Cover Image: Artemis

Artemis

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I'll start by saying that The Martian is one of my favourite books of all time (and the film, too!) so I had tremendously high hopes for Artemis. Did I love it as much as The Martian? I don't think so (but it's hard to live up to when it's one of my favourite books ever). Was it a worthy second book that blew my expectations out the water. YES. I loved Artemis!

Andy Weir has moved his crazy, imaginative storytelling from Mars to the surface of the Moon - more specifically, the first settlement called Artemis. I instantly loved the setup of Artemis. It's a city made up of 5 'bubbles' each with their own purpose. According to the author himself, "Armstrong is industry, Aldrin is the tourist center with casinos and hotels and stuff, Conrad is where the blue-collar folks live, the low-income people. Bean is sort of like suburban life; it's middle-income folks. And then Shepard is where the really rich people live."

Then we have our main character, Jazz: a feisty Saudi Arabian woman who smuggles contraband into Artemis to make some extra slugs (the currency used in Artemis. Weird name, I know, but it's all explained. That's what I love about Weir's books - literally everything is explained in great detail.) I instantly had a picture of Jazz in my head. If it wasn't for the fact that she's Asian, I'd want to cast her in a film as Ellen Page from her Juno era. Imagine Juno's her sass, wit and clever comebacks - that's Jazz. A few other reviewers seemed to take a dislike to her, saying that Weir basically took what they disliked about Mark Watney (the protagonist in The Martian) and gave those traits to Jazz, making her annoying and unlikeable. I must admit, I can see where they're coming from - but I loved her. She made me laugh so many times, and OK, she might still seem too much like a 'man', making masculine jokes and not acting like a 'lady' - but why should every female do that?

The story did take a little while to get going and at one point, I worried that I wouldn't like the book. However, once I got into it, I didn't want to stop reading. (OK, the fact the book took me 3 months to read is a different story. That's nothing to do with the book and more down to me being lazy.) The whole story is full of suspense, surprises, and complete and utter shock at some of the things that happened. (Mostly things that went horrifically wrong - especially towards the end. No spoilers.) There are a couple of characters that I wished were explored a bit more because I wanted to know more about them, but I didn't mind at all.

Another thing people complained about was that the scientific explanations in Artemis are mostly to do with welding. Again, they're right. But it wasn't particularly a thing I even picked up on until I read other people's reviews. Jazz's dad is a welder by trade so she's picked up his skills along the way. They come in handy a good number of times, and that's when the process is explained in detail. As I said above, I *love* detail! It could be about anything and I'd probably still in engrossed in the ins and outs of it all. There were a few moments when the plot felt a little slow, but I think the fact paced action of the rest of the book made up for the slower parts.

So, if you loved The Martian and you want another great book from Andy Weir, I'd definitely recommend Artemis. My advice is to go in with an open mind - don't expect it to be the same as The Martian, because it feels completely different. I think that's great though - I'm glad it wasn't just The Martian on the Moon! I really enjoyed Artemis and I'm so glad I have a beautiful hardback to go proudly on my shelf. It's only just come out and I'm already excited to see what Andy Weir comes up with next!

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Hello again. Sorry I have missed a couple of WIRs. I have been busy reading books for SPFBO 2017 and can't share my opinion of those books quite yet. I hope you have had some good books to enjoy while I have been offline. Let me tell you of two of the non-SPFBO books I have been reading.



First up is Andy Weir's Artemis. This standalone novel has been released recently but was I pretty lucky to receive it from the publisher via NetGalley a few months ago.

The story is set on the moon and features the plucky Jazz, who spends her days pushing contraband and living just shy on the right side of the law. She grew up on the moon, in the city of Artemis and loves every inch of it. When she gets an offer that will give her the life she yearns for it seems almost too good to be true. If it seems to good to be true it usually is. Its not long before Jazz is on the run from a criminal syndicate that plans to take over Artemis. With just her wits and her friends Jazz is determined to save the only home she has ever really known.

I rather enjoyed Artemis although it did take a couple of chapters for me to adjust to Jazz and her rather dubious moral code. This book is completely different in content and tone to Martian so if you are expecting another good guy then you may be disappointed with the more complex Jazz. I liked Artemis as a setting and all the sciency bits that made the plot more credible. The plot was interspersed with letters between Jazz and her childhood pen friend and this plot device helps to develop Jazz as a character and later on to help advance the plot. This is a quick, easy read with a strong female lead that I enjoyed. Science fiction fans be sure to take a chance on Artemis.

