I'm afraid I just couldn't get into this book. The scientific aspect was fantastic but apart from that, nothing really grabbed my attention.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. The highlight of this book is the way Weir wrote Artemis. I think he did an amazing job. I found the city on the moon to be completely believable. Everything seemed to make sense, it seemed real and like he was just explaining a thing that exists in the real world. I find that to be a general characteristic of Weir's writing. He can make you believe anything, and I really appreciate that. The way he manages to do that is through his signature "sciency" writing. Weir uses a lot of really technical terms to explain his world and his plot, and he just does it in a really authentic way, so you don't really care if it's actually true. It feels true and that's the only thing that matters.
Moreover, Artemis is just super cool. The city is vibrant, it has like a rich and a poor neighborhood, it has a park, it has it's own economy and it's all just super amazing. I loved the setting and it's definitely my favorite part of the book.

Jazz Bashara was a compelling heroine. She is spunky and really funny, and seems super competent. She is loyal and really smart, kind of a jerk, but in a good and an endearing way. I personally like characters like that, but I think that a lot of people would have issues with how Jazz treats people. She is kind of your Mark Watney, but cruder and more awful to people. I did feel like she was too similar to Mark, with the constant jokes and that sort of the same way of dealing with issues.

I don't think Weir did an awful job at writing a female character, but I don't think he did a good job either. There were stuff that felt really like they were written by a man, some slight annoyances that got on my nerves at times, but I did not find them so awful to be unbearable. It wasn't that great, but it wasn't that awful. Jazz could have easily been a man, and it wouldn't have made much of a difference, which I don't like.

As for the rest of the characters, I found them all to be charming, but there wasn't a lot of depth to them. I enjoyed them, especially Svoboda, but I am a sucker for nerdy, clutzy scientists. I really am. So the characters were colorful, but there wasn't a lot of depth there.

The plot is rather slow. There's a ton of build up, which I get. The set up of the world requires time, and Weir did a great job in creating Artemis, so he had to use up a lot of pages to set the scene. Which means that the plot starts picking up over halfway through, and gets really exciting at probably 70 percent. Which I personally did not mind, because I liked the setting so much, but it was slow in its build up.
The problem is that the build up wasn't that exciting. I think the plot could have been a lot more developed and explored and I just felt like something was missing, even though it was enjoyable.

I honestly can't wait to see this as a movie. As with his previous work, this is really cinematic and I think it would really transfer well to the screen. I think Artemis as a concept is going to be really great to see in action and I am looking forward to that happening (because I think it will).

As to which one I prefer, I would have to say The Martian. I think the plot's more exciting, I think the side characters are more developed and I really like Mark as a hero, while Jazz is a struggle at times. I do prefer the setting in Artemis to Watney's Mars in The Martian. I do however think that if you enjoyed one, you will enjoy the other. They are quite similar in feel and concept.

Overall, this was fun, and I'd recommend you check it out, especially if you liked The Martian. As stated above, I did have some issues, but it's a book that is really enjoyable and keeps you interested until the end.

My favourite quote from the book:

‘If my neighbourhood were wine, connoisseurs would describe it as “shitty, with overtones of failure and poor life decisions”.’

I laughed so hard.

When one finds themselves buying not only the book but a signed edition, it is obviously a brilliant book. Right? RIGHT! The story is based pretty much in a fully-fledged city on the Moon, called Artemis. Everything that happens in an average city happens here except with less gravity—which seems like a hell-of-a-lot of fun, except for the eminent death if you step outside, not only due to lack of oxygen but also due to those beautiful, vicious rays from the sun, that will likely burn you to a crisp and poison you with huge amounts of radiation. So much fun! Right? Just so you know, no tanning on the moon. Can you sense that I’m channeling Jazz here? Well, I am. She is the funky, smart-arsed female protagonist/smuggler who has the explosive smarts of an atom bomb, and the attitude to go with it. I’m not exaggerating… where ever she goes explosions seem to follow, literally. See! Fuuuun tiiiiimes!

