? Play some funny music. Ok, we get it! Mark is all about the comic relief. Why does it have to be so overdone and heavy-handed? I still enjoyed the book for all the old-school science fiction fun.
HOWEVER, after cutting Weir some slack for his forced characterizations in The Martian, I am not so ready to do the same with Artemis.
Guess what? Jazz, our female protagonist in Artemis, has almost the exact same personality as Mark from The Martian. Ugggggghhhhh. And that goofy, insulting character is even more annoying in a grown woman. Is that sexist? I hope not. I don't mean it to be.
Oh, and by the way, Jazz is the town tramp (with a heart of gold) because of her reputation for sleeping with so many guys. Hysterical.
The book starts out very fun to read. I really enjoyed reading how the city of Artemis came to be established on the moon. I loved reading about the actualities of lunar living with 1/6 of the gravity. I liked learning about the moon's surface, dust and atmosphere. There just wasn't enough of the moon facts for me.
Also, I'm beginning to question Andy Weir's imagination for the future. The moon inhabitants walk around and do all their business transactions on small computers that they carry. They pay for items and surf the internet and make calls on these "gizmos" as they are called. FASCINATING STUFF right here.
What there is plenty of:
Welding. Yes, welding. More than I ever want to know about welding.
Stupid middle-school humor that the very smart adults all seem to love.
Forced, unnatural dialogue.
Convoluted, crazy plot that never really makes sense.
Integral characters that are unexplained, because of one-note superficial writing.
After the first third of the book, I had to push through to finish it. Especially the middle part with all the welding. Take my advice and skim skim skim through the welding. The very end ramps up with some excitement, but not enough to make up of for the rest. Sad.
I would have liked more moonwalking, less welding. More thinking, less insulting. More imagination, less joking. More sci-fi, less lame comedy.
This is not the review I was expecting to write, but this is not the book I was expecting to read.
Andy Weir has successfully taken the one element I didn't like in THE MARTIAN and expanded on that until ARTEMIS is almost a chore to read. Major disappointment.
Remember our hero, Mark, in The Martian? His jokey, sarcastic personality started to grate on my nerves towards the end of the book. It's like he never quit with the relentless joking. Staring death in the face? Make a joke. Starving to death? Play some funny music. Ok, we get it! Mark is all about the comic relief. Why does it have to be so overdone and heavy-handed? I still enjoyed the book for all the old-school science fiction fun.
HOWEVER, after cutting Weir some slack for his forced characterizations in The Martian, I am not so ready to do the same with Artemis.
Guess what? Jazz, our female protagonist in Artemis, has almost the exact same personality as Mark from The Martian. Ugggggghhhhh. And that goofy, insulting character is even more annoying in a grown woman. Is that sexist? I hope not. I don't mean it to be.
Oh, and by the way, Jazz is the town tramp (with a heart of gold) because of her reputation for sleeping with so many guys. Hysterical.
The book starts out very fun to read. I really enjoyed reading how the city of Artemis came to be established on the moon. I loved reading about the actualities of lunar living with 1/6 of the gravity. I liked learning about the moon's surface, dust and atmosphere. There just wasn't enough of the moon facts for me.
Also, I'm beginning to question Andy Weir's imagination for the future. The moon inhabitants walk around and do all their business transactions on small computers that they carry. They pay for items and surf the internet and make calls on these "gizmos" as they are called. FASCINATING STUFF right here.
What there is plenty of:
Welding. Yes, welding. More than I ever want to know about welding.
Stupid middle-school humor that the very smart adults all seem to love.
Forced, unnatural dialogue.
Convoluted, crazy plot that never really makes sense.
Integral characters that are unexplained, because of one-note superficial writing.
After the first third of the book, I had to push through to finish it. Especially the middle part with all the welding. Take my advice and skim skim skim through the welding. The very end ramps up with some excitement, but not enough to make up of for the rest. Sad.
I would have liked more moonwalking, less welding. More thinking, less insulting. More imagination, less joking. More sci-fi, less lame comedy.
February 2, 2018
A new book from Andy Weir? Happening on the moon? A heist where the main character survives with her scientific knowledge?
COUNT ME IN!!
I was so excited for this book but I didn't end up loving nearly as much as The Martian.
Even though I liked the overall idea, I didn't like the characters and the constant jokes and insults felt incredibly forced.
The main character Jazz, a 26 years old woman, was talking and thinking like a cringy 15 years old boy. She mentions a few times her appearance and sexuality in an unnatural way. I don't understand why men authors struggle so hard to write female characters.
At one point, she stays the night at a friend's house and after showering she wears one of his shirts. He comes back and, him being awkward with women, simply stares at her not knowing what to say. She thinks to herself "I was pretty sexy I have to admit"... really?
Most characters had cringy moments like this and it ruined the book for me.
I'm still not sure how to review the ending so I'll have to sleep on it and come back for an update!
UPDATE: After thinking about it, I wanted to add that it was interesting to read about the heist with the scientific knowledge thrown in there but it wasn't enough to make this book a must-read. It didn't live up to my expectations!
UPDATE 2: The more I think about it the more disappointed and angry I am so I'm reducing it to 2 stars!
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
REVIEW: https://youtu.be/TkxckLFcKYE?t=8m9s
COUNT ME IN!!
I was so excited for this book but I didn't end up loving nearly as much as The Martian.
Even though I liked the overall idea, I didn't like the characters and the constant jokes and insults felt incredibly forced.
The main character Jazz, a 26 years old woman, was talking and thinking like a cringy 15 years old boy. She mentions a few times her appearance and sexuality in an unnatural way. I don't understand why men authors struggle so hard to write female characters.
At one point, she stays the night at a friend's house and after showering she wears one of his shirts. He comes back and, him being awkward with women, simply stares at her not knowing what to say. She thinks to herself "I was pretty sexy I have to admit"... really?
Most characters had cringy moments like this and it ruined the book for me.
I'm still not sure how to review the ending so I'll have to sleep on it and come back for an update!
UPDATE: After thinking about it, I wanted to add that it was interesting to read about the heist with the scientific knowledge thrown in there but it wasn't enough to make this book a must-read. It didn't live up to my expectations!
UPDATE 2: The more I think about it the more disappointed and angry I am so I'm reducing it to 2 stars!
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
REVIEW: https://youtu.be/TkxckLFcKYE?t=8m9s
December 6, 2017
Yay for my book winning 2017 GR award 😄
This book freaking rocks!!
No, seriously. The book does have science in it but it's not too bad. This is mostly about Jazz who has lived on the moon since she was 6 and now she's in her 20's. Her dad lives on the moon too but they had a falling out and she makes it on her own by doing. . . things.
I love the character of Jazz. She's funny and does crazy things but never anything to hurt any one.
AND SHE LIVES ON THE MOON!
Jazz doesn't live in the good part of town. Yes, the city on the moon is called Artemis and they have their rich side and poor side. It's just too awesome to read about.
Jazz does some odd jobs as a porter but she also brings in contraband and no it's nothing bad.
She has a cool friend she emails from Earth, his name is Kelvin. I love their talks.
Rich people come to the moon every year to spend their holiday. They stay in the fancy hotels and spend tons of money in the shops. Regular folk save up their money so they can come for a once in a life time stay.
But, life on the moon isn't all that it's cracked up to be. There just has to be some evil mobness going on. There are life and death situations and Jazz in put on the spot to save the whole city.
That's all I'm saying, you need to read it for yourself. If you loved The Martian (which I did) you will love this book. At least I think you will, I did because IT'S THE MOON! THEY ARE LIVING ON THE MOON!
And I have to mention some of the people I loved in the book:
Svoboda
Dale
Lene
Kelvin
Bob
Jazz dad
and some randoms =)
*I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book*
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
This book freaking rocks!!
No, seriously. The book does have science in it but it's not too bad. This is mostly about Jazz who has lived on the moon since she was 6 and now she's in her 20's. Her dad lives on the moon too but they had a falling out and she makes it on her own by doing. . . things.
I love the character of Jazz. She's funny and does crazy things but never anything to hurt any one.
AND SHE LIVES ON THE MOON!
Jazz doesn't live in the good part of town. Yes, the city on the moon is called Artemis and they have their rich side and poor side. It's just too awesome to read about.
Jazz does some odd jobs as a porter but she also brings in contraband and no it's nothing bad.
She has a cool friend she emails from Earth, his name is Kelvin. I love their talks.
Rich people come to the moon every year to spend their holiday. They stay in the fancy hotels and spend tons of money in the shops. Regular folk save up their money so they can come for a once in a life time stay.
But, life on the moon isn't all that it's cracked up to be. There just has to be some evil mobness going on. There are life and death situations and Jazz in put on the spot to save the whole city.
That's all I'm saying, you need to read it for yourself. If you loved The Martian (which I did) you will love this book. At least I think you will, I did because IT'S THE MOON! THEY ARE LIVING ON THE MOON!
And I have to mention some of the people I loved in the book:
Svoboda
Dale
Lene
Kelvin
Bob
Jazz dad
and some randoms =)
*I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book*
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
December 6, 2017
This book is awful. It's not just awful, it's offensive and immature and badly written. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, but I'd enjoyed The Martian and hoped the followup would be fun in a similar way. It wasn't. There was nothing fun about this book.
Let's start with Jazz: Jazz Bashara is a Saudi woman written the way a white guy who's never spoken to or met a single woman in his entire life would write her. She talks about her boobs and being naked and makes sexual innuendos about EVERYTHING. Seriously, there are 15 y/o boys who could have written this character with greater respect and far fewer sex jokes.
The slut shaming: How many times can people (including Jazz) mention that she has SO MUCH SEX? Some mention it as a means to shame her, Jazz mentions it to brag. It's just weird and gross and, honestly, only something a guy would write.
The gay jokes: Just because Weir wrote a gay character into the book doesn't mean he gets to demean that character. The only person who's probably mentioned as having more sex than Jazz is Dale. Because gay men are sluts, am I right? Get it? Because they have a lot of sex. Oh, and not only is the gay guy a slut, but he stole Jazz's boyfriend and slept with him while he and Jazz were still together. If I had my way I would ban Weir from ever writing about another gay character in any book for the rest of his life.
Then there's just lots of random messed up stuff. Like how one of Jazz's ex-boyfriends (who's 24) cheats on her with a 14 y/o girl, and Jazz blows it off by saying how the city on the moon doesn't have an age of consent because lots of people have different morals. WTF?!?!? There's also the odd subplot that goes nowhere about the reusable condom. LOTS of broad, offensive generalizations about other cultures.
And the plot isn't even good. It's a mess of highly unlikely stuff happening split by sex jokes and then more stuff happening that would never ever happen in real life (and not just because it's on the moon, but because
I thought Armada, the followup to Ready Player One was bad, but this book is a crime against literature. Don't waste your time as I've wasted mine. Read something, anything other than this.
Let's start with Jazz: Jazz Bashara is a Saudi woman written the way a white guy who's never spoken to or met a single woman in his entire life would write her. She talks about her boobs and being naked and makes sexual innuendos about EVERYTHING. Seriously, there are 15 y/o boys who could have written this character with greater respect and far fewer sex jokes.
The slut shaming: How many times can people (including Jazz) mention that she has SO MUCH SEX? Some mention it as a means to shame her, Jazz mentions it to brag. It's just weird and gross and, honestly, only something a guy would write.
The gay jokes: Just because Weir wrote a gay character into the book doesn't mean he gets to demean that character. The only person who's probably mentioned as having more sex than Jazz is Dale. Because gay men are sluts, am I right? Get it? Because they have a lot of sex. Oh, and not only is the gay guy a slut, but he stole Jazz's boyfriend and slept with him while he and Jazz were still together. If I had my way I would ban Weir from ever writing about another gay character in any book for the rest of his life.
Then there's just lots of random messed up stuff. Like how one of Jazz's ex-boyfriends (who's 24) cheats on her with a 14 y/o girl, and Jazz blows it off by saying how the city on the moon doesn't have an age of consent because lots of people have different morals. WTF?!?!? There's also the odd subplot that goes nowhere about the reusable condom. LOTS of broad, offensive generalizations about other cultures.
And the plot isn't even good. It's a mess of highly unlikely stuff happening split by sex jokes and then more stuff happening that would never ever happen in real life (and not just because it's on the moon, but because
I thought Armada, the followup to Ready Player One was bad, but this book is a crime against literature. Don't waste your time as I've wasted mine. Read something, anything other than this.
January 30, 2018
When Artemis first came out I started seeing lots of one and two star reviews. Not wanting to spoil the book, I didn't read them very in depth. But, the star situation had me concerned as I was looking forward to this book as I enjoyed The Martian very much. Was I in for a big letdown?
Lucky for me, the book was a 4 star experience!
Thoughts on why others rated it so low - these are just guesses, I may be totally wrong:
It is not The Martian - sometimes when people are a huge fan of a book they are hoping for a same experience with the next book. While it had shades of The Martian with the space science and the sarcastic humor, it is not The Martian. For me, this was not a problem.