Book 2 for me was the third instalment of the Crossbreed series by Dannika Dark - Deathtrap. In this instalment Raven Black is set on the trail of criminal who is kidnapping breed children, killing their mothers and then selling them on the black market. All of the 'gang' are involved in this one and different sides are told through POV chapters. All this comes with Raven trying to reconcile letting her human life go and saying good-bye to her father. Helping her is the hunky vampire Christian who Raven is drawn towards, despite her hatred of vampires.

This series is very much light relief for me. The plot isn't challenging but there is enough substance to make it readable. Raven is not without her flaws which makes her a more likable character but Dark introduces a coincidental meeting that, in my view, adds nothing to the main romance of the story. Overall, an OK read but I am not expecting any big surprises.

That is it for me this week. Hope to be back next week but I do a few more SPFBO books to read so if I miss another week it's not because I'm not reading. Be back soon!

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Andy Weir moves closer to Earth with Artemis, the follow up to his phenomenally successful sci-fi novel The Martian. Sabotage, smuggling and petty crime on The Moon.
In 2011 Andy Weir self-published his first novel under his own name. Three years later Crown Publishing picked up the rights to the book and re-published ‘The Martian’, presenting the book to a far wider audience.

With his easily accessible first-person style of writing, willingness to routinely break the fourth wall – and with a meticulous attention to scientific authenticity – the story of an astronaut stranded on Mars became a phenomenal success and a New York Times Bestseller.

In 2015 ‘The Martian’ was adapted into a blockbuster motion picture directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon.

Two years on and Weir moves slightly closer to the planet Earth with his new sci-fi novel, ‘Artemis’.

In a future where The Moon colony, Artemis, has existed long enough for a generation to have been born there, Weir introduces a bright but stubborn, underachieving young Arabic woman, Jazz, as his protagonist.

Though likeable, Jazz often chooses the path of least resistance and struggles to carve out a living with a career as a porter, supplemented by an illegal sideline in smuggling goods from Earth to The Moon.

When a regular client offers Jazz a risky job beyond her usual skillset, the potential life-changing payout is enough to persuade her to try her hand at industrial sabotage. When her plan hits a glitch Jazz finds herself being pursued by the mob and the law. Worse still, she stands to be deported to Earth.

Andy Weir isn’t the most eloquent of authors, but with ‘The Martian’ he managed to present a very human tale of a man’s battle to survive in extraordinary circumstances. The book is filled with peaks and troughs as his protagonist tells the story, in the first person, with a journal as a method for delivery. It worked well for a man stranded on a planet fighting for his life.

The author adopts the same style for his second book, ‘Artemis’. Jazz tells the story in her own words, often breaking the fourth wall. Whilst this method makes the character accessible, and likeable, this style of writing loses impact when a wider cast of characters is involved and the protagonist is responsible for narrating events in retrospect as a way to justify the knowledge.

As with ‘The Martian’, Weir weaves science fact through the story of ‘Artemis’. His ability to explain, often complex physics and biology in layman’s terms is much to his credit. Where the science is complex, the basic premise of the book is not.

If anything ‘Artemis’ is a rather old fashioned science-fiction story told in a similar tone of voice that’s become common amongst Weir’s contemporaries. John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow and Ernest Klein all have a tendency to gift their characters improbable good fortune and unprecedented coincidences that work in their favour at just the right moments, leaving the reader feeling somewhat spoon-fed.

‘Artemis’ is light on peril and threat, a little lacking in substance, but actually works quite well as a fun, disposable read. Weir settles for mediocre after the success that was ‘The Martian’ when we were all expecting him to take one giant leap forward.

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This was a grave disappointment after The Martian.
The main character was over the top with sarcasm in the attempt to be witty.
Not successful at all.
All the characters lacked depth.
The Technical part of the story was ok but all in all this left a lot to be desired.

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I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jazz is a criminal - she makes deliveries and some of those are - well, less than legal. After a falling out with her father, she lives in an awful, tiny place in the only city in the Moon - Artemis. When she fails her EVA master test, she needs to start saving all over again to buy a new suit and be able to get a better job. But then, she's offered a million for doing a dangerous job. It's risky and she's never done a heist before, but with that kind of money, all her problems would be gone. But her job is far more dangerous to her and the city than she knows.