Include a major heist worth millions of slugs (moon money) and Jazz’s unfortunate position amongst the ghettos of the moon city Artemis, and there is an epic story where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Andy Weir doesn’t disappoint with this story. A completely different arc to The Martian, I found this story even more entertaining, with the famous Andy Weir humour strategically slotted in to an otherwise serious sci-fi story.

This book hit all the targets for me. The story is amazingly smart, the characters interesting and diverse, and the writing exaggeratedly entertaining at times and easy to follow. But as true Science Fiction dictates the scientific babble is somewhat dense within this book. It is not the worst I’ve read by far. Andy Weir truly tries to help the average reader understand through Jazz’s blasé attitude in explaining the logistics of most problems, but I still found myself getting fairly lost (because sadly I’ve never been scientifically gifted in any way). Unless I devoted copious time into rereading large sections I was never going to completely understand the problem of oxygen, or no oxygen while welding some other thing or other? For me, I just put my complete trust in Jazz that she knew what she was doing and enjoyed the story. On that note: please make Mark Watney and Jazz Bashara meet one day? Pretty please, cherry on top, or floating, whichever way works within minimal gravity.

My only criticism was the ending. I found some of the reasoning for how the city operated a little unlikely, leaving me with questions like: what about this? This was only a small issue though, and maybe again I didn’t wholly understand the full political logistics of running a city on the Moon. Regardless, I loved the book. I would probably read it again and again, which I don’t say that for literally any book! Now, where is my signed copy at? I hate waiting... ;)

Artemis was so much fun to read and plenty interesting. I love a good sci-fi book and if the mc is funny but not in an overwhelming kind of way, then I’m hooked from the start. Guess what? I was hooked from the very first page! I fought to get an ARC because I loved The Martian; I couldn’t miss another book like that one, right? I was such a fool to let two whole months pass from receiving the ARC to finally reading it. Such a fool, shame on me!

“Oh, poor billionaire,” I said. “Maybe you should have some moors installed so you can pine on them.”

Now that I have read it, I can very much say that I loved it; loved the concept, the characters, the heist, the twists, and how easy was to read it without being a scientist. I recommend it more to science enthusiasts, though, because it has many terms that may confuse or bore most of the people I know so, if you’re not in awe of everything scientific, then maybe this book is not for you.

I had this bad habit of checking my bank account every day, as if compulsively looking at it would make it grow. But the banking software wasn’t interested in my dreams.

Jazz is a wonderful main character. She is fun, she is a rebel, and she is extremely relatable. She lives in the poorest part of Artemis. Did I mention that Artemis is the only city on the Moon? On the freaking Moon!! Can you believe how cool is it to live on the Moon with only 1/6th of the Earth’s gravity? I loved everything about Artemis; it seemed like magic but at the same time it all seemed so possible it was incredibly enchanting. I was dreaming with my eyes wide open.

“I’m sorry, but this isn’t my thing,” I said. “You’ll have to find someone else.”
“I’ll give you a million slugs.”
“Deal.”

Let’s go back to Jazz: she is a Saudi-Arabian 25-year-old girl, she works as a porter, and she is a criminal. Not a dangerous one, though. She smuggles things from Earth to sell to a higher price to Artemisians. Let’s say you miss smoking and it’s forbidden to smoke in Artemis because it’s flammable, then what do you do? You call Jazz, place your order, she emails her friend on Earth and, tadah, you have your very expensive cigarettes and you can smoke on the Moon, hopefully without setting the whole city on fire killing everyone inside.

The city shined in the sunlight like a bunch of metallic boobs. What? I’m not a poet. They look like boobs.

Jazz needs money and she’s been presented with the perfect opportunity to gain enough money to live like a queen possibly for the rest of her life. She can’t turn it down even if it’s dangerous and she risks being deported to Earth where she hasn’t been since she was a little girl. She is not an Earthling anymore; she is a 100% Artemisian.

How dare you call me lazy! I’d come up with a scathing retort but, meh, I’m just not motivated.