It is a comedy - this is a funny/silly book. Sarcastic, cynical, innuendo filled humor is rampant. If you are not a fan of borderline inappropriate jokes or cheesy puns, this is not the book for you. I liked it and thought it was hilarious!
Science/Technology - After The Martian, I think it would be expected, but this book has a lot of science/engineering and maybe that detracted too much from the story for some. It did not bother me.
It is a caper - in addition to the heavy science/engineering, there is also a fairly complex espionage/political intrigue element to the story line. Figuring out what exactly is happening and why is a bit difficult. For me, this was one part I can sort of agree seemed not quite as tightly woven as the rest of the book.
So, I liked it! Since other people I kind of expected to like this didn't, I am not quite sure who to recommend it to. But, if Weir keeps writing, I will keep coming back for more!
Lucky for me, the book was a 4 star experience!
Thoughts on why others rated it so low - these are just guesses, I may be totally wrong:
It is not The Martian - sometimes when people are a huge fan of a book they are hoping for a same experience with the next book. While it had shades of The Martian with the space science and the sarcastic humor, it is not The Martian. For me, this was not a problem.
It is a comedy - this is a funny/silly book. Sarcastic, cynical, innuendo filled humor is rampant. If you are not a fan of borderline inappropriate jokes or cheesy puns, this is not the book for you. I liked it and thought it was hilarious!
Science/Technology - After The Martian, I think it would be expected, but this book has a lot of science/engineering and maybe that detracted too much from the story for some. It did not bother me.
It is a caper - in addition to the heavy science/engineering, there is also a fairly complex espionage/political intrigue element to the story line. Figuring out what exactly is happening and why is a bit difficult. For me, this was one part I can sort of agree seemed not quite as tightly woven as the rest of the book.
So, I liked it! Since other people I kind of expected to like this didn't, I am not quite sure who to recommend it to. But, if Weir keeps writing, I will keep coming back for more!
August 27, 2017
This book was great.
I admit to worrying that he wouldn't be able to keep up the quality from The Martian, and this is definitely a very different kind of tale from that, being half a heist novel but otherwise just a great adventure, but he pulls it off. Better than pulling it off, even. I love his characters and the feel of the moon city, Artemis, is vital and detailed.
But you know what the best part is?
I was thoroughly entertained during the entire read. The pacing is great, the reveals believable, the twists unexpected, and the action, delightful. I really couldn't ask for more when it comes to fun science fiction.
The moon is a great place to have an adventure. There's always the threat of being deported to Earth, the expensive living arrangements, and the law if you're a smuggler, which Jazz is, but there's always suit and engineering and environmental problems to worry about, too. And never forget greed and cupidity and the need to balance being a good person against a ton of intrigue. That's what we've got going on, here, and it's a real treat every step of the way.
No spoilers, but I can easily say that I had a great time reading it from the first to the last page. Nothing could have pleased me more. The read is solid as hell.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!
I admit to worrying that he wouldn't be able to keep up the quality from The Martian, and this is definitely a very different kind of tale from that, being half a heist novel but otherwise just a great adventure, but he pulls it off. Better than pulling it off, even. I love his characters and the feel of the moon city, Artemis, is vital and detailed.
But you know what the best part is?
I was thoroughly entertained during the entire read. The pacing is great, the reveals believable, the twists unexpected, and the action, delightful. I really couldn't ask for more when it comes to fun science fiction.
The moon is a great place to have an adventure. There's always the threat of being deported to Earth, the expensive living arrangements, and the law if you're a smuggler, which Jazz is, but there's always suit and engineering and environmental problems to worry about, too. And never forget greed and cupidity and the need to balance being a good person against a ton of intrigue. That's what we've got going on, here, and it's a real treat every step of the way.
No spoilers, but I can easily say that I had a great time reading it from the first to the last page. Nothing could have pleased me more. The read is solid as hell.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!
December 30, 2021
Artemis - image from BusinessInsider.com
Jasmine (Jazz) Bashara has a problem. She is 26 and close to being homeless, which is illegal where she lives. Back on Earth she would have had a lot of company, but living in Artemis, the moon’s only city, population two thousand, laying low is a bit tougher. She used to live with her father, but is too embarrassed to go back, having had a tiny accident in his workplace, smoking weed there with a pal, and…ummm…pretty much burning it down. Oopsy. She sleeps in a tiny space fondly referred to as a coffin, gets by working as a porter, despite her exceptional brain, and aspires to getting her EVA license, which would allow her to make real money, escorting tourists and doing other outside jobs. Too bad she kinda blew her road test.
Andy Weir - image from Wired
Good thing, though, that she has a fallback, a steady entrepreneurial gig. She moonlights as a smuggler. A steady client of her off-book import biz, a tech billionaire sort, has a plan for taking over a local enterprise. All it requires is for someone to do some unapproved EVA work and blow some things up. The million slugs (local currency – maybe she should be called a sluggler. Ok, maybe not) he offers makes it worth the very considerable risk of moving from her low orbit criminal activity to the much higher orbit of actual felon. But what was that mysterious box she spotted at his place, labeled ZAFO? Unfortunately, all does not go as planned, and now some very scary darkside people are doing their best to put her in a state of permanent eclipse.
I see Brianna Hildebrand as Jazz
Artemis is a very exciting action-adventure sci-fi tale, with a dose of mystery tossed in. Weir made some effort to hone his character-building skills and it shows.
“I worked hard to make a deeper character than Mark Watney…Jazz is more nuanced. She’s flawed. She makes bad decisions. She’s incredibly intelligent, but she’s always looking for the shortcut.” - from the EW interviewThat’s one small step for an author, one giant leap for reading enjoyment. Jazz is fun and relatable, well, relatable enough that we care whether or not she is given a close encounter with an unlivable atmosphere. You might have to suspend your moral perspectives though, as Jazz is what she is, a criminal. Her wise-cracking sense of humor is very appealing, as it was for Mark Watney in The Martian. Each chapter ends with an exchange of messages, from many years before, between Jazz and an Earth-based friend. These also give us reasons to care about her.
I see Penny Johnson Jerald as Administrator Fidelis Ngugi - image from Hollywood Reporter
As with The Martian, Andy Weir is very interested in showing us space tech, and explaining the relevant science. Unlike the case with his uber hit, he manages to stop himself from loading us up with too much. A bit of corny humor around an experimental reusable condom did not work.
I kept seeing Oded Fehr as Jazz’s father, Ammar Bashara – image from TV Guide
He looks at the economy and sociology of the moon society as well, including crime, currency, and political organization. This is where his Arthur C. Clarke, hard-science inclinations, meet up with Asimovian social examination, and a Heinleinian feel for dialogue, while stopping well short of the sort of deeper politico-sociological considerations of, say, Ursula Leguin. What he has succeeded in writing is a fast-moving, engaging, fun book that will slip you a little intel about actual moon-base science and planning while keeping you thoroughly entertained.
Kristofer Hivju, with, perhaps, a bit of a beard trim, could be a wonderful Trond
Review first posted – 12/29/2017
Publication date – 11/14/2017
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages.
10/4/2017 - On the production of aluminum
A nifty wiki - Life on Artemis
Rosario Dawson reads a bit of Artemis
A small interview bit from Entertainment Weekly
November 8, 2017
I received a free advance copy of this for review from NetGalley.
M-O-O-N. That spells Andy Weir’s new novel. (OK, if you haven’t read Stephen King’s The Stand that joke won’t make sense to you, but rather than think that’s a failure of my review I’m going to say that it’s your own fault for not having read The Stand. Serves you right.)
It’s the near future, and there’s a city on the moon called Artemis. Jazz Bashara is a young woman who has grown up there, and knowing the place like the back of her hand makes it easier for her to hustle a living legally by being a porter who hauls stuff around. Illegally, she makes money on the side with a smuggling business. If she could get her EVA certification she could make a lot more by showing tourists the sights outside, but a hardware problem makes her fail the test as well as nearly killing her. So when a rich guy offers her a huge payday to perform a dangerous act of sabotage on a business rival Jazz takes the gig. Things don’t go quite as planned and soon Jazz is in danger of being deported back to Earth or murdered, and she isn’t sure which one would be worse.
Just to get this out of the way: No, it isn’t as good as The Martian. But it’s still a pretty fun read and got a lot of the stuff I liked about that one so no shame there.
Weir has built up a lot of detail about life on the moon from the nuts-and-bolts stuff science stuff as well as how the Artemis society functions. One detail I particularly liked is that the moon citizens trade in ‘slugs’ which stands for ‘soft landed grams’ which is a weight based credit system to have things shipped from Earth.
We’ve also got another likeable lead character in Jazz just as we did with Mark Watney in The Martian. Jazz is a borderline criminal, not an astronaut, but like Mark she’s got a can-do attitude mixed with a fun way of explaining all the technical stuff to the reader. She’s also got a similar smart-ass nature, and that could have gone wrong because snarky leads can turn into annoying joke machines if not done well. Yet Weir never lets it get away from him and keeps it funny.
So why not as good as his first book? While it’s great that Weir made his main character a young woman who is a lapsed Muslim he didn’t exactly do anything with those traits. Jazz could have easily been a young male of any religion so it seems like an easy nod to diversity rather than incorporating anything that might have deepened her. Also, while this one has Jazz getting into plenty of predicaments it lacks the tension that The Martian had its best. Granted, one is a survival story and one is more of a sci-fi thriller so it’s comparing apples to giraffes to some extent, but I just never felt like Jazz was in any real danger whereas I legitimately didn’t know if Watney would make it off Mars.
Still, it’s got the same kind of enthusiastic attitude of his first book, and it’s nice to read about smart people doing smart things. This isn’t great literature, but Weir has an entertaining style. He’s also great at blending science, story, and humor into a nice little sci-fi stew.
M-O-O-N. That spells Andy Weir’s new novel. (OK, if you haven’t read Stephen King’s The Stand that joke won’t make sense to you, but rather than think that’s a failure of my review I’m going to say that it’s your own fault for not having read The Stand. Serves you right.)
It’s the near future, and there’s a city on the moon called Artemis. Jazz Bashara is a young woman who has grown up there, and knowing the place like the back of her hand makes it easier for her to hustle a living legally by being a porter who hauls stuff around. Illegally, she makes money on the side with a smuggling business. If she could get her EVA certification she could make a lot more by showing tourists the sights outside, but a hardware problem makes her fail the test as well as nearly killing her. So when a rich guy offers her a huge payday to perform a dangerous act of sabotage on a business rival Jazz takes the gig. Things don’t go quite as planned and soon Jazz is in danger of being deported back to Earth or murdered, and she isn’t sure which one would be worse.
Just to get this out of the way: No, it isn’t as good as The Martian. But it’s still a pretty fun read and got a lot of the stuff I liked about that one so no shame there.
Weir has built up a lot of detail about life on the moon from the nuts-and-bolts stuff science stuff as well as how the Artemis society functions. One detail I particularly liked is that the moon citizens trade in ‘slugs’ which stands for ‘soft landed grams’ which is a weight based credit system to have things shipped from Earth.
We’ve also got another likeable lead character in Jazz just as we did with Mark Watney in The Martian. Jazz is a borderline criminal, not an astronaut, but like Mark she’s got a can-do attitude mixed with a fun way of explaining all the technical stuff to the reader. She’s also got a similar smart-ass nature, and that could have gone wrong because snarky leads can turn into annoying joke machines if not done well. Yet Weir never lets it get away from him and keeps it funny.
So why not as good as his first book? While it’s great that Weir made his main character a young woman who is a lapsed Muslim he didn’t exactly do anything with those traits. Jazz could have easily been a young male of any religion so it seems like an easy nod to diversity rather than incorporating anything that might have deepened her. Also, while this one has Jazz getting into plenty of predicaments it lacks the tension that The Martian had its best. Granted, one is a survival story and one is more of a sci-fi thriller so it’s comparing apples to giraffes to some extent, but I just never felt like Jazz was in any real danger whereas I legitimately didn’t know if Watney would make it off Mars.
Still, it’s got the same kind of enthusiastic attitude of his first book, and it’s nice to read about smart people doing smart things. This isn’t great literature, but Weir has an entertaining style. He’s also great at blending science, story, and humor into a nice little sci-fi stew.
December 12, 2022
Jazz Bashara lives on Artemis, a moon colony with its own social structure and commerce.
Estranged from her father, Jazz has been making ends meet functioning as a smuggler in black market trade.
Most of her gigs involve hustling small-scale vice items. When a very rich man makes Jazz an unexpected offer, she cannot refuse.
What follows is a story of girl trying to make up for past mistakes, while trying to survive the best she can, with a little corporate sabotage sprinkled on top.
I really enjoyed this book. The world that Weir created was just spectacular.
When you are reading about Artemis, it's hard to remember that it doesn't actually exist. It seemed so real and the science is feasible, which is a definite plus. The details were well-described, making this a delightful, light Scifi story.
((applause))
Additionally, the characters all worked for me. I loved Jazz. She's super flawed, but seriously trying her best and every once in a while, you just have to throw caution to the wind and say, f*ck it.