Artemis is a sci-fi novel for sci-fi lovers. Although this is a thriller and has a heist story, plus it's set on the moon, and The Martian was such a nice read with genre-cross appeal, Artemis is not that easy for readers who don't like sci-fi. It's a bit heavier on the technological side and has plenty of chemistry which I suppose it's easy to skim through, but you miss part of the story that way.

If you do like sci-fi, you'll really enjoy this novel!

At first, Jazz's voice felt to me a little too movie-like, a little too much like the author was trying to write a cool female character and tended to overdo it a bit, turning her into the main character from The Martian, jokes and all. It sounded artificial and she definitely felt like a woman written by a man. But as the novel goes on, Jazz really grew on me and, by the end, I very much liked her! She is sarcastic, very intelligent and full of confidence and scheming. I also loved that she's Arab!

I wasn't too big a fan of the Brazilian representation in this novel - they were, like Jazz, too much of a caricature for me. I tried to overlook it and told myself it was cool to see Brazilians in novels not being just a sexy girl or an expert samba dancer and such. Especially as villains! But they were basically all trained in the streets to be fighters and ruthless and with no morals. As thriller villains all are, I suppose... plus the physical description included "Latina skin", which is too stereotypical for my taste.

I also didn't quite like the emails exchanged between Jazz and Kelvin, although it gave insight into what she was like and how the smuggling idea came up etc, it definitely broke the narrative.

The best way to enjoy this novel is not to compare it to The Martian - yes, I know, it's difficult, but really it's more enjoyable like that! This is about heist, running against the clock, conspiracy. It has more action than The Martian but lacks its uniqueness, in my opinion. This ended up being a very entertaining and fast read for me, and the idea of a city in the Moon, where you walk with 1/6th of the gravity was quite interesting! I wish there had been a little more world-building in the beginning so it didn't feel like getting information dumped on you at some parts of the novel.

Sorry for complaining so much, there were just various points in this novel that stopped me from giving it 5 stars. But it was a very enjoyable sci-fi and I read it in one day! I enjoyed the heist story, the sass, the moon setting and the ending very much!

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I knew going into this book that it wouldn't be fair to judge it based on the fact that Weir's first book, The Martian, was such an amazing read and emotional ride. But I was excited for Artemis nonetheless and couldn't help it but have some expectations going into it.

This story is based on a world where Kenya has its own space corporation and built a city on the moon called Artemis. We follow our main character Jazz Bashara, who lives in Artemis since she was a child and is a smuggler with higher ambitions. One day she gets offered a job that could solve all her money problems, but it involves sabotaging one of the biggest companies on the moon.

As I said, I didn't want to compare this book to Weir's first book. But that is easier said than done when the female main character talks and jokes similar to Mark Watney (protagonist in The Martian). Jazz is portayed as a badass character who doesn't let anyone tell her what she can or can't do. In general, that's great and I appreciated his decision to feature a female main character in his second book. But Jazz often just doesn't sound like a woman in my opinion. Weir tried so hard to implement the same humor he used before in Jazz that it's inevitable to sometimes think of her as Mark. Here is some example of what I'm talking about:

"He stamped the box. "What's in there, anyway?"
"Porn, mostly. Starring your mom."

This is one of the sentences that made me pause and ask my boyfriend if he's considering this a normal reaction. And there are many more scenes where Jazz tries to be funny or badass that just didn't click with me.

Artemis itself is a very interesting setting. Here, Weir excels at combining science and world building. That's what I like so much about his books, they are an easy access to science fiction and he's able to find just the right amount of hard science information and action adventure.

Another very intersting plot point is the fact that the colonization of the moon started here in Kenya due to its prime position for space travel at the equator.

In the end, Artemis is an action-packed science fiction adventure on moon that definitely has some charm similar to the Martian. So if you loved Weir's first book, you will surely enjoy this new setting and writing style. For the story itself and the main character Jazz, I think it depens whether this might be a hit or miss for you. For me, it simply did not invoke the same emotions I felt for Mark Watney and his survival story (and as you can see, I'm not really able to stop comparing the books!). To sum it all up, a enjoyable novel, but not that impactful for me.