The story doesn’t lack twists and many of them involve side characters. I knew things weren’t going to be as they seemed at first, but some twists got me totally unprepared. I love a story that doesn’t put drama just for the sake of it and the twists are well managed so that the story doesn’t drag pointless for too long. The story flows perfectly with all its obstacles. Jazz, her inner monologues, and her interactions with the side characters make this story captivating. Once you start reading, you won’t want to stop until the end.

“You are unmarried and have sex with many men.”
“Yes, I’m quite the harlot.” Her son, Isvan, had banged more dudes than I ever had. I resisted the urge to tell her.

I can’t and won’t say much about anything else. I found myself rooting for Jazz from the start and I wanted to see how her crazy self was going to manage all the crazy things she wanted to do to have a better future and to redeem herself from all the bad decisions she’s made in the past. This is a charming story and it’s told perfectly. I loved it and if you loved The Martian as much as I did, then pick this book as soon as it’s released and read it.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

This is the second novel from the phenomenal author who wrote The Martian, which was turned into an amazing film. However, this novel is quite different from the first.

This story takes place on the first colony on Mars as we are following smuggler Jazz as she goes about her business and ends up in some shady situations that she did not expect. This is another action packed fun story from this amazing author.

To be honest as I began reading this novel (not having read what the novel was about) I was unsure if Jazz was male or female for almost the first half of the first chapter. Although Jazz is intelligent and kind of a bad ass chick I do not appreciate that the author writes her as she is kind of slutty, or at least he makes her out to be so and I'm unsure if it's entirely true. I don't like when some male authors have a tendency to make a woman either helpless (not the case in Jazz) or slutty (which is the case). It's like women cannot be bad asses and that's it.... that would be my only real complaint about the novel.

Wonderful novel, exciting and fun to read and I will continue to keep an eye on this author!

I loved “The Martian”, so of course I was bound to request this one. To be fair, I didn’t enjoy it as much, but it was still a good, fun read in several ways.

I found the characters in general likeable enough, in definite ‘shades of grey. The ‘heroes’ of this story are seldom all white, and go about their business with good intentions and shady ways. The businessman who moved to the moon to help his ailing daughter, but is a crook on the side. The economist who almost single-handedly set a whole country as the only entry point to the Moon, and won’t shy away from closing eyes on criminal deals as long as they help keeping Artemis afloat. The city’s policeman (Artemis has something like 2,000 inhabitants, minus the tourists, so Rudy does the job) who’s keeping order by breaking a few arms at times if he deems it’ll be a better punishment than prison. And, of course, Jazz Bashara herself, porter by day, smuggler by night, of sorts, running her little operation with no one the wiser.

(Granted, not everyone is a complete a-hole here, Jazz’s father for instance is a law-abiding citizen who doesn’t want anything to do with his daughter’s shady side; on the other hand, Jazz clearly has him to thank for her own ethical side, the one that makes her never renege on a deal, and puts her in the (trustworthy criminal’ category, so to speak.)

The story itself starts in a fairly typical way for heist stories: Jazz needs money, her criminal activities aren’t bringing in as much as she needs, nor quickly enough, so when a dangerous but particularly juicy deal comes her way, she shoves her qualms in her pocket and accepts it. Only it turns out she’s bitten more than she could chew, and finds herself embroiled in an almost conspiracy, forcing her to gather all her wits, resources and allies in order to find a way out. All in all, the kind of story I like to read: maybe not the most original, but with high potential for action, fun, quirky characters, and, well, capers.

There isn’t as much technical detailing in this novel as there was in “The Martian”, so it’s definitely not hard to follow. The whole caper(s) resting on scientific knowledge and using the moon’s gravity and peculiar sides to work within the plan, that was really interesting for me. Maybe the welding-related descriptions were a little too long at times, though; at least, I didn’t care as much about those as I did about other scientific explanations.