I liked her attitude and I think she really came full circle over the course of the story.
I guess it is important to note that I have not read The Martian yet and frankly, I'm glad. I know a lot of folks read that first and then didn't enjoy this one as much.
I think now when I finally do get around to The Martian it will impress me even more, and trust me, it is still on my TBR.
I would definitely recommend this to any Scifi fans out there who haven't read it yet.
Who are we kidding though? I am probably the only one left on planet Earth to get to it!
I am happy to be crossing it off my backlist and thank my TBR Jar for making me read it.
P.S. This could translate into a fantastic, fast-paced movie!
Please do, Hollywood. Please do.
Estranged from her father, Jazz has been making ends meet functioning as a smuggler in black market trade.
Most of her gigs involve hustling small-scale vice items. When a very rich man makes Jazz an unexpected offer, she cannot refuse.
What follows is a story of girl trying to make up for past mistakes, while trying to survive the best she can, with a little corporate sabotage sprinkled on top.
I really enjoyed this book. The world that Weir created was just spectacular.
When you are reading about Artemis, it's hard to remember that it doesn't actually exist. It seemed so real and the science is feasible, which is a definite plus. The details were well-described, making this a delightful, light Scifi story.
((applause))
Additionally, the characters all worked for me. I loved Jazz. She's super flawed, but seriously trying her best and every once in a while, you just have to throw caution to the wind and say, f*ck it.
I liked her attitude and I think she really came full circle over the course of the story.
I guess it is important to note that I have not read The Martian yet and frankly, I'm glad. I know a lot of folks read that first and then didn't enjoy this one as much.
I think now when I finally do get around to The Martian it will impress me even more, and trust me, it is still on my TBR.
I would definitely recommend this to any Scifi fans out there who haven't read it yet.
Who are we kidding though? I am probably the only one left on planet Earth to get to it!
I am happy to be crossing it off my backlist and thank my TBR Jar for making me read it.
P.S. This could translate into a fantastic, fast-paced movie!
Please do, Hollywood. Please do.
March 15, 2020
this book is a masterclass for how male authors should never write a female character. like, never ever ever. i honestly have never read such terrible characterisation before and i can only think of two reasons for why that is.
↠ 1.5 stars
1. andy weir just copied what he wrote for mark in ‘the martian’ and pasted it into this book. or,i think AW was just rushing through to quickly put out a book while he could ride on the success of ‘the martian’ (the film) and stay relevant. i mean, just because he could write a book, does that really mean he should? especially when its so poor quality? the writing is extremely lacking, the plot is not interesting and is lazily thrown together, and jazz is one of the worst characters in the history of ever. i just, i am still so shocked that someone could write such a terrible character. i really dont know what to say.
2. andy weir has somehow managed to never meet a woman in his entire life.
↠ 1.5 stars
December 1, 2019
Biggest disappointment of the year.
The writing style was weird, Weir's "humor" was only based on his main character being female and the story was just boring.
Oh and the characters were as one dimensional as it can get.
I skipped a fair amount of pages and I rarely do that. That's how bored and annoyed I was.
The writing style was weird, Weir's "humor" was only based on his main character being female and the story was just boring.
Oh and the characters were as one dimensional as it can get.
I skipped a fair amount of pages and I rarely do that. That's how bored and annoyed I was.
September 10, 2020
Overall a decent read even though I had some issues with the book (listed below). And the rereading didn't unearth new plot holes (which it usually does!)
The good and the ugly: We start at 0! (I wanted to make this one more challenging than I usually do)
+ 1 star for the light-hearted banter: it actually made the readability factor go x2!
- 1 star for stupid sex ennuendos, promiscuity bashing or whatever that was that was going on with all the
+ 1 star for the world-building
+ 1 star for the readability
+ 1 star for the clear cut style
- 1 star for this gal's stupidity and total immaturity
+ 1 star for the science present (there was some of it, not all good, but some)
+ 1 star for the fact that we have got no loooong multipaged star drive building lectures (which often plagues the sci-fi)
+ 1 star for our heroes not giving lectures to each other on everyday to them things and rather referring to the reader with explanations
- 1 star for overall plot logic lacking in places, some things sounding especially harebrained: see my comlimentary rants below!
+ 1 star for economics considerations
- 1 star for nationalistic overgeneralizations, some pretty brutal (in my touchy view)
+ 1 star for getting some Russian/Ukrainian names right.
- 1 star for lame security considerations: see below the fire safety notes.
+1 star: After seeing what happens now with the seemingly endless fire tag between Siberia-California-Australia-California-Siberia, I think I'll add the fire safety star back. I don't think that we're doing it much better than those Mooners (?), Moonites? We're quite Moony here, on Earth, thank you!
-1 star for Gizmos being rather a pointless thing: what's the point of using names for those if one can easily go on switching identities and setting up new ones on the go?
So, the final overall is still 4 stars. And here go my complimentary rants:
Me is getting ANGRY! It drives me mad, when my writers do stupid things in their worldbuilding, ones EASILY avoidable!
Somehow, our misguided author decided that if people populate the Moon, they will freaking jump around on it due to gravity 6 times lower than on Earth! Just look at that:
1. Q: When you can’t get off the ground in the moon’s gravity, you are seriously out of it. (c)
2. Q: The pickup request was for a package approximately one hundred kilograms. No problem for me. I can lift twice that without breaking a sweat. Not many Earth gals can say that! Sure, they have six times the gravity to deal with, but that’s their problem. (c)
3. Q: Trond vaulted over the back of the couch (not as exciting as it sounds—remember the gravity here). (c)
4. Q: Stairwells in the core are just like stairwells on Earth—short little twenty-one-centimeter-high steps. It makes the tourists more comfortable. In areas that don’t get tourists, stairs are each a half meter high. That’s lunar gravity for you. Anyway, I hopped up the tourist stairs until I reached ground level. (c)
5. On Earth, Lene was confined to a wheelchair, but on the moon, she could easily move around on crutches. (c)
That is a stupid idea. In order to be able to get that benefit from that gravity and not just become weaker from weaker daily exersions, all people will have to do a lot (a freaking lot) of really heavy lifting (spread for all muscle groups), all the freaking time! Otherwise, their musculature will become used to the background tasks intensity, which is going to be 6 times lower in 1/6 g. So, we don't get a population that happily lugs around 100 Earth kg packages. Instead, we would get population panting with 24 Moon kg packages, equivalent to 4 Earth kg packages.
Additionally, they would probably develop some additional fenotypic unfortunate features, such as lower density of bones (which would render it problematic for them to go to Earth) and higher height.
Besides, a person who has lived on the Moon since she was 6, would probably be hard-pressed to be comparing the Moon and Earth gravities all the time. She would have been long since gotten used to Moon and gotten weaker over there with time.
The author acknowledges this stuff but only for just a bit: Q: You can’t gestate a baby in lunar gravity—it leads to birth defects. And you can’t raise a baby here, anyway. It’s terrible for bone and muscle development. When I moved here I was six years old—that was the minimum age for residency back then. Since then they’ve bumped it up to twelve. Should I be worried? (c)
And a bit more: Q: And if I got caught I’d get exiled to Earth. I probably couldn’t stand up on Earth, let alone live there. I’d been in lunar gravity since I was six. (c) If so, why all the hype about Moon grav? It wouldn't have been felt.
Q:
That’s how justice works around here. We don’t have jails or fines. If you commit a serious crime, we exile you to Earth. For everything else, there’s Rudy. (c)
Fire safety ideas:
Q:
Artemis doesn’t have a fire department. We have volunteers. But smoke and fire are so deadly here the volunteers have to know how to breathe with air tanks. So all EVA masters and EVA trainees are automatically volunteers. Yes, there’s an irony there.
...
The fire brigade, well trained, got on it immediately.
...
Artemis does not fuck around with fire safety.(c) Ok, this made me smile a bit. No, you don't have a fire department and still you get to tell you don't fuck with fire safety.
Q:
... Svoboda ... reached absently for his coffee. His hand passed three beakers of deadly acid before he grabbed the mug and took a sip. I swear that idiot’s going to kill himself someday. (c)He probably is also considered as not fucking with work safety.
Other fun stuff time:
Q:
And you could get any drink you wanted, as long as it was beer. (c)
Q:
That meant it was a secret. Now I really wanted to know what it was. Turns out I’m a nosy little shit. (c)
Q:
"After each use, you turn the condom inside-out and put it in this cylinder.."
"Ew."
"Then you turn on the cleaner. There's a liquid cleanse cycle and then a high temperature bake for ten minutes. After that it's sterile and ready to use again..."
"Oh God, no."
"You should probably rinse it off first.."
"Stop!" I said. "Why would anyone want something like this?
...
Hey, I could even give Svoboda’s condom a trial run. Why not?" (c) OMG. What's it with used stuff for sex and cleaning and popular authors? Is it the crisis? (Remember that used butt plugs cleaning discussion in 50 Shades of whatever #3? This one reads really close to that one!)
Q:
Billy, I’ve swallowed better-tasting stuff that came out of people. (c) Yeah, it's definitely the crisis. On the Moon, of all places.
Q:
“I can make a profit by selling these kits for three thousand slugs each.”
“Condoms only cost fifty slugs. Why would anyone buy this?”
...
“Do the math,” he said. “Normal condoms cost way too much. ... But my product will last through two hundred uses, minimum. That’s ten thousand slugs of savings.” (c) Yeah, DO the math. 50 slugs x 200 uses = 10 000 slugs saved. But if the contraption costs 3 000 slugs. So it's only the happy creator, who would save 10 000 slugs, the rest would save 10 000 - 3 000 = 7 000 slugs.
Q:
Irina opened the door and frowned at me like I’d just pissed in her borscht. (c) This is stupid perception. Russians don't smile all the time, that doesn't mean they are glum.
Q:
His daughter Lene sat next to him. (c) Writers should be licensed to use Russian/Ukraininan names only after proper research. Martin 'Svoboda' ('Freedom' from Russian & Ukrainian) was used as a name of one of the heroes. Well, at least it wasn't misspelled or something. The author got some names right and earned a major kudo for that from me.
Q:
I knew what I had to do—I just didn’t like it. I’d have to blow the remaining two at the same time.
Please don’t quote that last sentence out of context. (c) Uh-huh.
Q:
Her Swahili-accented English rolled so smoothly off her tongue I wanted to adopt her as my grandma right then and there. (c)
Q:
“I hear you failed your EVA exam.”
I groaned. “Does everyone in town know about that? Do you all meet up and talk about me when I’m not around or something?” (c)
And the plan-hatching is plain annoying! It went like this: Q:
“Okay,” I said. “I see where this is going….”
...
I don’t want to put people out of their jobs.”
...
“Okay, but I don’t know anything about harvesters.”
...
“Say, Trond, why is your company assembling harvesters?
...
“So it’s my problem to find a weakness in these things? I’m not an engineer.”
...
“Okay, but what happens if I get caught?”
...
“Why me? What makes you think I can even pull this off?”
“Jazz, I’m a businessman,” he said. “My whole job is exploiting underutilized resources. And you are a massively underutilized resource.”
...
“You could have been anything. Didn’t want to be a welder? No problem. You could have been a scientist. An engineer. A politician. A business leader. Anything. But you’re a porter.”
...
You’re really smart and you want money. ...(c) Oh, really. L is for Logic.
Q:
I pulled a chair toward me, spun it around, and straddled it.
...
“Do women know how sexy they look when they sit like that?”
“Of course.” (c)
Q:
But no idiot-proofing can overcome a determined idiot. There’s a flaw in the system. (c)
Q:
And like all good plans, it required a crazy Ukrainian guy. (c) Reads very... nationalistic and gloating? Especially considering that Ukrainians what, every 6? 10? years take apart the Kreschatik cobblestones and go on burning tyres and having general massive public fights to get a yet another of their misguided revolutions with view to have yet other thieves installed in the Rada and wherever. Which just illustrates the depth of planning... not. I do realise how stupid that must look to the world but I stillwill break your nose for bashing the Ukraine! like them, so that phrase is a major deal breaker for me.
Q:
the tracks never had to deal with the warping effects of weather (c) So not true. The temperature changes between 150 C and -200 C (or something like that) might be warping worse than weather.
Q:
About fifteen guys. They beat the shit out of him. He wouldn’t talk about it afterward, but I knew what it was about. It’s a thing people do here. It’s called a “morals brigade.”
...
And I knew he had other girls.
But I didn’t know he was screwing a fourteen-year-old.
We’ve got people from all over Earth here. Different cultures have very different sexual morals, so Artemis doesn’t have age-of-consent rules at all. As long as it’s not forced, it’s not rape. And the girl was consenting.
But we’re not savages here. (c) Seriously, WTF? I don't think any more contradictions might have fit in here.
Q:
I don’t know exactly how the conversation went, but I assume it was something like this:
Sanchez controllers: “Hey! Why are you fucking with our harvester?!”
EVA masters: “We’re not.”