Thank you for Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an early copy of Artemis.

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2.5 stars

Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara is a smuggler on the Moon city Artemis.
Jazz's job as a porter makes it easy for her to smuggle contraband for the residents of Artemis. When she's offered an opportunity to make a lot of money by committing a crime, Jazz accepts.
But things soon become more complicated and Jazz finds herself in a deadly situation.

I LOVED The Martian so I was really excited to hear that Andy Weir had a new book coming out that was set on the Moon. The Moon!
Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about Artemis and am disappointed.
Oh, Jazz. I so wanted to like you, but I'm not sure I do. It felt to me that Jazz was meant to be a female version of Mark Watney (the protagonist in The Martian). But unlike Watney, I didn't find Jazz funny and I didn't like her anywhere near as much as I liked Watney.
The plot was okay. There was some action and interesting science, but it didn't grip me and I was a little bored at times.

Unfortunately, Artemis left me feeling disappointed and underwhelmed.

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FULL REVIEW AVAILABLE AT THE ATTACHED LINK.

Following a book like The Martian can not be an easy task. Everyone’s going to expect the humour and engagement of the big hit that stunned readers and movie-goers alike.

While Artemis is perfectly “fine” as far as science fiction goes (though perhaps with a leaning towards the young adult age group), it is rather a letdown after one of the more memorable books of 2014 and has very little in the way of memorable moments. It definitely suffers from second-book-syndrome.

There’s some great world-building here, and it’s clear that Weir did quite a lot of homework to get it just right. But that unfortunately led to the kind of info-dumping that would have felt more natural in The Martian but instead could feel rather tedious at times during Artemis.

Beyond the first third of the book, the pace does pick up and there is a lot more action and a lot less info-dumping. Beyond the first third it does become harder to set the book down, and the cliffhanger chapters will encourage you to keep reading.

It is a fairly enjoyable, quick read, but it has its issues.

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I wasn’t a huge fan of Andy Weir’s debut novel ‘The Martian’, although I did enjoy it and thought it was very well written. For me it worked better as a movie, and I have a feeling the same could be said of his second novel ‘Artemis’. Again it is very well written, but for some reason his writing style just doesn’t quite work for me.

I’m sure the many fans of ‘The Martian’ will love this book, and even though I did enjoy it well enough, it didn’t quite hit the spot for me.

Many will love it, but my rating will have to be no more than 3 stars.

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Disclaimer: I received a copy free from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Jazz Bashara is a porter in the city of Artemis. The first and only city on the moon. She is also a criminal. Jazz is penniless but life on the moon is unpleasant and tough if you are not rich or a tourist. So, with a job that gives her opportunity and access to smuggle contraband into Artemis, how could she resist? When Jazz sees a chance to commit the perfect crime with a big reward, she puts herself in the middle of a conspiracy and gets entangled in the politics of Artemis.

I am a massive fan of the Martian but Andy Weir’s new book doesn’t live up to the expectation and is far less impressive than its predecessor. I am very conflicted about my feelings about Artemis. One thing I didn’t like was the humour. She makes constant childish sex jokes that feels incredibly forced as if she’s a teenage boy. It is one of those books that you can tell the female character was written by a man. After reading this book, then an article by Book Riot which seems to show that Andy Weir only reads books by white men, well… you can definitely tell.

Jazz is from Saudi Arabia and is a non-practising Muslim, so I can’t comment on that representation. But there was a comment that made me feel uneasy. When Jazz hides her face when planning a heist, she states:

“Okay, you can stop pretending you know what a niqab is. It’s a traditional Islamic headwear that covers the lower face. Combined with a hijab (head cloth) to cover my hair, only my eyes were visible. Great way to wear a mask without arousing suspicion.”

Which, I feel, reinforces the Islamaphobic notion that Muslim women wear the niqab as a disguise to carry out criminal activity.

I also feel like the world building was incredibly poor. In The Martian, the world building wasn’t as important because the book was held up with science and humour and the story itself had a limited setting. However, the lack of world building really showed in Artemis. The plot itself was also dull and convoluted, the heist was not as compelling as it should have been, and the abundance of science-talk made it a messy read and a messy plot.

Overall, not a book I would personally recommend.