I liked the overall diversity in Artemis. This small city has, from A to Z, a multicultural side that I think worked well, and didn’t rest on the usual ‘Western world colonises space’ (Kenya and its space company holds the entry door to the moon, Artemis’s administrator is a Kenyan woman, the policeman is Canadian, Jazz and her father are from Saudi Arabia, many of Jazz’s contacts are Vietnamese or Slavic, etc.).

I wasn’t totally on board with the way Jazz told the story, though. The wit didn’t work as well here as it did in “The Martian”, mostly, I’d say, because there’s too much of a dichotomy between Jazz’s ‘voice’ and her age: sometime in the middle of the story, we learn she’s 26, but from her tone, attitude, expressions and way of being, I would’ve thought her late teens/20, and not older. There -is- an immature side to her character, so in itself it’s not like her voice doesn’t fit at all, yet it didn’t feel ‘right’ either.

Conclusion: 3.5 stars. Disregard the author’s previous best-seller, take this story as it comes, and enjoy the heist parts, the assembling of Jazz’s motley crew, the description of Artemis, and the outings on the Moon in an EVA suit that can spring a leak just any time due to the characters attempting bold moves and daring rescues.

With his debut, The Martian, such a success, there is plenty of expectation riding on Andy Weir’s second novel, Artemis. Artemis is also set in the near future, in space (on the Moon to be precise) and most of his characters seem a little too obsessed with science (or economics) but narratively Artemis is a very different beast to The Martian.
Artemis is the name of the small lunar colony, home to Jasmine ‘Jazz’ Bashara, down on her luck and looking to make her fortune. Jazz keeps her head above water running contraband into the colony but very soon finds herself in the middle of an economic war for control of the aluminium smelter which, as a by-product, produces unlimited oxygen for the station. With sabotage, murder and organised crime in the mix, things start looking bad for Jazz until she takes her life, and the future of Artemis into her own hands.
Given the number of big name science fiction authors who have successfully used the Moon as a setting, Weir has set himself a mammoth task from the outset. Artemis is a frontier town where almost anything goes and the law is often in the hands of the locals and there is a fair amount of technical explanation for why things work differently in Artemis. And while the whole package is not as sophisticated as Heinlein’s Moon or McDonald’s Luna, the setting itself feels like a believable, fully lived in environment.
Cut to the bone, Artemis is essentially a heist novel (a number of characters refer to their exploits as “capers”) where the laws of science creates problems for our heroes but being savvy about science also means any problems can be fixed. While the plot, characters and setting are different to The Martian, there are plenty of elements that make this a Weir novel. Jazz's overall snarky, sarcastic tone is similar to Mark Watney, everything can be fixed by solving technical problems and most of the main characters all seem come from the same geeky casting pool. But, like The Martian, Artemis is also a rollicking read and sure to appeal to fans looking for engaging, tech-filled but not too challenging science fiction.

Andy Weir
The Martian was the stand out hit, gaining a huge fan following and prompting a rather good Hollywood adaptation. So it’s with some hesitation that we approach author Andy Weir’s next science fiction book, Artemis. It’s definitely not the Martian, but it is very good, and shows the Weir has depth and flexibility in his approach.

Artemis is set in a near future in which Kenya (which has a unique position on the equator) has colluded with various corporate interests to build a moon-base, mostly as a way of making more money flow through Kenya. Artemis is not a nation, rather a collection of interests under five domes, named after heroes of Apollo programme.

The book focuses on the character of Jazz Bashra, a Saudi Arabian (lapsed) Muslim who regards the Moon as her home. Despite her considerable talent, intelligence and skill, the twenty-something has a job as a courier and petty criminal. Many things are banned in Artemis, especially anything flammable, so Jazz spends her time looking to make a quick buck here and there sneaking cigars and the like under the noses of the authorities. The de-facto currency is based on how many grams someone can transport onto the moon, and Jazz has been saving up her allowance for something special. So when an offer that seems too good to be true arrives, she grabs it and literal lunacy begins.

Artemis is the sort of science fiction work that wants to gush at you with all the cool science facts, but is desperate to avoid dumping loads of exposition on you. Much like The Martian, this results in a steady drip of story relevant science related coolness. Weir really does make science utterly fascinating and absorbing. It wraps science coolness up in delicious layers of crime adventure, making for a very geeky sort of heist tale.