Sanchez: “Well, someone is.”
EVA masters: “We’ll go kick their ass. Not because we care about you, but because we want to continue our stranglehold monopoly on EVAs. Also, we’re a bunch of assholes.”(c)
Q:
It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. And that’s a field of intense competition.(c)
Q:
What are they going to do? Kill me harder?(c)
Q:
Dad shook his hand. “One of those ‘friends with benefits’?”
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t do that, Dad. This may shock you, but I haven’t had sex with anyone in this whole room.”
“Well, it’s a small room.”(c)
Q:
I have a plan.”
“A plan?” He looked concerned. “Your plans are…uh…should I hide somewhere?”(c)
Q:
I didn’t want to spend any more time inside the mind of an economist. It was dark and disturbing.(c)
Q:
Difficult times, my friend, but there is a path. There must be. We will find it. (c)
Q:
I stopped at home and dropped off my Gizmo. Time to become Nuha Nejem.
...
Then he pointed to me. “Name?”
“Ah,” I said. I patted my own chest. “Nuha Nejem.”
He typed away on his computer. Yes, there was an account for Nuha Nejem, and no one had linked a Gizmo to it. It all made sense.
...
Everyone knew me at the port. I was there every day and my sparkling personality was hard to forget. That’s not ideal when you’re trying to sneak around. But today I wasn’t Jazz Bashara. I was Nuha Nejem, Saudi tourist.
...
Just as I had done with Nuha Nejem, I picked up a hotel Gizmo for Harpreet Singh. An Arab looks the same as an Indian to clueless hotel clerks.
Okay. Alias taken care of. I’d be Harpreet Singh for the foreseeable future. (c) I'm willing to dock stars off: this is LAX security protocol! Calm down, M. Calm down!
Q:
Nothing like a language barrier to make people leave you alone. (c)
Q:
“Ever wonder why that shit doesn’t get into town?” I pointed to my chest. “Because I don’t let it. No drugs, no guns. And I have a bunch of other rules too. I keep flammables to a minimum. And no live plants. Last thing we need is some weird mold infestation.”
“Yes, you’re very ethical, but—”
“What happens when I’m gone?” I asked. “Do you think smuggling will just stop? No. There’ll be a short power vacuum then someone else will take over. No idea who. But will they be as civic-minded as me? Probably not.” (c) Manipulative Jazz. Manipulative!
Q:
I could always make more money, but I couldn’t get un-deported. (c)
The good and the ugly: We start at 0! (I wanted to make this one more challenging than I usually do)
+ 1 star for the light-hearted banter: it actually made the readability factor go x2!
- 1 star for stupid sex ennuendos, promiscuity bashing or whatever that was that was going on with all the
+ 1 star for the world-building
+ 1 star for the readability
+ 1 star for the clear cut style
- 1 star for this gal's stupidity and total immaturity
+ 1 star for the science present (there was some of it, not all good, but some)
+ 1 star for the fact that we have got no loooong multipaged star drive building lectures (which often plagues the sci-fi)
+ 1 star for our heroes not giving lectures to each other on everyday to them things and rather referring to the reader with explanations
- 1 star for overall plot logic lacking in places, some things sounding especially harebrained: see my comlimentary rants below!
+ 1 star for economics considerations
- 1 star for nationalistic overgeneralizations, some pretty brutal (in my touchy view)
+ 1 star for getting some Russian/Ukrainian names right.
- 1 star for lame security considerations: see below the fire safety notes.
+1 star: After seeing what happens now with the seemingly endless fire tag between Siberia-California-Australia-California-Siberia, I think I'll add the fire safety star back. I don't think that we're doing it much better than those Mooners (?), Moonites? We're quite Moony here, on Earth, thank you!
-1 star for Gizmos being rather a pointless thing: what's the point of using names for those if one can easily go on switching identities and setting up new ones on the go?
So, the final overall is still 4 stars. And here go my complimentary rants:
Me is getting ANGRY! It drives me mad, when my writers do stupid things in their worldbuilding, ones EASILY avoidable!
Somehow, our misguided author decided that if people populate the Moon, they will freaking jump around on it due to gravity 6 times lower than on Earth! Just look at that:
1. Q: When you can’t get off the ground in the moon’s gravity, you are seriously out of it. (c)
2. Q: The pickup request was for a package approximately one hundred kilograms. No problem for me. I can lift twice that without breaking a sweat. Not many Earth gals can say that! Sure, they have six times the gravity to deal with, but that’s their problem. (c)
3. Q: Trond vaulted over the back of the couch (not as exciting as it sounds—remember the gravity here). (c)
4. Q: Stairwells in the core are just like stairwells on Earth—short little twenty-one-centimeter-high steps. It makes the tourists more comfortable. In areas that don’t get tourists, stairs are each a half meter high. That’s lunar gravity for you. Anyway, I hopped up the tourist stairs until I reached ground level. (c)
5. On Earth, Lene was confined to a wheelchair, but on the moon, she could easily move around on crutches. (c)
That is a stupid idea. In order to be able to get that benefit from that gravity and not just become weaker from weaker daily exersions, all people will have to do a lot (a freaking lot) of really heavy lifting (spread for all muscle groups), all the freaking time! Otherwise, their musculature will become used to the background tasks intensity, which is going to be 6 times lower in 1/6 g. So, we don't get a population that happily lugs around 100 Earth kg packages. Instead, we would get population panting with 24 Moon kg packages, equivalent to 4 Earth kg packages.
Additionally, they would probably develop some additional fenotypic unfortunate features, such as lower density of bones (which would render it problematic for them to go to Earth) and higher height.
Besides, a person who has lived on the Moon since she was 6, would probably be hard-pressed to be comparing the Moon and Earth gravities all the time. She would have been long since gotten used to Moon and gotten weaker over there with time.
The author acknowledges this stuff but only for just a bit: Q: You can’t gestate a baby in lunar gravity—it leads to birth defects. And you can’t raise a baby here, anyway. It’s terrible for bone and muscle development. When I moved here I was six years old—that was the minimum age for residency back then. Since then they’ve bumped it up to twelve. Should I be worried? (c)
And a bit more: Q: And if I got caught I’d get exiled to Earth. I probably couldn’t stand up on Earth, let alone live there. I’d been in lunar gravity since I was six. (c) If so, why all the hype about Moon grav? It wouldn't have been felt.
Q:
That’s how justice works around here. We don’t have jails or fines. If you commit a serious crime, we exile you to Earth. For everything else, there’s Rudy. (c)
Fire safety ideas:
Q:
Artemis doesn’t have a fire department. We have volunteers. But smoke and fire are so deadly here the volunteers have to know how to breathe with air tanks. So all EVA masters and EVA trainees are automatically volunteers. Yes, there’s an irony there.
...
The fire brigade, well trained, got on it immediately.
...
Artemis does not fuck around with fire safety.(c) Ok, this made me smile a bit. No, you don't have a fire department and still you get to tell you don't fuck with fire safety.
Q:
... Svoboda ... reached absently for his coffee. His hand passed three beakers of deadly acid before he grabbed the mug and took a sip. I swear that idiot’s going to kill himself someday. (c)He probably is also considered as not fucking with work safety.
Other fun stuff time:
Q:
And you could get any drink you wanted, as long as it was beer. (c)
Q:
That meant it was a secret. Now I really wanted to know what it was. Turns out I’m a nosy little shit. (c)
Q:
"After each use, you turn the condom inside-out and put it in this cylinder.."
"Ew."
"Then you turn on the cleaner. There's a liquid cleanse cycle and then a high temperature bake for ten minutes. After that it's sterile and ready to use again..."
"Oh God, no."
"You should probably rinse it off first.."
"Stop!" I said. "Why would anyone want something like this?
...
Hey, I could even give Svoboda’s condom a trial run. Why not?" (c) OMG. What's it with used stuff for sex and cleaning and popular authors? Is it the crisis? (Remember that used butt plugs cleaning discussion in 50 Shades of whatever #3? This one reads really close to that one!)
Q:
Billy, I’ve swallowed better-tasting stuff that came out of people. (c) Yeah, it's definitely the crisis. On the Moon, of all places.
Q:
“I can make a profit by selling these kits for three thousand slugs each.”
“Condoms only cost fifty slugs. Why would anyone buy this?”
...
“Do the math,” he said. “Normal condoms cost way too much. ... But my product will last through two hundred uses, minimum. That’s ten thousand slugs of savings.” (c) Yeah, DO the math. 50 slugs x 200 uses = 10 000 slugs saved. But if the contraption costs 3 000 slugs. So it's only the happy creator, who would save 10 000 slugs, the rest would save 10 000 - 3 000 = 7 000 slugs.
Q:
Irina opened the door and frowned at me like I’d just pissed in her borscht. (c) This is stupid perception. Russians don't smile all the time, that doesn't mean they are glum.
Q:
His daughter Lene sat next to him. (c) Writers should be licensed to use Russian/Ukraininan names only after proper research. Martin 'Svoboda' ('Freedom' from Russian & Ukrainian) was used as a name of one of the heroes. Well, at least it wasn't misspelled or something. The author got some names right and earned a major kudo for that from me.
Q:
I knew what I had to do—I just didn’t like it. I’d have to blow the remaining two at the same time.
Please don’t quote that last sentence out of context. (c) Uh-huh.
Q:
Her Swahili-accented English rolled so smoothly off her tongue I wanted to adopt her as my grandma right then and there. (c)
Q:
“I hear you failed your EVA exam.”
I groaned. “Does everyone in town know about that? Do you all meet up and talk about me when I’m not around or something?” (c)
And the plan-hatching is plain annoying! It went like this: Q:
“Okay,” I said. “I see where this is going….”
...
I don’t want to put people out of their jobs.”
...
“Okay, but I don’t know anything about harvesters.”
...
“Say, Trond, why is your company assembling harvesters?
...
“So it’s my problem to find a weakness in these things? I’m not an engineer.”
...
“Okay, but what happens if I get caught?”
...
“Why me? What makes you think I can even pull this off?”
“Jazz, I’m a businessman,” he said. “My whole job is exploiting underutilized resources. And you are a massively underutilized resource.”
...
“You could have been anything. Didn’t want to be a welder? No problem. You could have been a scientist. An engineer. A politician. A business leader. Anything. But you’re a porter.”
...
You’re really smart and you want money. ...(c) Oh, really. L is for Logic.
Q:
I pulled a chair toward me, spun it around, and straddled it.
...
“Do women know how sexy they look when they sit like that?”
“Of course.” (c)
Q:
But no idiot-proofing can overcome a determined idiot. There’s a flaw in the system. (c)
Q:
And like all good plans, it required a crazy Ukrainian guy. (c) Reads very... nationalistic and gloating? Especially considering that Ukrainians what, every 6? 10? years take apart the Kreschatik cobblestones and go on burning tyres and having general massive public fights to get a yet another of their misguided revolutions with view to have yet other thieves installed in the Rada and wherever. Which just illustrates the depth of planning... not. I do realise how stupid that must look to the world but I still
Q:
the tracks never had to deal with the warping effects of weather (c) So not true. The temperature changes between 150 C and -200 C (or something like that) might be warping worse than weather.
Q:
About fifteen guys. They beat the shit out of him. He wouldn’t talk about it afterward, but I knew what it was about. It’s a thing people do here. It’s called a “morals brigade.”
...
And I knew he had other girls.
But I didn’t know he was screwing a fourteen-year-old.
We’ve got people from all over Earth here. Different cultures have very different sexual morals, so Artemis doesn’t have age-of-consent rules at all. As long as it’s not forced, it’s not rape. And the girl was consenting.
But we’re not savages here. (c) Seriously, WTF? I don't think any more contradictions might have fit in here.
Q:
I don’t know exactly how the conversation went, but I assume it was something like this:
Sanchez controllers: “Hey! Why are you fucking with our harvester?!”
EVA masters: “We’re not.”
Sanchez: “Well, someone is.”
EVA masters: “We’ll go kick their ass. Not because we care about you, but because we want to continue our stranglehold monopoly on EVAs. Also, we’re a bunch of assholes.”(c)
Q:
It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. And that’s a field of intense competition.(c)
Q:
What are they going to do? Kill me harder?(c)
Q:
Dad shook his hand. “One of those ‘friends with benefits’?”
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t do that, Dad. This may shock you, but I haven’t had sex with anyone in this whole room.”
“Well, it’s a small room.”(c)
Q:
I have a plan.”
“A plan?” He looked concerned. “Your plans are…uh…should I hide somewhere?”(c)
Q:
I didn’t want to spend any more time inside the mind of an economist. It was dark and disturbing.(c)
Q:
Difficult times, my friend, but there is a path. There must be. We will find it. (c)
Q:
I stopped at home and dropped off my Gizmo. Time to become Nuha Nejem.
...
Then he pointed to me. “Name?”
“Ah,” I said. I patted my own chest. “Nuha Nejem.”
He typed away on his computer. Yes, there was an account for Nuha Nejem, and no one had linked a Gizmo to it. It all made sense.