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I was so worried that I’d be disappointed with this book. Martian was one of my favourite reads of the last few years. I convinced my book clubs to give it a try - they trust me to introduce something different once in a while - and they still smile and talk about it now! Finally picked Artemis up last night and we’ll...wow! Weir has done it again. He manages to create characters that you can’t help but like and throw them into situations which have the reader truly gripped. So what if you don’t understand the science involved. It doesn’t matter! This is just a great thriller that will appeal to anyone - especially those who are willing to sacrifice a night’s sleep to finish it in one sitting. Can’t wait to get everyone else reading this!

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So let's face it poor old Andy Weir had a heck of a job following up The Martian. 3 million copies sold and now how to follow up (bet he was crying all the way to the bank)? Well with more of the same of course. Except this time it's a girl, Jazz Bashara doing the wise cracks, it's the moon instead of Mars and she's not on her own. There's a whole town with her....ok it's a bit different but essentially it's the same concept. Things go wrong, theres no proper way of sorting the problem so Jazz has to use her supreme intellect to find a solution. I think of it as MacGyver in space (the 80's one not the imposter doing the rounds now!).

Now reading back I sound a bit dismissive. But actually I really liked this book. I just didn't love it the way I did The Martian. Jazz is a great character, just as funny and clever as Mark Watney and there's a really eclectic bunch of supporting characters, my favourites been Svoboda and Dale. They just ping off Jazz in a very satisfactory way. So why didn't I love it. Perhaps I struggled with just how dodgy some of Jazzs actions are. It's hard to root for someone who is actually the root cause of the problems in this book. There was definitely a part of me thinking "well if you hadn't done that in the first place". Also there's way too much welding in this book. The first half of this is definitely a 5 star book.....the second half which should have been really exciting was just a bit flat....forgive me for saying it lacked atmosphere. So if you liked The Martian then you should read this - just don't expect it to quite live up to that novel.

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Andy Weir’s The Martian was one of the biggest breakout hits of all time by an indie author, and justifiably so, because it was a fantastic story. Weir’s strength is in the characters he creates, characters who feel real, who we identify with, whose motivations we understand. In Artemis, Weir takes on a female protagonist, Jazz Bashara, a young woman living in the first colony on the Moon.

Of Saudi Arabian origins, Jazz moved to the multicultural colony of Artemis when she was a child, and life on Earth now is utterly incomprehensible to her. She’s a space rat through and through, a smart kid who doesn’t quite fit into the rigid, unionized culture of her home. Looking for ways to make a quick buck, Jazz finds herself caught up in a plot to destabilize the entire society of Artemis, and must make the choice to be a mere bystander (and probably collateral damage) or step up and become a true leader.

There are a few things in this story which I can see as getting labeled Problematic by people who might then choose all the way to the end. Jazz gets involved in an explosive act of industrial sabotage, and I have to say this gave me pause. A woman of Arab origins setting off an improvised bomb feels stereotypical at best… but I considered the context of the rest of the story. Literally nothing else about Jazz is typical. She’s independent and self-sufficient, she drinks alcohol and has sex (though not during this story) and she has her own code of right and wrong - while she’s a smuggler, bringing contraband goods in for Artemis’ residents, she refuses to smuggle guns or hard drugs, for example.

By the end of the story, Jazz’s slightly murky motivations finally become clear. I won’t spoil the story by revealing how it ends, but I was really happy to discover that she was a heroine I could get behind. She’s clever, funny and self-deprecating, and I truly wanted her to come out on top.

The other strong point about Artemis is the science. Weir has very obviously done his research and there is some really great stuff in here, seamlessly integrated into the plot so it doesn’t read like info-dumping, explained in terms the layman can understand. Life in a sealed lunar module is complex and dangerous but for someone like Jazz, any other way of life is inconceivable.

I’m already looking forward to the movie. Five stars for a fantastic read.

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I tried really, really hard to read this book but unfortunately I was just bored. It's one huge info dump and Weir has tried to make this main character feel exactly like Mark Watney and it just didn't work. It was always going to be a hard task to live up to The Martian and unfortunately this did not come any where near to managing that.

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Artemis has yet another memorably enjoyable protagonist every bit as ingenious and determined as Mark Watney – Jazz is a street-wise moon-girl who plays the odds. She ekes out a precarious living by a series of shady deals under the cover of her lowly job as porter as she needs more money. Lots more money. And it is that need that drives her to make a deal against her better judgement… a deal that trips over into something a whole lot more serious. I’m aware some readers have had a problem with her lack of judgement and maturity, but I feel her poor impulse control is entirely realistic and when we learn the whole story of what went wrong between her and her father, there is also a valid explanation.