The main character is quite interesting though a little annoying and narcissistic at points. Weir paints the picture of a care-free science nerd who is actually none of those things quite well, though she’s clearly written with the male gaze in mind. The supporting cast however, are fab and it’s nice that pretty much everyone has a proper motivation and feels like a real person.

Artemis is the book that Weir is the heir to the mantle of classic science fiction master. It’s an addictive, fast paced read, perfect for a long journey or bit of daily escapism. If you’re after a moon adventure (and you loved Have Spacesuit will Travel), book a flight to Artemis today.

Did you ever do any of those leadership tests where you have to get yourself and a team across an (imaginary) chasm with only two short planks and a bit of rope? Because that is how this book reads: Jazz is set a test, it goes wrong, she has to work out how to put it right and then go on to the next test. OK she is a smart tough girl but is also a bit of a wiseass. And I learned I learned more about welding than I really wanted to know, although if I ever have to fire up an arc weld in a vacuum I'm sure I will be glad I read the book.
Having said that, it is, overall not too bad a book. Characterisation is not its strong point but there is plenty of action and the basic plot is good. I would certainly read any further books about Jazz but would hope that she might have grown up a little.
I was provided with an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Andy Weir, the author of popular sci-fi novel The Martian, is back with his new novel Artemis. Previously, he wrote about a character on an explorative mission to Mars gone wrong and now he's back with a story of a young woman that has been living in a city on the Moon since she was a child. The entire area her and about 2000 other people reside in is made up of five connecting spheres called "bubbles" that are named after the famous astronauts involved in the moon landing and it's also about a 40km train ride from the Apollo 11 area of the original moon landing so there's a large tourism business. Some of the areas like Conrad are just for people that actually live there and it's not great with lots of plain buildings and people basically living on top of each other in tiny rooms with shared bathrooms but then in Aldrin, there are tourists with fantastic luxury hotels and widely expensive shopping districts. As you would expect, it's extremely expensive to travel to the moon for even a week and the people that live there struggle just as much to pay their bills on their small wages from technical and upkeep jobs.

Jazz Bashara came from Saudi Arabia to Artemis with her father when she was just six years old and it became her home. Jazz now dreams of being an EVA guide which means going outside the city and taking tourists out on tours that pay very well but she's currently living in a tiny room, barely getting enough money to get by and without the money for a proper suit she keeps failing the test to get into the Guild. Something that started off interesting was the fact that Jazz and her father are Saudi Arabian and her father is a devout Muslim but she stopped practising Islam before the events of this book most likely due to the environment and social norms being very different to Earth. I loved reading about a character like this in the lead on an awesome adventure on the Moon but then I wasn't really happy with something. When Jazz needed to disguise herself to get past people she knew she dressed in the traditional Islamic headwear but then she said, "Great way to wear a mask without arousing suspicion" and I just thought, that doesn't seem like something a Muslim would ever say or think because it's often used a really offensive remark towards them. I don't know, I'd be interested to know if someone who is Muslim finds this offensive or if it's just myself who finds it odd.

This book delivered on the same witty, smart-ass main character persona that I loved in The Martian but a huge difference is that in Artemis the main character is a female. Jazz Bashara is just as anti-rules and sarcastic as Mark Watney and I think Andy Weir feels very comfortable writing that type of role but the biggest negative in this book is that it's a man writing a woman so I felt there were some key moments that were just so out of the realm of woman that it tore my mind out of the story. Basically, it's that hilarious thing that you often see when men write women because the use of the word "boob/s" outside of a romance novel jumps from the average of say, five to at least forty or fifty! I mean, it's not like the use of the word boob is illegal but when you the characters say the word four times on one page it makes me a little annoyed. Also, in the midst of murder and corruption of a small population living on the Moon, it was a little frustrating how often the men around Jazz talked about her sexual activity and her body like it was the best form of conversation during a thrilling, mystery set on the Moon...