...
Everyone knew me at the port. I was there every day and my sparkling personality was hard to forget. That’s not ideal when you’re trying to sneak around. But today I wasn’t Jazz Bashara. I was Nuha Nejem, Saudi tourist.
...
Just as I had done with Nuha Nejem, I picked up a hotel Gizmo for Harpreet Singh. An Arab looks the same as an Indian to clueless hotel clerks.
Okay. Alias taken care of. I’d be Harpreet Singh for the foreseeable future. (c) I'm willing to dock stars off: this is LAX security protocol! Calm down, M. Calm down!
Q:
Nothing like a language barrier to make people leave you alone. (c)
Q:
“Ever wonder why that shit doesn’t get into town?” I pointed to my chest. “Because I don’t let it. No drugs, no guns. And I have a bunch of other rules too. I keep flammables to a minimum. And no live plants. Last thing we need is some weird mold infestation.”
“Yes, you’re very ethical, but—”
“What happens when I’m gone?” I asked. “Do you think smuggling will just stop? No. There’ll be a short power vacuum then someone else will take over. No idea who. But will they be as civic-minded as me? Probably not.” (c) Manipulative Jazz. Manipulative!
Q:
I could always make more money, but I couldn’t get un-deported. (c)
December 22, 2022
I had huge expectations when I picked up this book to read. Even though Mark Witney was annoying at times in the book "The Martian," I simply loved that book and its silver screen version.
If a male author is trying to write a novel from a female perspective with a female protagonist coming from a different culture, he will have to be familiar with specific behavior and personality traits of women and about their culture. Andy Weir just tried to create a character like Mark Witney and gave her a female name, Jazz Bashara.
Sex is described in it in one of the worst ways I have seen in any works of fiction. The way Jazz tells us about her sex life was utterly dismaying. Many unnecessary sexist jokes and comparisons will make you cringe.
“The city shined in the sunlight like a bunch of metallic boobs. What? I'm not a poet. They look like boobs.”
The way Jazz tries to play down the cheating of her ex-boyfriend to a 14-year-old girl saying that moon doesn't have an age of consent because lots of people have different morals is pretty messed up. I felt like the female protagonist doesn't care at all about the pedophilic act of her ex towards a young girl.
The author ironically tries to give you a class on how to use profanities.
“It’s important to vary your profanities. If you use the same one too often it loses strength."
Jazz is a Muslim woman from Saudi Arabia. But she doesn't practice anything related to Islam. It is a personal preference for a person to decide whether to practice their religion, and we have to respect that. But that doesn't give her the right to talk about niqab as a disguise to carry out criminal activity.
"Great way to wear a mask without arousing suspicion."
This book is toxic, sexist, slut-shaming, and racist. I was disappointed just after 30 pages into it and was utterly shocked after finishing it. I have no clue what Andy Weir was thinking while writing this book.
February 11, 2019
Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.
Artemis is a bit of a ruffian. It's a chemistry-centric novel that sees myriad genres marrying together into a hard-edged, unrefined heist novel with action, adventure and splashes of mystery. Gone is the seriousness and grand stakes of its predecessor, The Martian, and in its place is a book with significantly lower stakes and a slightly controversial protagonist.
Jazz Bashara is a rogue, smart and capable and liable to be found slinging back drinks with her guy buddies. When the perfect crime presents itself, Jazz doesn't go running for the authorities. She's a woman of questionable morals; she sees opportunity rather than wrongdoing, making her something of a female Indiana Jones.
Artemis' two greatest flaws are the controversial nature of its sometimes-likable, sometimes-detestable female protagonist, and it suffers the same problem as stories like Rogue One in that it sees one strong female lead surrounded by loads of men, with one or more of them keen on her looks (and personality, presumably).
But, if not taken too seriously, and approached without expecting the satisfaction found in reading The Martian, Artemis is a good candy book, a quick and easy treat to enjoy between more serious reads.
Artemis is a bit of a ruffian. It's a chemistry-centric novel that sees myriad genres marrying together into a hard-edged, unrefined heist novel with action, adventure and splashes of mystery. Gone is the seriousness and grand stakes of its predecessor, The Martian, and in its place is a book with significantly lower stakes and a slightly controversial protagonist.
Jazz Bashara is a rogue, smart and capable and liable to be found slinging back drinks with her guy buddies. When the perfect crime presents itself, Jazz doesn't go running for the authorities. She's a woman of questionable morals; she sees opportunity rather than wrongdoing, making her something of a female Indiana Jones.
Artemis' two greatest flaws are the controversial nature of its sometimes-likable, sometimes-detestable female protagonist, and it suffers the same problem as stories like Rogue One in that it sees one strong female lead surrounded by loads of men, with one or more of them keen on her looks (and personality, presumably).
But, if not taken too seriously, and approached without expecting the satisfaction found in reading The Martian, Artemis is a good candy book, a quick and easy treat to enjoy between more serious reads.
October 13, 2017
I never read The Martian but am aware that it is a hugely popular book and movie. I don't read much science fiction but I loved Artemis. Weir goes into a lot of depth and detail in his world building of a city on the moon that has adopted Kenyan time, with its 5 bubbles named after famous astronauts with their own distinct identities and linked by tunnels. What made this book such a great read for me is the complex character of 26 year old Jazz Bashara, a woman that breaks every stereotype of a Muslim Saudi Arabian female. She works as a lowly porter with a sideline in earning extra slugs (currency) from smuggling goods for her customers. She is intelligent, sassy, witty, knows how to hold a grudge and is funny. She has the street smarts to be so much more than a porter, but she is drawn to testing herself outside the conventional boundaries of society and sidestepping the expectations others have for her, particularly her father. For her, the thrill is in the challenge and the smuggling allows her to supplement her meager earnings as a porter which allows only for her to reside in a 'coffin', where she can sleep, but otherwise has to share communal facilities with others.
The wealthy Trond Lanvik is looking to acquire Sanchez Aluminium through underhand means and offers Jazz a million slugs to sabotage the company. Jazz is immediately drawn to the proposal because she wants somewhere better to live and more. She comes up with a plan that she is only partially successful in executing. It soon hits her that she has taken on more than she can chew as she comes to discover two murders and realises she is the killer's next target. This means she has to go underground and move amongst the shadows whilst she tries to understand what is going on and escape being killed. To her horror, she finds herself entangled with the Brazilian mob, and has to foil the looming threats to the community of Artemis. So armed with her outlandish and borderline crazy (lunatic?) ideas, and the help of those closest to her, Jazz finds herself in toxic and dangerous territory where the lives of all on Artemis is at stake.
Weir draws up a great supporting cast for Jazz in this tense and suspenseful lunar thriller. There is Jewish Evo guide Dale, gay and desperate to get back in Jazz's good books after a personal betrayal. Jazz and her father have a complicated relationship, which given her rebellious streak, is no surprise, but Weir subtly reveals the depth of their connection and love for each other, despite all that stands between them. Ukrainian Martin Svoboda, a technical whizz, is socially awkward but his commitment to Jazz left me hoping that their relationship would become something more. This is a fantastic read, and I hope Andy Weir has plans to revive Jazz as a character in the future. Many thanks to Random House Ebury for an ARC.
The wealthy Trond Lanvik is looking to acquire Sanchez Aluminium through underhand means and offers Jazz a million slugs to sabotage the company. Jazz is immediately drawn to the proposal because she wants somewhere better to live and more. She comes up with a plan that she is only partially successful in executing. It soon hits her that she has taken on more than she can chew as she comes to discover two murders and realises she is the killer's next target. This means she has to go underground and move amongst the shadows whilst she tries to understand what is going on and escape being killed. To her horror, she finds herself entangled with the Brazilian mob, and has to foil the looming threats to the community of Artemis. So armed with her outlandish and borderline crazy (lunatic?) ideas, and the help of those closest to her, Jazz finds herself in toxic and dangerous territory where the lives of all on Artemis is at stake.
Weir draws up a great supporting cast for Jazz in this tense and suspenseful lunar thriller. There is Jewish Evo guide Dale, gay and desperate to get back in Jazz's good books after a personal betrayal. Jazz and her father have a complicated relationship, which given her rebellious streak, is no surprise, but Weir subtly reveals the depth of their connection and love for each other, despite all that stands between them. Ukrainian Martin Svoboda, a technical whizz, is socially awkward but his commitment to Jazz left me hoping that their relationship would become something more. This is a fantastic read, and I hope Andy Weir has plans to revive Jazz as a character in the future. Many thanks to Random House Ebury for an ARC.
December 6, 2017
Did a bunch of male redditor stereotypes get together and create a "sexy" protagonist and write this? Because that's what it felt like.
It's a no from me. Video review will be up next week :D
Edit/Note: I go on reddit every single day. I was making a joke that the protagonist felt like a cliche of what men want women to be like. It's not an awful book. I just had a few issues with the plot/pacing I'll talk about in my video review.
It's a no from me. Video review will be up next week :D
Edit/Note: I go on reddit every single day. I was making a joke that the protagonist felt like a cliche of what men want women to be like. It's not an awful book. I just had a few issues with the plot/pacing I'll talk about in my video review.
August 23, 2017
I'm between 3 and 3.5 stars here.
Although it has been a few years since Andy Weir published The Martian , he hasn't been missing from the literary world, thanks to his sharing a number of free super-short stories with the reading public. ( Annie's Day remains my favorite of the bunch.) Even so, I was anxious for him to come out with a new novel.
Artemis is the first city on the moon. While wealthy tourists get to experience the city's luxuries, for the ordinary citizens living there, it's almost like any other city—the struggles between the haves and have-nots, corruption, violence, crime, the usual. (Almost like any other city except for the gravity, and the fact that everything is encased in bubble-type structures to keep the extreme radiation and space dust out.)
Jazz Bashara is a low-level porter on Artemis. She longs for a better life but doesn't have the motivation to do anything more than what she does, even though she has the brains and the talent for much more. Instead, she ekes out a living as a criminal, smuggling in contraband from Earth for anyone willing to pay her. She doesn't care that it's wrong; in fact, she's more than a little proud to be gaming the system.
One day, one of Jazz's wealthy regular customers offers her a part in a scheme that seems almost too good to be true, but her part of the spoils would be enough to give her the type of life she has always dreamed of. Of course, what seems too good to be true usually is, and it isn't long before Jazz realizes she's in the middle of something much bigger than a get-rich-quick scheme—there's corruption, and people are willing to go to any lengths to protect what they believe is theirs. Jazz is going to need more than just her street smarts if she's going to survive this.
Jazz is a pretty fascinating character. She's pretty tough, smart, wily, and not embarrassed about her sexuality or her general laziness. She knows she could achieve more, but for the most part, she isn't motivated to do so through legal channels. I love the fact that Weir created a multi-cultural cast of characters without batting an eye—Jazz is a Saudi Arabian Muslim (albeit non-practicing), and there are characters from different races, religions, cultures, and sexual orientations that don't adhere to stereotypes.
Until I read Artemis , I somehow forgot how science-heavy The Martian was. But while all that science seemed to work in The Martian it seemed to weigh this book down a bit. (And no, it wasn't the gravity.) Weir has created quite a world, and certainly the descriptions helped paint the scene, but I felt at times the lengthy scientific diatribes pulled the plot off course.
The other thing that frustrated me about the book is the fact that Jazz speaks and thinks like a teenage boy. Even though you're rooting for her, after a while her lack of maturity started to grate on me.
Those criticisms notwithstanding, Weir knows how to tell a story. Even though I thought the caper (and that's the best word to describe the scheme Jazz finds herself in) was a little silly, I couldn't stop reading Artemis . It's a fun and interesting book, and you have to wonder how close to reality Weir's vision of life on the moon will come, if it ever becomes a reality.
NetGalley and Crown Publishing provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Although it has been a few years since Andy Weir published The Martian , he hasn't been missing from the literary world, thanks to his sharing a number of free super-short stories with the reading public. ( Annie's Day remains my favorite of the bunch.) Even so, I was anxious for him to come out with a new novel.
Artemis is the first city on the moon. While wealthy tourists get to experience the city's luxuries, for the ordinary citizens living there, it's almost like any other city—the struggles between the haves and have-nots, corruption, violence, crime, the usual. (Almost like any other city except for the gravity, and the fact that everything is encased in bubble-type structures to keep the extreme radiation and space dust out.)
Jazz Bashara is a low-level porter on Artemis. She longs for a better life but doesn't have the motivation to do anything more than what she does, even though she has the brains and the talent for much more. Instead, she ekes out a living as a criminal, smuggling in contraband from Earth for anyone willing to pay her. She doesn't care that it's wrong; in fact, she's more than a little proud to be gaming the system.
One day, one of Jazz's wealthy regular customers offers her a part in a scheme that seems almost too good to be true, but her part of the spoils would be enough to give her the type of life she has always dreamed of. Of course, what seems too good to be true usually is, and it isn't long before Jazz realizes she's in the middle of something much bigger than a get-rich-quick scheme—there's corruption, and people are willing to go to any lengths to protect what they believe is theirs. Jazz is going to need more than just her street smarts if she's going to survive this.