Like The Martian, we are charmed into really caring what happens to this lively, irreverent protagonist as she takes us into her confidence and tells us how the domes work, how the society is structured and about her tempestuous relationship with her father. So when it all goes really wrong, we are with her every step of the way, hoping she will prevail. As Weir steadily ups the stakes and increases the pressure – I found this one almost impossible to put down.

Despite the strong character-led nature of the story, there are still plenty of details about life on the Moon for hard science fiction fans. We learn about how the domes were constructed, who initially settled this first moon settlement and what currently powers the economy – all without compromising the pace or the narrative tension. It’s a neat trick to pull off and far harder to achieve than Weir makes it look. If all these geeky details tend to slide past you, my firm advice would be not to skim too much – because some of this stuff has a major impact on the story progression.

So after setting up a precarious situation where our plucky heroine finds herself on the sharp end of the trickiest conundrum – does Weir satisfactorily wrap up the story? Absolutely. We get a gripping conclusion to this plotline, while there are also some dangling tendrils that would give Weir the opportunity to revisit Artemis with the surviving characters. I would love to see him do so. Highly recommended.
10/10

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I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.

Artemis is Andy Weir’s much anticipated 2nd novel and follows the story of Jazz Bashara (smuggler extraordinaire). Much like ‘The Martian’ it is a stand alone tale. Much like ‘The Martian’ it is set in space. This time Weir takes us to the Moon instead of Mars.
Weir had A LOT of hype to live up to coming off of ‘The Martian’. Was ‘Artemis’ as good? Simply put; no, it was not. But it was a good read. It just didn’t come close to reaching the same level as The Martian, in my opinion.

It had every chance of almost reaching such lofty heights, only for the author to stumble at silly hurdles. One such hurdle was when Jazz needed to know a certain bit of info. The reader is suddenly broadsided with the realisation that she has a photographic memory that extends to knowledge of tv shows she hates and hasn’t seen. Little things like that happen throughout and really lessen the ‘oh my god, I don’t think there’s any possible way this can be averted’ moments that were so enjoyable in ‘The Martian’. It almost feels like the author is trying too hard at points.

That being said, ‘Artemis’ is well written, as one would expect from Weir, and laced with science, also as one would expect from Weir.

The pacing of the story is good and, those annoying little stumbles aside, there is more than enough to keep the reader eagerly flipping through the pages.

My only other negative is that some of the characters don’t read like adults at some points, or at least their dialogue doesn’t. That could just be me being overly picky.

As you can see from my giving it a 4 out of 5, there is plenty on offer to keep the reader entertained. So long as you do what I did in accepting ‘The Martian’ is done and dusted, and treat ‘Artemis’ as the totally unrelated standalone that it is, you should enjoy it.

It leaves me anticipating future work from Weir and wondering where in the cosmos, if indeed he sticks with space and sci-fi, he will take us next.

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Artemis is a fun space adventure with lots of technical stuff and family and friend relationships too. I thought it seemed very YA/New Adult friendly (except for the sex if you think that is not YA friendly) as loner discovers her worth and has harrowing engineering adventures. I think the editor should have seen Weir's clunkiness in writing from a female perspective (she is often thinking about her boobs, and uses that word) and worked it out. Otherwise fun, slightly geeky, great to have a female lead in this coming of age in space.

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Two days ago came out in all the US and UK books shop one of the most anticipated books of the year, Artemis.
I had never read anything about Andy Weir, and I just recently saw the movie "The Martian" but I've heard a lot of him, always positive, from friends, reviewer and booktuber and I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to read Artemis, his new book, released two days ago in the US and Uk. So I can fully confirm all the things I've read and heard about him.

Andy Weir is a phenomenal author as few. I can assure you that despite both stories being set in space are completely different. Andy's inventive is great. This book is great!

The story is set on the moon, in its first and only city, Artemis, on which have been built structures that allow people to live in, from the most luxurious to the poorest bubble. The story is told by protagonist Jazz Bashara, a young criminal.

Although Jazz's father has a shop, she prefers to be independent, but she earn to live doing commissions, which, most of the time, are illegal.