So, I discussed two big things I didn't like about this book, a weird paragraph about her niqab and the over-sexualised tone of the whole book, but aside from not liking the way the characters were written I did enjoy the actual plot of the book. I loved the attention to detail and the way things on the Moon and things they were doing were explained to the reader without being too obvious. One thing that Jazz mentions a lot is that their justice system and enforcement is more direct in Artemis with people getting the sense knocked into them instead of going through a big process of court and such and that is shown in this book because when things start escalating they just get straight into the action and it was a refreshing turn to other books I've read. I didn't understand why she was talking to the audience in her head so much when it wasn't written in diary format like The Martian but that must just be the writer's style. Overall, it was a fun, unique book that was also really addictive and well paced. The world building of the city of Artemis was my favourite part because it sounds like such an amazing place!

I have been looking forward to this book for such a long time, I adored The Martian and was hoping that Artemis would live up to expectations and, wow, it really did.

Artemis is a wonderful book which is much more than a sci-fi novel. It explores morals and social consciences, is an exploration of politics and power and is a whole heap of fun. Jazz is probably one of my favourite characters of the year, I loved her ballsy and kick-ass attitude and how she was in control of her life and destiny. The city of Artemis was wonderfully described (when can I visit please?) and the science was detailed yet accessible. Full of humour and unexpectedly emotional Artemis was pretty wonderful and one of my favourite books of 2017.

I'll be posting a full review on my blog, Goodreads, Amazon etc on publication date and shouting about how brilliant Artemis is on social media, because it really is!

Artemis by Andy Weir.
Published by Del Rey, November 2017
384 pages
ISBN: 978-0091956943
Review by Mark Yon
So: this is the follow-up to the New York Times bestseller, mega-selling, runaway-success debut novel and very profitable movie The Martian. The Martian was first published in 2014, after being online before that. Despite being only three years for most people, it seems like a long while ago… but it’s clear from this that Andy’s been busy.
Artemis (Definition: “a Greek moon goddess, often portrayed as a virgin huntress”) is set at a time in the near future when Mankind has colonised the Moon, but not entirely. There’s one city, Artemis, next to where Armstrong and Aldrin landed in 1969. It’s in this setting that we’re introduced to Jazz Bashara, one of the basic grunts trying to make her way upward through life as a porter to the many rich and privileged on the Moon.
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis 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.

So: using Andy’s other job as software engineer to good effect, Artemis is on solid ground, all be it mainly Luna rather than Terra. It’s a book that combines entertaining aspects of different SF novels and tropes – there’s a near-future feel, a bit of a heist story going on, a bit of a Luna vibe (see also Ian McDonald, albeit less determinedly internationally global and less sexual than that) and a slightly worn, well used environment.
My first thought whilst reading is that Artemis has a rather Heinlein-esque feel about it. Heinlein had that difficult knack of writing seemingly simple and approachable text whilst also keeping a plot moving and at the same time not alienating the reader. It’s very tricky to get right, even now, but there’s a reason why Heinlein went from the SF pulps on to mainstream magazines such as the Saturday Post, and Artemis seems to echo it. In fact, it’s a surprisingly confident book for someone on only his second novel. The last time I remember such an ability to manage tech-talk without losing track of the characters and the plot in mainstream novels so obviously was probably Michael Crichton (before Jurassic Park.)
This confidence is also reflected in the characterisation, which is pleasingly and deceptively slick. Like in The Martian, Andy adds touches of humour that keeps things from getting too grim. Although we are only getting Jazz’s versions of events through her narrative, there’s fast-moving banter with a nice combination of bravado and self-depreciation. Jazz is a rogue, but a likable one.
I guess the counterview of this is that, for long time SF readers, there’s nothing particularly new here – see Heinlein (already mentioned), Ben Bova' Grand Tour started in the ‘70’s, and more recently Ian McDonald's Luna books, Neal Stephenson's Seveneves, even James S A Corey's Expanse series. (I’m sure that you can add others.) It’s a great read, as much of a page-turner as The Martian was, but it’s not exactly ground-breaking.
That sounds curmudgeonly, or perhaps at least a little unfair. Artemis is not meant to be ground-breaking, at all. I remember similar grumbles also being said about The Martian as well, and that criticism did that book no harm at all. Despite the negativity that may appear from some quarters, most importantly, what works here, as it did with The Martian, is that the characters are engaging, the setting understandable and the pace begins fast and continues throughout to the end. Above all, it’s entertaining.
Which is exactly what readers of The Martian, looking for ‘what Andy did next’, would want. It’s SF, but not too way-out, not too extreme so that readers are going to go all ‘2001’ and think ‘WTF was all that about?’ I’m sure that there will be places where some readers will quibble about ‘the science’, as they did with The Martian, but in the end the story’s told well enough for it not to matter to most readers.
And that is the crux of the book. I suspect that Artemis will do very well, as an SF novel read by readers who don’t normally read SF. Like his previous book, if it hasn’t been optioned already, it is very filmic and in my opinion would make an excellent movie, given the budget and the right director to bring its prose to visual life. There’s a definite Michael Crichton feel to this one.
I’m sure that there must have been enormous pressure on the author to create a book as good as his first. Writers will tell you that it’s not easy to manage such a feat, but he seems to have done it, admirably. Such enormous scrutiny has been the death of many other writers - well done, Andy, for managing to make Artemis as good as your first novel.