Jazz is a pretty fascinating character. She's pretty tough, smart, wily, and not embarrassed about her sexuality or her general laziness. She knows she could achieve more, but for the most part, she isn't motivated to do so through legal channels. I love the fact that Weir created a multi-cultural cast of characters without batting an eye—Jazz is a Saudi Arabian Muslim (albeit non-practicing), and there are characters from different races, religions, cultures, and sexual orientations that don't adhere to stereotypes.
Until I read Artemis , I somehow forgot how science-heavy The Martian was. But while all that science seemed to work in The Martian it seemed to weigh this book down a bit. (And no, it wasn't the gravity.) Weir has created quite a world, and certainly the descriptions helped paint the scene, but I felt at times the lengthy scientific diatribes pulled the plot off course.
The other thing that frustrated me about the book is the fact that Jazz speaks and thinks like a teenage boy. Even though you're rooting for her, after a while her lack of maturity started to grate on me.
Those criticisms notwithstanding, Weir knows how to tell a story. Even though I thought the caper (and that's the best word to describe the scheme Jazz finds herself in) was a little silly, I couldn't stop reading Artemis . It's a fun and interesting book, and you have to wonder how close to reality Weir's vision of life on the moon will come, if it ever becomes a reality.
NetGalley and Crown Publishing provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
November 15, 2017
On sale today! 3.25 stars - sadly, I'm dropping down from my initial "soft" 4 star rating, on further reflection. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Life in Artemis, the only human city on the moon, is rough for Jasmine Bashara, a 26 year old delivery person, smuggler, and would-be tourist guide. She fails her EVA (extravehicular activity) Guild exam in, literally, breathtaking fashion; she’s somewhat estranged from her welder father, to whom she owes a huge personal debt; she’s living alone in a tiny, claustrophobia-inducing capsule room; she barely gets by on her payments as a porter (supplemented by some judicious smuggling activity). But Jazz wouldn’t want to live any other place ― certainly not on Earth ― and she’s determined to make a success of her life, with no help from anyone.
So when Trond Landvik, one of the wealthiest people on the moon and a regular customer for Jazz’s smuggled luxuries, offers her a million “slugs” (moon currency) to do a highly illegal sabotage job, Jazz can’t resist. Trond’s intention is to disrupt Sanchez Aluminum’s production of oxygen for long enough that he can take over the business, for reasons he’s cagey about. The job requires Jazz to sneak out of the domed city of Artemis (tough when all comings and goings out of the city’s four airlocks are constantly monitored) and take out four massive anorthite harvester machines. Jazz is both brilliant and determined, and comes up with a complicated scheme worthy of Mark Watney. But the plan doesn’t work out quite the way she intended, organized crime elements get involved, and suddenly it’s a life-and-death situation for Jazz.
Artemis (2017), Andy Weir’s just-published second novel, didn’t engage me nearly to the extent The Martian did, but it’s action-packed and ― once the crimes finally get rolling ― compulsively readable. There’s a complex crime caper on the moon and lots of geeky hard science details. The domed moon city setting is laid out with a great deal attention to detail; Weir’s world (or moon)-building is fairly elaborate, if not fleshed out quite as completely as I would have liked. I suppose something had to give to work in all the science facts and the too often cringe-worthy jokes.
The cast of characters in Artemis is highly diverse, beginning with Jazz herself, a rebellious Arab young woman protagonist. She’s Muslim in heritage, though non-religious and sexually active. Artemis’ government is controlled by Kenya, with a female administrator, and its population is a cross-section of several Earth nationalities. One of Jazz’s friends is gay, though their relationship’s been on the rocks since he “stole” Jazz’s former boyfriend away from her ― ouch. Jazz also has had a Kenyan pen pal since she was nine years old; their mildly interesting letters provide interludes at the end of each chapter, giving us some background information regarding Jazz’s past, and gradually tying back into Jazz’s present circumstances.
Unfortunately, characterization isn’t otherwise a strong point in Artemis. Jazz’s juvenile, snarky personality frequently irritated me. She’s a genius ― when motivated, she picks up electronics design and the chemistry underlying high-temperature smelting with a few quick hours of study ― but she often acts in childish, petulant ways because of her pride and rebelliousness. Her character and fondness for crude jokes makes Jazz read more like a teenage boy than a woman in her mid-twenties. Her mantra in life seems to be “nobody can tell me what to do.” Jazz gradually gains a sliver of wisdom and redemption, but it’s limited. The secondary characters are (mostly) appealing personalities, but easily recognizable and one-dimensional types.
Artemis’s crime caper plot is also a more standard and familiar one; the novel as a whole just isn’t as fresh or compelling as The Martian. While the hard science details aren’t given short shrift, they flow less smoothly in Artemis than in The Martian, bogging down the pace somewhat. However, Weir is clearly making an effort to expand his horizons: along with the greater diversity, the reader is also treated to lessons in wealth inequality, economics, and sciences like welding and smelting. Duct tape even makes a brief but memorable appearance in the plot, in a mic drop scene sure to be appreciated by fans of The Martian.
In the end, Artemis was a reasonably engaging story, but Weir’s shortcomings as an author are more apparent here, with the less gripping plot, than they were in The Martian. Whether you’ll enjoy Artemis depends, I think, upon your affinity (or tolerance) for complex crime caper plots, immature protagonists, and an abundance of technical science.
I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher and NetGalley for review. Thanks!
Content note: Somewhat frequent F-bombs; sexually active main character .
Life in Artemis, the only human city on the moon, is rough for Jasmine Bashara, a 26 year old delivery person, smuggler, and would-be tourist guide. She fails her EVA (extravehicular activity) Guild exam in, literally, breathtaking fashion; she’s somewhat estranged from her welder father, to whom she owes a huge personal debt; she’s living alone in a tiny, claustrophobia-inducing capsule room; she barely gets by on her payments as a porter (supplemented by some judicious smuggling activity). But Jazz wouldn’t want to live any other place ― certainly not on Earth ― and she’s determined to make a success of her life, with no help from anyone.
So when Trond Landvik, one of the wealthiest people on the moon and a regular customer for Jazz’s smuggled luxuries, offers her a million “slugs” (moon currency) to do a highly illegal sabotage job, Jazz can’t resist. Trond’s intention is to disrupt Sanchez Aluminum’s production of oxygen for long enough that he can take over the business, for reasons he’s cagey about. The job requires Jazz to sneak out of the domed city of Artemis (tough when all comings and goings out of the city’s four airlocks are constantly monitored) and take out four massive anorthite harvester machines. Jazz is both brilliant and determined, and comes up with a complicated scheme worthy of Mark Watney. But the plan doesn’t work out quite the way she intended, organized crime elements get involved, and suddenly it’s a life-and-death situation for Jazz.
Artemis (2017), Andy Weir’s just-published second novel, didn’t engage me nearly to the extent The Martian did, but it’s action-packed and ― once the crimes finally get rolling ― compulsively readable. There’s a complex crime caper on the moon and lots of geeky hard science details. The domed moon city setting is laid out with a great deal attention to detail; Weir’s world (or moon)-building is fairly elaborate, if not fleshed out quite as completely as I would have liked. I suppose something had to give to work in all the science facts and the too often cringe-worthy jokes.
The cast of characters in Artemis is highly diverse, beginning with Jazz herself, a rebellious Arab young woman protagonist. She’s Muslim in heritage, though non-religious and sexually active. Artemis’ government is controlled by Kenya, with a female administrator, and its population is a cross-section of several Earth nationalities. One of Jazz’s friends is gay, though their relationship’s been on the rocks since he “stole” Jazz’s former boyfriend away from her ― ouch. Jazz also has had a Kenyan pen pal since she was nine years old; their mildly interesting letters provide interludes at the end of each chapter, giving us some background information regarding Jazz’s past, and gradually tying back into Jazz’s present circumstances.
Unfortunately, characterization isn’t otherwise a strong point in Artemis. Jazz’s juvenile, snarky personality frequently irritated me. She’s a genius ― when motivated, she picks up electronics design and the chemistry underlying high-temperature smelting with a few quick hours of study ― but she often acts in childish, petulant ways because of her pride and rebelliousness. Her character and fondness for crude jokes makes Jazz read more like a teenage boy than a woman in her mid-twenties. Her mantra in life seems to be “nobody can tell me what to do.” Jazz gradually gains a sliver of wisdom and redemption, but it’s limited. The secondary characters are (mostly) appealing personalities, but easily recognizable and one-dimensional types.
Artemis’s crime caper plot is also a more standard and familiar one; the novel as a whole just isn’t as fresh or compelling as The Martian. While the hard science details aren’t given short shrift, they flow less smoothly in Artemis than in The Martian, bogging down the pace somewhat. However, Weir is clearly making an effort to expand his horizons: along with the greater diversity, the reader is also treated to lessons in wealth inequality, economics, and sciences like welding and smelting. Duct tape even makes a brief but memorable appearance in the plot, in a mic drop scene sure to be appreciated by fans of The Martian.
In the end, Artemis was a reasonably engaging story, but Weir’s shortcomings as an author are more apparent here, with the less gripping plot, than they were in The Martian. Whether you’ll enjoy Artemis depends, I think, upon your affinity (or tolerance) for complex crime caper plots, immature protagonists, and an abundance of technical science.
I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher and NetGalley for review. Thanks!
Content note: Somewhat frequent F-bombs; sexually active main character .
February 25, 2021
The Moon... during the futuristic years , the 2080's, set on its only city Artemis ( ancient Greek goddess of the Moon), granted not much in comparison to Earth's urban centers, just 2,000 people living inside five crowded, connected spheres (bubbles), mostly underground, small living spaces, few parks, little hotels for the tourists, entertainment essentially non- existent... The views largely obstructed; outside a black night, as a gigantic half Earth above slowly transverse the sky ...shall we say a dull experience for the Artemisians...don't call them Loonies. Our main character is Jasmine (Jazz) Bashara, brought to this satellite by her devout Muslim father, Ammar, when six, from Saudi Arabia, her mother is somewhere on the third planet. At 26 , she speaks like a foul mouth boy of 15, drinking, not very religious, seeing many men, a bit wild, obviously estranged from her parent, the one Jazz has known and loved since a child. You may believe a trip to the Moon would be a voyage of a lifetime, save your money, rather dull in fact. Not much to see but the Apollo 11 landing site, this is the Sea of Tranquility and the city just a few miles away, no coincidence ...the spheres, all are named after American astronauts. The Flag is buried under grayish moon dust, like the rest of this world though, and none have touched it in more than a century. The excited tourists love taking the 25 miles train ride to the Visitor Center and look reverently , the brave, an EVA for a closer view. Still the constant space liners from their good neighbor, the Blue Globe, bring prosperous people, unlike other sci-fi books about this planet, they continue to be alive and thriving in the late 21st century...Jazz is not happy living in a tiny room where she can't even stand-up , no bathroom, she needs to go down the hall hoping it isn't occupied, sleeping in a bed so minuscule, they're nicknamed coffins, no kitchen, basically a hole in the wall, would you ? The corporation who ruled here is from Kenya, but the inhabitants are from every part of Earth. I wonder where is China, Russia, the U.S. , Japan, Europe and the others, a strange monopoly of a potentially lucrative asset and a strategic territory too, but I regress...Jazz is no model citizen, if they declared this a country, which cleverly the people of Luna do not, politically a wise decision, she pretends to be a porter, in reality a smuggler of contraband, cigars, liquor, machinery, anything but guns and hard drugs, (even petty criminals have standards) as the freighters, space liners arrive from Terra , and soon comes along a fabulous opportunity , to score big , she will not turn down. A shady Billionaire, Trond Landvik, with a crippled daughter, Lene, the low gravity enables her to walk with crutches there, or jump ten feet in the air, ( no wonder the rich man lives here ).He has a plan, quite daring and very illegal to destroy a factory of a business rival, yes the Moon is like Earth, a little tricky though, this building is located outside on the lunar surface, less than a mile from Artemis, and makes all the air for the city...not to worry, maybe, a hidden supply is nearby, he says... unbeknownst the owners are Brazilian mobsters, ouch. Jazz needs help, a bashful scientist friend, the brilliant Martin Svoboda and others to make her a million slugs, lunar money... Some will look at the Moon and declare it is ugly others beautiful, nevertheless the imagination conquers everything, for nothing is more interesting to the reader, than what can be, or should be ...books are our ship to the stars...
February 24, 2020
Better than The Martian--and I LOVED The Martian! Like Weir's last blockbuster novel, Artemis is essentially a science textbook hidden within an enthralling sci-fi adventure. Full of personality and geek-out moments, it may not be for everyone, but even if you're just 10% into science you're going to love this book.
The whole cast of characters are brilliantly drawn and the imaginary moon city is so believable it barely reads as science fiction. The action starts right away and never lets up. Easily one of my fave science fiction reads, if not an all-time favorite.