But her life and her stay on the moon are endangered when she decides to accept a job where she has to destroy structures that feed the whole city, for a million Slugs (Artemis official currency).

Jazz is fearless and wants money at all costs, but even though she accept she does not know what she's going through, Rudy has been trying for years to catch her for her crimes, and this may be the time when she is sent back to earth where almost surely she won't survive because the gravity of the moon is 1/6 of the Earth's.

But it's up to you to find out what's happening to the beautiful Jazz and to those who she knows and who also care about her.
If you have not yet gone to buy this book I tell you to do it right away, you will not regret it at all. Artemis is the most beautiful sci-fi I've ever read.

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https://lynns-books.com/2017/11/13/artemis-by-andy-weir/
I must confess that I requested and picked up a copy of Artemis with very little knowledge of what the book was about – I don’t think I even read the blurb to be honest because I enjoyed Andy Weir’s book The Martian so much that there was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to pick up his next piece of work. I can genuinely say that Artemis doesn’t disappoint. It’s a wonderful piece of storytelling with quite a thrilling plot, magnificent world building and bristling with sci fi goodness.

The story is set In Artemis the only city on the moon and the main protagonist is called Jazz. Jazz is one of those characters that can be a bit impulsive and when she has a golden carrot waved under her nose she pretty much jumps at the offer. Straight in she goes with both feet and not a care in the world, totally oblivious to the fact that she’s about to put her life in danger when she uncovers a twisted conspiracy that could have serious implications for all the other inhabitants.

Now, I had a really good time with this book but that’s not to say that I didn’t have some issues and I’m going to mention those first so that I can then finish with all the goodies.

My immediate thought when I first stated to read was that Jazz reminded me very much of Mark Watney, so much so that for the first few pages I didn’t realise that I was reading from a female perspective – now, that’s probably my own doing in all fairness but it did give me a bit of a jolt. Added to that was Jazz’s continual quips – which at first I didn’t find as amusing as intended. Again, this had a MW feel – and whilst I liked his commentary in The Martian to me it felt more natural given that he was by himself and was facing a very real life and death scenario. I think basically I got off to the wrong start with Jazz when I first started reading and this made it more difficult for me to like her at first. I usually like my characters flawed and Jazz definitely ticks the boxes on that score but the problem is, not that she makes mistakes, but she has a certain arrogance or lack of humility in admitting when she’s at fault. Thankfully this is something that is addressed as the story progresses but at times she comes across as a bit petulant, she has this angst or anger going on which when you really drill down into the story seems to be without foundation. The whole not speaking or seeing her dad is a prime example. I’m not going to go into the whys and wherefores of what exactly happened but I felt for sure that he must have done something terrible to have alienated her so much. Like I said though – she did grow on me and eventually I came to see that some of her attitude was more a defensive layer and that she probably put herself in a lot of ‘bad’ situations as a way of punishing herself.

So, that out of the way, to the positives of the story.

The plot itself is really intriguing and had me hooked very quickly. I loved the way the storyline developed and the cunning way that the whole conspiracy was integral to the future well being of Artemis and it’s future operations. I also thought that Artemis was really well drawn. A fascinating city to read about that felt so well grounded and clearly with plenty of research not to mention intelligent ideas. In fact that’s fairly symptomatic of the whole story – clearly Andy Weir does his work. He doesn’t just write a flimsy outline and expect you to fill in the gaps and get on board with what he says – just because he says it – his ideas come across as credible, you can actually imagine yourself living in this City on the Moon, working and living in one of it’s poorer sectors or if you’re really lucky visiting as a tourist.

I loved that part of the story is told in the format of letters from a friend of Jazz’s who she has been corresponding with for many years. I thought this showed a different side to Jazz and also helped to fill in some of her history.

And, finally, I loved the ending. It seemed to be one of those conclusions where things keep going from bad to worse and I seemed to be saying in my head ‘No!’, NO! NOOOOOOO! more often than not.