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.

I enjoyed the first 50 pages and the last 20.

The rest I found really dull.

I didn't like that...
- the characters all sounded exactly the same
- not only was the writing uninteresting but so was the content of the writing
- it read like a textbook a lot of the time
- there were lots of gross comments that were meant to be funny but just felt out of place
- the main character was a woman but of course she had to be known as a whore and had to dress as a hooker as part of one of her dastardly plans
- also she had to be super flirtly with all the other characters (who were 90% male) even when her dad was around... gross
- the main character also was so super intelligent and had such a good memory that she was conveniently able to remember obscure facts and work out obscure problems that meant the storyline could continue
- there was just the one storyline, nothing else going on at all, so there was no savour from the dullness
- the characters' relationships made no sense at all at some points

I read Weir's previous book The Martian after seeing the AMAZING movie and was disappointed by how dry it was - but not as disappointed as with this.

Actual rating 4.5 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.

I was really excited when I was approved by Netgalley for this book, The Martian was one of my favourite books last year and I was really looking forward to getting stuck into this. This one is a very different story, still with all the science and clever techie stuff that Andy Weir is making his signature style, but this time with a female protagonist and set on the Moon. Jazz is a fabulous character, a bit of a rebel and with a renegade spirit. She needs cash, fast. She lives in Artemis, the first and only city on the moon. Her Dad is the master welder (which is going to come in very handy) and because Jazz has been a bit of a rogue in her past she doesn’t work in the family business but works as a courier delivering packages. This allows her the opportunity to import forbidden items into Artemis. She is basically running an importation business. This means she meets some dodgy people.

The structure of Artemis is fantastically described and I loved reading about all the features of it’s bubbles and how the society is managed there. Life is pretty grim for many of the inhabitants but looks great to the tourists who visit for the opportunity to go out onto the moon surface with the qualified EVA people who take tours, Jazz has just failed her exam to become an EVA specialist when we meet her.

When Jazz is offered the opportunity to earn a huge pile of money she jumps at the chance. She is going to sabotage large machinery and enable her friend to pick up the contract from which he will make a fortune. This sabotage plan will mean danger and risk to Jazz and the story is about her planning and organising this and then putting it into action. It is really detailed. At times I was left a little underwhelmed by all the detail of the sabotage but while there is a bit of a lag in the middle of the book, it picks up markedly towards the end and I found myself completely absorbed as the book raced to it’s conclusion.

There is a heap to like in this book, The Martian was always going to be a hard act to follow and I think Andy Weir has done a good job on this one and I’m looking forward to the next.