Full disclosure: I listened to the audio and the narrator was phenomenal. Not sure if I would be as enthusiastic without that experience.
The whole cast of characters are brilliantly drawn and the imaginary moon city is so believable it barely reads as science fiction. The action starts right away and never lets up. Easily one of my fave science fiction reads, if not an all-time favorite.
Full disclosure: I listened to the audio and the narrator was phenomenal. Not sure if I would be as enthusiastic without that experience.
October 26, 2021
2ish stars.
Right off the bat I'll just say, I think the first half of this book is awful. It was like Weir conceded that plot set-up and characterization are things that novels should include, so he gave it his best shot and attempted to cover up his lack of ability in those areas by making lots and lots of (middle school) jokes. Once the heist starts, the action kicks in, and the surprisingly believable and interesting technical, science-y bits come into play, the book hits its stride and shows off Weir's strengths. It ends on a high note, so much so that I initially rated it 3.5 because I was left with such a good taste in my mouth. In hindsight, reflecting on the book as a whole, it's really not that good.
I've read that Weir realizes that characterization isn't his greatest strength and that he'd rather focus on the story, which is fine! If the story is engaging enough, it can absolutely balance the lack of strong character work. Why, then, does Weir try so hard to make the protagonist, Jazz, seem clever, and oh-so-cool, and brilliant, but too badass to care about living up to her obviously enormous potential, and oh yeah, she has a lot of sex, too, and she's super hot, but she just likes to chill because she's just one of the guys, your typical, relatable dudebro. But also she's a girl. How do we know she's a girl? Because she says so. A lot.
Anyway, once all of the characterization yadda yadda yadda is out of the way, the story itself ends up being exciting and a lot of fun. There's a ton of welding which, um, gets old eventually, but mostly the technical detail is interesting and contributes to the overall enjoyment level. The setting (a moon colony) is also pretty cool and Weir does a good job of making it feel real. There's tension and action and science in this science fiction. Unfortunately it's burdened down by the author himself exposing his very apparent weaknesses.
Posted in Mr. Philip's Library
Right off the bat I'll just say, I think the first half of this book is awful. It was like Weir conceded that plot set-up and characterization are things that novels should include, so he gave it his best shot and attempted to cover up his lack of ability in those areas by making lots and lots of (middle school) jokes. Once the heist starts, the action kicks in, and the surprisingly believable and interesting technical, science-y bits come into play, the book hits its stride and shows off Weir's strengths. It ends on a high note, so much so that I initially rated it 3.5 because I was left with such a good taste in my mouth. In hindsight, reflecting on the book as a whole, it's really not that good.
I've read that Weir realizes that characterization isn't his greatest strength and that he'd rather focus on the story, which is fine! If the story is engaging enough, it can absolutely balance the lack of strong character work. Why, then, does Weir try so hard to make the protagonist, Jazz, seem clever, and oh-so-cool, and brilliant, but too badass to care about living up to her obviously enormous potential, and oh yeah, she has a lot of sex, too, and she's super hot, but she just likes to chill because she's just one of the guys, your typical, relatable dudebro. But also she's a girl. How do we know she's a girl? Because she says so. A lot.
“I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I’m a girl, so I’m allowed.”All of the secondary characters are indistinguishable from one another except for the various races, nationalities, sexual identities, genders that they're assigned by Weir. None of these traits are ever actually evident in how the characters are portrayed, it just feels like Weir thought it would be good to have a diverse cast. Does it count as representation just because we're told that so-and-so is gay, or Irish, or Muslim? I'm not sure.
Anyway, once all of the characterization yadda yadda yadda is out of the way, the story itself ends up being exciting and a lot of fun. There's a ton of welding which, um, gets old eventually, but mostly the technical detail is interesting and contributes to the overall enjoyment level. The setting (a moon colony) is also pretty cool and Weir does a good job of making it feel real. There's tension and action and science in this science fiction. Unfortunately it's burdened down by the author himself exposing his very apparent weaknesses.
Posted in Mr. Philip's Library
May 6, 2022
Artemis, Andy Weir
In Artemis, the first city on the Moon, porter and part-time smuggler Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara is offered an opportunity by a regular client, wealthy businessman Trond Landvik, to assist him with a new business venture. While meeting with Trond, Jazz briefly encounters an associate of his named Jin Chu who attempts to conceal a case marked with the name ZAFO. Trond intends to take over Sanchez Aluminum, which currently enjoys a lucrative permanent contract with the city for free energy in exchange for providing the city's entire oxygen supply as a by-product from aluminum production. ...
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «آرتمیس»؛ «آرتمیس: در اولین شهر مسکونی که بشر در کره ماه ساخته چه میگذرد؟»؛ نویسنده اندی وییر (ویر)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز بیست و نهم ماه مارس سال2019میلادی
عنوان: آرتمیس؛ نویسنده: اندی وییر؛ مترجم: حسین شهرابی؛ تهران، نشر کتابسرای تندیس، سال1397؛ در392ص؛ شابک9786001823329؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده21م
عنوان: آرتمیس: در اولین شهر مسکونی که بشر در کره ماه ساخته چه میگذرد؟ نویسنده: اندی ویر؛ مترجم کاوه نگارش؛ تهران، نشر پژواک کیوان، سال1397؛ در562ص؛ شابک9786009776221؛
کتاب «آرتمیس»، رمانی علمی و خیال انگیز نوشته ی «اندی وییر» است، که نخستین بار در سال2017میلادی وارد بازار نشر شد؛ داستان در مورد یک قاچاقچی به نام «جزمین باشارا» است که خود را در میان یک توطئه خطرناک در شهر اقماری «آرتمیس» مییابد؛ (به شهرهای کوچکی که در اطراف شهرهای بزرگ و با هدفهای گوناگون از جمله تمرکز زدایی احداث گردیده اند یا وجود داشته اند شهرهای اقماری میگویند)؛
نقل نمونه متن از کتاب: («جَز باشارا»، یک تبهکار است؛ البته به نوعی؛ اگر گردشگری ثروتمند یا میلیاردری عجیب و غریب نباشید، زندگی روی آرتمیس، اولین و تنها شهر روی ماه، میتواند کاملاً سخت باشد؛ پس جابجا کردن کالاهای قاچاق، آن هم گاهی اوقات، خیلی جُرم بزرگی به حساب نمیآید، اینطور نیست؟ تازه آن هم وقتی که باید بدهیهایتان را بپردازید، و شغلتان هم پول چندانی نصیبتان نمیکند، که بتوانید اجاره ی خانه را پرداخت کنید؛ همه چیز تغییر میکند زمانی که «جَز»، فرصت ارتکاب جرم بزرگی را به دست میآورد، که آنقدر پرمنفعت است، که نمیتوان از آن چشم پوشید؛ اما دست و پنجه نرم کردن با کارهای غیرممکن، تازه آغاز مشکلات اوست؛ «جَز» با پیشروی داستان درمییابد، که وارد دسیسه ای برای کنترل کل آرتمیس شده، و حالا، تنها شانسش برای زنده ماندن، به بازی شطرنج گونه ای بستگی دارد، که حتی از تحت کنترل درآوردن آرتمیس نیز، مخاطره آمیزتر است.»؛ «از یک تا حمله به روسیه توی زمستون، این نقشه چقدر احمقانه ست؟»؛ «این، یه نقشه ی ساده ی ضد احمقه که خیلی هم موثره؛ اما هیچ سیستم ضد-احمقی نمیتونه جلوی یه احمق مصمم رو بگیره»؛ «راستی، ما از این هم بدمون میآد، وقتی آدما به آرتمیس میگن شهر توی فضا؛ ما توی فضا نیستیم، روی ماهیم؛ منظورم اینه که اگه بخوایم درست بهش نگاه کنیم توی فضا هستیم، اما این شرایط رو لندن هم داره»)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانس 14/04/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 15/02/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
In Artemis, the first city on the Moon, porter and part-time smuggler Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara is offered an opportunity by a regular client, wealthy businessman Trond Landvik, to assist him with a new business venture. While meeting with Trond, Jazz briefly encounters an associate of his named Jin Chu who attempts to conceal a case marked with the name ZAFO. Trond intends to take over Sanchez Aluminum, which currently enjoys a lucrative permanent contract with the city for free energy in exchange for providing the city's entire oxygen supply as a by-product from aluminum production. ...
عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «آرتمیس»؛ «آرتمیس: در اولین شهر مسکونی که بشر در کره ماه ساخته چه میگذرد؟»؛ نویسنده اندی وییر (ویر)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز بیست و نهم ماه مارس سال2019میلادی
عنوان: آرتمیس؛ نویسنده: اندی وییر؛ مترجم: حسین شهرابی؛ تهران، نشر کتابسرای تندیس، سال1397؛ در392ص؛ شابک9786001823329؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده21م
عنوان: آرتمیس: در اولین شهر مسکونی که بشر در کره ماه ساخته چه میگذرد؟ نویسنده: اندی ویر؛ مترجم کاوه نگارش؛ تهران، نشر پژواک کیوان، سال1397؛ در562ص؛ شابک9786009776221؛
کتاب «آرتمیس»، رمانی علمی و خیال انگیز نوشته ی «اندی وییر» است، که نخستین بار در سال2017میلادی وارد بازار نشر شد؛ داستان در مورد یک قاچاقچی به نام «جزمین باشارا» است که خود را در میان یک توطئه خطرناک در شهر اقماری «آرتمیس» مییابد؛ (به شهرهای کوچکی که در اطراف شهرهای بزرگ و با هدفهای گوناگون از جمله تمرکز زدایی احداث گردیده اند یا وجود داشته اند شهرهای اقماری میگویند)؛
نقل نمونه متن از کتاب: («جَز باشارا»، یک تبهکار است؛ البته به نوعی؛ اگر گردشگری ثروتمند یا میلیاردری عجیب و غریب نباشید، زندگی روی آرتمیس، اولین و تنها شهر روی ماه، میتواند کاملاً سخت باشد؛ پس جابجا کردن کالاهای قاچاق، آن هم گاهی اوقات، خیلی جُرم بزرگی به حساب نمیآید، اینطور نیست؟ تازه آن هم وقتی که باید بدهیهایتان را بپردازید، و شغلتان هم پول چندانی نصیبتان نمیکند، که بتوانید اجاره ی خانه را پرداخت کنید؛ همه چیز تغییر میکند زمانی که «جَز»، فرصت ارتکاب جرم بزرگی را به دست میآورد، که آنقدر پرمنفعت است، که نمیتوان از آن چشم پوشید؛ اما دست و پنجه نرم کردن با کارهای غیرممکن، تازه آغاز مشکلات اوست؛ «جَز» با پیشروی داستان درمییابد، که وارد دسیسه ای برای کنترل کل آرتمیس شده، و حالا، تنها شانسش برای زنده ماندن، به بازی شطرنج گونه ای بستگی دارد، که حتی از تحت کنترل درآوردن آرتمیس نیز، مخاطره آمیزتر است.»؛ «از یک تا حمله به روسیه توی زمستون، این نقشه چقدر احمقانه ست؟»؛ «این، یه نقشه ی ساده ی ضد احمقه که خیلی هم موثره؛ اما هیچ سیستم ضد-احمقی نمیتونه جلوی یه احمق مصمم رو بگیره»؛ «راستی، ما از این هم بدمون میآد، وقتی آدما به آرتمیس میگن شهر توی فضا؛ ما توی فضا نیستیم، روی ماهیم؛ منظورم اینه که اگه بخوایم درست بهش نگاه کنیم توی فضا هستیم، اما این شرایط رو لندن هم داره»)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانس 14/04/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 15/02/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
January 10, 2020
They’re not Martians.
Don’t call them Loonies either.
With some very subtle nods to Heinlein’s 1966 masterpiece The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Andy Weir returns to outer space after his fabulously well to do debut novel.
Some SF fans were excited about a revisit to The Martian and others were apprehensive, fearing a Sea of Tranquility sized let down. Weir neither tried to recreate The Martian nor did he run out of gas on the way to Houston. Artemis is a different kind of story with its own charms, nuances and space rocks.
Jazz Bashara and her family and neighbors lives on the Moon, in a bubble domed complex of warrens called Artemis. Weir does a great job explaining some cool hard SF while also setting up his crime caper story. Jazz more often than not finds herself on the wrong side of the law and winds up in big trouble in little Artemis when a get rich scheme goes very sideways.
Good characterization with a diverse set of players, Artemis demonstrates maybe better than The Martian how good a writer he is. This is fast paced and also funny, Weir letting a lot of personality shine through.
Not The Martian, but also not a bad novel at all, actually very entertaining. And the best news is that we now know for sure that Weir is not a one hit wonder and we can expect some more cool SF from him.
Recommended.
Don’t call them Loonies either.
With some very subtle nods to Heinlein’s 1966 masterpiece The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Andy Weir returns to outer space after his fabulously well to do debut novel.
Some SF fans were excited about a revisit to The Martian and others were apprehensive, fearing a Sea of Tranquility sized let down. Weir neither tried to recreate The Martian nor did he run out of gas on the way to Houston. Artemis is a different kind of story with its own charms, nuances and space rocks.