Long story short, I found myself, in spite of a shaky start, being thoroughly entertained by Artemis. I think I got off on the wrong foot but Weir managed to bring me round. So, if like me you find yourself with a few issues as the story sets out my advice would be to press on. Not everything is as it first appears and Jazz definitely succeeded in winning me over. I can hold my hands up and say that my initial feelings for her were a bit hastily drawn and I simply needed to give her the space to tell her tale without being judgemental.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

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This book is terrible. I don’t usually like to lay it down quite as harshly as that (though some people tell me I’m far harsher than I realise), but Artemis is a truly awful novel. It contains culturally insensitive characterisation, poorly executed exposition, a thoroughly irritating protagonist, an entirely un-thrilling conspiracy plot, and wedged-in scientific details that are as unnecessary as they are ham-fisted in their delivery.
I admit that I’ve not read Weir’s breakout novel The Martian, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film adaptation. As a result, I was excited to read Artemis – I mean, another hard sci-fi with strong roots in actual science. Sign me up! Problem is, Weir is a bit of a one-trick pony, and what worked in the context of The Martian’s premise works solely with that premise.

A city on the moon
Artemis features a city on the moon, in much the same way as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The moon city has its own unique politics and economy, with a very different social morality built around their extraordinary setting. But this isn’t a story of the moon against Earth and trying to break away from their oppressors (no Boston Tea Party here), instead, this is a story of how the underbelly of any civilisation functions and the fact that every society has one.
The main character, Jazz, is a young lapsed-Muslim woman who has grown up on Artemis. She is a petty criminal, a smuggler, but one of relatively upstanding moral fibre. She finally thinks her big paycheck has arrived when she’s asked to sabotage the city’s aluminium (or aluminum, as this is an American story) smelting business. Trouble is, unbeknownst to Jazz, the business is run by Brazillian gangsters who don’t take terribly kindly to people making a dent in their profits.

An argument for creative writing classes
From the very beginning, Artemis is a lesson in what not to do. The info-dumps are thrown in hard and fast, and they just keep on coming. They are not only incredibly boring but handled with such ineptitude as to read like a teenager’s fan fiction. I could see how it might have worked for Weir’s first novel though, having a scientist dryly explain his surroundings in a methodical and detail-oriented way. After all, that’s what scientists – and explorers in particular – do. But what is the excuse here?
…Which brings me to the issue of narrative point of view. Artemis is told in first person with a lot of literary equivalent to ‘breaking the fourth wall’. Jazz constantly talks to her reader in a tongue-in-cheek, chorus style. But who is she talking to? What exactly is the premise here? I realise that most first-person narratives require a little extra suspension of disbelief, but when you start throwing in the narrator talking to the audience, it really flips the lid on the believable if there’s no context to it. Is it an interview like in The Interview with the Vampire? Is it tape recordings or a journal like The Martian? Or is it a catalogue of letters (which, to be fair, some of Artemis is) like Dangerous Liaisons? Why is Jazz telling this story and to whom?

The writing of women
I love that a man writing ‘hard’ science fiction opted to have a female protagonist. That’s great news! But… ummmm… Mr. Weir, Have you actually met any 26-year-old women? Jazz is meant to be an intelligent, independent young woman who had a fairly strict, religious upbringing. Instead, what we see is someone who could, at best, be a snotty 13-year-old. On no planet is this character an intelligent adult. Not only is she immensely irritating, she is nonsensical. Not only this, but there are several potentially problematic representations of Jazz as both a lapsed-Muslim and an Arab. Much of her characterisation made me cringe and I can’t imagine anyone from either of those communities would appreciate her depiction either.
Why do we still see the trope of a protagonist who is just simply good at everything or magically knows everything? Without training, Jazz manages to pick up incredibly sophisticated engineering and design ideas in a matter of hours. She seems to know a lot about a whole range of sciences, from physics to engineering and chemistry. I can absolutely buy a hyper-accomplished main character but to do that, I need to see some hints at education or working at a skill. Any skill. All we see of Jazz is a disrespectful daughter who never applied herself to anything… but we are supposed to believe she is some kind of genius? I don’t think so. Weir mostly uses her uncanny scientific genius as a way to shove in more random scientific facts to the narrative – all of which are unnecessary and heavy-handed.

To be honest, I have no idea why I even bothered to finish this book. It was dire from beginning to end. Perhaps I hoped it would get better. It doesn’t. Learn from my mistakes and don’t read this. There are so many other, well-written science fiction books being published.

Verdict: Artemis is an unskilled novel written by a one-trick pony. The writing is sloppy, lazy, and uninteresting. The characters are poorly developed and irritating as hell. I recommend reading literally anything else.

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