Jazz Bashara and her family and neighbors lives on the Moon, in a bubble domed complex of warrens called Artemis. Weir does a great job explaining some cool hard SF while also setting up his crime caper story. Jazz more often than not finds herself on the wrong side of the law and winds up in big trouble in little Artemis when a get rich scheme goes very sideways.
Good characterization with a diverse set of players, Artemis demonstrates maybe better than The Martian how good a writer he is. This is fast paced and also funny, Weir letting a lot of personality shine through.
Not The Martian, but also not a bad novel at all, actually very entertaining. And the best news is that we now know for sure that Weir is not a one hit wonder and we can expect some more cool SF from him.
Recommended.
September 2, 2017
In space, no-one can hear you yawn…
I try to include plot summaries at the top of my reviews for context but I can’t do it for Fartemis - every time I think about this trash my mind collapses out of exhausted, frustrated, sheer boredom! The protagonist is a smuggler called Jazz Bashara. It’s set on the moon city of Fartemis. There’s a laughable half-assed “heist” plot. Oh, and I fucking haaaated reading it! AARRGH, GET IT AWAY FROM MEEEE!
To be fair, I didn’t like Andy Weir’s last novel, The Martian, so I probably should’ve known better. But I wanted to give this writer another shot to try and see what everyone else does – mebbe now he somehow got good? NOPE. This is one author I’ll never read again!
Jazz is a Muslim for diversity reasons only. Because she doesn’t act or talk like a Muslim woman nor does her religion or ethnicity play any part in the story. Same for Fartemis being run by South Africa – no reason why, just diversity! It feels all the more contrived given that the culture feels American and all the calculatingly diverse characters talk like Americans.
And let’s talk about the cheeseball dialogue because Jazz’s voice is SO ANNOYING. It’s an amalgam of conflicting nonsense. Jazz is supposedly a 26 year old woman who for some reason talks like a 14 year old boy cracking forced cringey middle-aged dad jokes – coincidentally like 45 year old Andy Weir! She’s the least convincing female character I’ve read in some time.
At no point was I at all interested in the convoluted “heist” plot. Sabotage this thing, work for this gangster, fight this gangster, double-cross, yawn, oh god, why won’t this book end… The story unfolds predictably with the usual eye-rolling cliffhangers you find in junky books like this. There are interstitial (FILLER!) chapters featuring Jazz’s pen pal which were totally irrelevant. And, like in The Martian, there are far too many overly technical passages full of (probably) real science that was immensely dull to read – this is a novel, not an engineering manual, Andy! The laughable “action” at the end revolves around welding, which is as tedious as it sounds. In fact, it reads like a novel written by the book’s autistic character, Svoboda!
I’ll give Weir that basing the currency around weight and some of the world-building is clever but I can’t say I enjoyed reading any aspect of this at any time so it easily earned the lowest rating possible. Fartemis is the complete package – of shit: a trashy YA novel full of uninteresting characters, an unexciting, forgettable plot, bad dialogue and an annoying lead all bundled up in pedantic sci-fi. Readers who enjoyed shite like Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, Ernest Cline’s Armada, and Pierce Brownpants’ Red Rising will probably dig this but otherwise I’d recommend Fartemis to no-one, anywhere, ever!
I try to include plot summaries at the top of my reviews for context but I can’t do it for Fartemis - every time I think about this trash my mind collapses out of exhausted, frustrated, sheer boredom! The protagonist is a smuggler called Jazz Bashara. It’s set on the moon city of Fartemis. There’s a laughable half-assed “heist” plot. Oh, and I fucking haaaated reading it! AARRGH, GET IT AWAY FROM MEEEE!
To be fair, I didn’t like Andy Weir’s last novel, The Martian, so I probably should’ve known better. But I wanted to give this writer another shot to try and see what everyone else does – mebbe now he somehow got good? NOPE. This is one author I’ll never read again!
Jazz is a Muslim for diversity reasons only. Because she doesn’t act or talk like a Muslim woman nor does her religion or ethnicity play any part in the story. Same for Fartemis being run by South Africa – no reason why, just diversity! It feels all the more contrived given that the culture feels American and all the calculatingly diverse characters talk like Americans.
And let’s talk about the cheeseball dialogue because Jazz’s voice is SO ANNOYING. It’s an amalgam of conflicting nonsense. Jazz is supposedly a 26 year old woman who for some reason talks like a 14 year old boy cracking forced cringey middle-aged dad jokes – coincidentally like 45 year old Andy Weir! She’s the least convincing female character I’ve read in some time.
At no point was I at all interested in the convoluted “heist” plot. Sabotage this thing, work for this gangster, fight this gangster, double-cross, yawn, oh god, why won’t this book end… The story unfolds predictably with the usual eye-rolling cliffhangers you find in junky books like this. There are interstitial (FILLER!) chapters featuring Jazz’s pen pal which were totally irrelevant. And, like in The Martian, there are far too many overly technical passages full of (probably) real science that was immensely dull to read – this is a novel, not an engineering manual, Andy! The laughable “action” at the end revolves around welding, which is as tedious as it sounds. In fact, it reads like a novel written by the book’s autistic character, Svoboda!
I’ll give Weir that basing the currency around weight and some of the world-building is clever but I can’t say I enjoyed reading any aspect of this at any time so it easily earned the lowest rating possible. Fartemis is the complete package – of shit: a trashy YA novel full of uninteresting characters, an unexciting, forgettable plot, bad dialogue and an annoying lead all bundled up in pedantic sci-fi. Readers who enjoyed shite like Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, Ernest Cline’s Armada, and Pierce Brownpants’ Red Rising will probably dig this but otherwise I’d recommend Fartemis to no-one, anywhere, ever!
Want to read
December 21, 2015"A story about a city on the moon with a female lead."
First thing that popped in my head:
November 15, 2017
Original rating at 4 stars yet weeks after reading this I still keep thinking about the originality of this epic plot. I think it is only fair to award this the full 5 stars. I think this was even better than The Martian!
Jazz Bashara resides in and adores her moon-colony-home, Artemis. She is one independent lady and clever individual, who uses these skills to alleviate her position. She is also a criminal, who isn't afraid to bend the laws that govern her world to her own monetary advantage.
But not even she could foresee the chaos and destruction that would ensue after she was tempted by her latest money-making escapade. With potential gang-infiltration threatening to disrupt the tranquillity of her home, Jazz's get-quick-rich plans are overturned, and she must sacrifice everything if she ever hopes to return her home to its former idyllic glory.
Jazz is such an intriguing anti-hero. Just like Mark Watney, it was her sassy and sarcastic self that made the entire reading experience for me. Character creation is truly Weir's forte and I was kept captivated throughout by this flawed yet lovable protagonist.
This could very easily have been overwhelmed by the political and scientific explanations that dominated throughout. It was, again, Jazz's dialogue that lightened the tone and alleviated the dense surrounding descriptions. These two elements worked together to make this a fast-pace and action-packed sci-fi, yet also a believable and authentic-feeling narrative.
Jazz Bashara resides in and adores her moon-colony-home, Artemis. She is one independent lady and clever individual, who uses these skills to alleviate her position. She is also a criminal, who isn't afraid to bend the laws that govern her world to her own monetary advantage.
But not even she could foresee the chaos and destruction that would ensue after she was tempted by her latest money-making escapade. With potential gang-infiltration threatening to disrupt the tranquillity of her home, Jazz's get-quick-rich plans are overturned, and she must sacrifice everything if she ever hopes to return her home to its former idyllic glory.
Jazz is such an intriguing anti-hero. Just like Mark Watney, it was her sassy and sarcastic self that made the entire reading experience for me. Character creation is truly Weir's forte and I was kept captivated throughout by this flawed yet lovable protagonist.
This could very easily have been overwhelmed by the political and scientific explanations that dominated throughout. It was, again, Jazz's dialogue that lightened the tone and alleviated the dense surrounding descriptions. These two elements worked together to make this a fast-pace and action-packed sci-fi, yet also a believable and authentic-feeling narrative.
January 31, 2018
Artemis is currently super cheap to buy!!
30% off at Book Depository (with free international shipping)
40% off at Amazon US
and 30% off at Amazon UK
This review can also be found on my blog, Dana and the Books
4.5/5
A heist on the moon.
A heist. On THE MOON.
A HEIST ON THE MOON.
A few years ago I read The Martian because my sister forcefully said I had to. So I picked it up, not knowing much about the premise apart from "dude gets stuck on Mars." I was expecting it to be dark and intense. So imagine my surprise when it was, yes, intense, but also a massive sass fest with laugh out loud passages.
So, how can you possibly recreate that magic in The Martian? Answer: with Artemis.
Artemis isn't as funny (though it's still pretty damn funny), but dear god is it intense. The world building of Artemis — the only city on the moon — was crystal clear and thought out so well. I had no trouble following along with locations and the science-y explanations (well, some of the science-y explanations, but it was laid out that if you didn't understand it, it wouldn't take away from the plot).
With every heist story, you need a great cast of characters to pull it off, and we certainly got that. They worked well together (albeit, reluctantly) and all had a clear role to play to complete the job.
Leading the story is Jazz.
Jazz is a dick.
She's an awful, selfish, petty smuggler and I love her. She isn't a good person, but she has a good heart. Her motives are sketchy, but she has morals — even when partaking in illegal activities.
Even better than Jazz is Jazz's father. Such a nice, kind, welder. I want an entire story about him. Please?
I knew I loved this book when one of the characters calls out another for saying Captain Kirk is a sex crazed womanizer (because he totally wasn't and was actually pretty progressive and feminist for a TV show made in the 1960s).
Honestly, this book was so fun. It was so addictive that I prioritized reading Artemis over drinking coffee (I'm okay, I promise!)
Artemis is out in the wild, growing on bookshelves at a store near you! Why not take a trip to the moon?
Thanks so much to Ebury Publishing for providing a review copy through Netgalley!
Book Links: Book Depository | Amazon US | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
30% off at Book Depository (with free international shipping)
40% off at Amazon US
and 30% off at Amazon UK
This review can also be found on my blog, Dana and the Books
4.5/5
A heist on the moon.
A heist. On THE MOON.
A HEIST ON THE MOON.
A few years ago I read The Martian because my sister forcefully said I had to. So I picked it up, not knowing much about the premise apart from "dude gets stuck on Mars." I was expecting it to be dark and intense. So imagine my surprise when it was, yes, intense, but also a massive sass fest with laugh out loud passages.
So, how can you possibly recreate that magic in The Martian? Answer: with Artemis.
Artemis isn't as funny (though it's still pretty damn funny), but dear god is it intense. The world building of Artemis — the only city on the moon — was crystal clear and thought out so well. I had no trouble following along with locations and the science-y explanations (well, some of the science-y explanations, but it was laid out that if you didn't understand it, it wouldn't take away from the plot).
With every heist story, you need a great cast of characters to pull it off, and we certainly got that. They worked well together (albeit, reluctantly) and all had a clear role to play to complete the job.
Leading the story is Jazz.
Jazz is a dick.
She's an awful, selfish, petty smuggler and I love her. She isn't a good person, but she has a good heart. Her motives are sketchy, but she has morals — even when partaking in illegal activities.
Even better than Jazz is Jazz's father. Such a nice, kind, welder. I want an entire story about him. Please?
I knew I loved this book when one of the characters calls out another for saying Captain Kirk is a sex crazed womanizer (because he totally wasn't and was actually pretty progressive and feminist for a TV show made in the 1960s).
Honestly, this book was so fun. It was so addictive that I prioritized reading Artemis over drinking coffee (I'm okay, I promise!)
Artemis is out in the wild, growing on bookshelves at a store near you! Why not take a trip to the moon?
Thanks so much to Ebury Publishing for providing a review copy through Netgalley!
Book Links: Book Depository | Amazon US | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK
August 9, 2017
Dangerous Place to Live....the Moon.
Andy Weir, one of my favorite authors, serves up another winner with his new sci-fi thriller ARTEMIS....and Jazz Bashara is the spirited and defiant main attraction.
Jasmine/Jazz is basically a good person, has a smart mouth, works as a lowly Porter, and drives around in a cart she named Trigger. AND.... despite her sideline of smuggling AND superior IQ, she still lives in a room the size of a coffin....literally....and wants out!
SO.... with an offer she can't refuse to finally make some REALLY big bucks, Jazz plots a course to accomplish her most difficult and dangerous of illegal activities that threaten not only her life, but risk exile to her homeland of Saudi Arabia.
ARTEMIS is a super fun read with some intense moments, is just a little techie, and unlike THE MARTIAN, has more of a young adult feel to it, BUT....no problem....there's sabotage, murder and revenge....plus a side story going on via email to Earth....all wrapped up in a highly entertaining narrative depicting the extreme dangers of living on the Moon.
AND..... last but not least.....we have the finale when Jazz meets up with the ultimate of disasters with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide....unless she can hold her breath.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
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