"Artemis" is the new book from critically acclaimed, formerly independent author Andy Weir. Unlike its predecessor, "The Martian", "Artemis" is set on the Moon, in the same Universe, circa seventy years after the events of "The Martian". Needless to say, Mark Watney is history by this point, but this time, in the center of our action sits someone else: Jasmine Bashara, nicknamed "Jazz".

The name of the book comes from the Greek Goddess of the Moon, Artemis, one of the most vastly venerated goddesses of ancient Greece. She who was also the Goddess of the Hunt, the Forests, the Hills and of Archery. In the book, this name designates the first lunar city, Artemis, which Jazz Bashara is a citizen of.

Since Andy Weir likes telling stories in first person, this time he's evidently narrating cross-gender, and does so surprisingly well. This is one of the best examples of cross-gender narrative done well. Usually, they're less common, and when they exist, the quality is nothing short of questionable. For "Artemis", this is not the case. One of the strong points of the book is making you believe without any doubts that this story is told by a woman. When it's not.

While being a solid piece of Science Fiction literature, "Artemis" has the downside of living in the shadow of its older sibling, "The Martian". "Artemis" is a very good book, but with "The Martian" we had the opportunity to collide first time with Andy Weir's style and with the uniqueness of his technical and scientific explanations of the things the main character always did to preserve himself. We can find plenty of that in "Artemis" as well, because Jazz Bashara is, just like Mark Watney, a MacGyver of Outer Space, but this time the reader is already used to it, so "Artemis" brings less in the sense of innovation than "The Martian" did, while bringing more in the sense of storytelling, being a much more complex work structurally than "The Martian" ever was, through its higher number of characters and the relations between them. Adding to this are the cultural differences, because for those who cannot tell until now, Jazz Bashara is a Muslim. And she encounters barriers not only because she's female, but because of her religion as well, even though she wasn't necessarily a religious person, but people around her identified her as such because she was of Arabian descent. So "Artemis" not only does Science Fiction well, but also treats delicate themes with care, pointing out the problems in our society and their outcome in an eventuality of their persistence over time.

Leaving political aspects aside, "Artemis" is a very good read, threading at the point between relaxing and engaging, which makes it very fit both for the average reader, as well as for the more experienced one, whose expectations are generally higher.

And, just as "The Martian" became a movie, "Artemis" should do too at some point, because while the book doesn't necessarily surface over "The Martian", being somewhat its equal in terms of quality and its smaller sibling in terms of innovation, it would definitely be bigger and better as a movie. Much more visual than "The Martian", and more dynamic than it, hence better fit for the big screen.

"Artemis" should definitely be your go-to read for the month of November 2017.

I loved The Martian by Andy Weir so much it made my Top 5 list for 2014. Since then, I've been looking forward to his next novel, and watching Matt Damon in the film adaptation of The Martian managed to sustain me in the meantime.

Fast forward to late 2017, and the wait is over! Artemis is coming out next month, but unfortunately it's nothing like The Martian. Artemis is about a young woman living in a settlement on the moon. The Martian is about a man stranded on Mars. Sound similar?

They're both set in space, they both have a lot of science, but where Mark Watney is hilarious, Jazz is not. The science in The Martian is critical to the character's survival. In Artemis, the science centres around a heist.

I didn't warm to the character of Jazz at all. Her one liners and jokes weren't funny and I just didn't care enough about her welfare or what she was doing. Where I was laughing on every other page and marvelling at the science while reading The Martian, I was longing for Artemis to end.

I'm understandably disappointed, as this was a long awaited release I was really really looking forward to, but if you loved reading The Martian, do yourself a favour, and give Artemis a miss. The magic just isn't there.

People are living on the moon, a mountie is in charge of the almost-non-existent-and-usually unnecessary law, and there is an honest thief about to commit a huge crime that could put the whole planet and its inhabitants in danger.

Welcome to Artemis. (Mostly tourists)

The personal quickly becomes political when the only way for Jazz Bashara to make a lot of money for personal reasons is to commit a very dangerous act. The first rule of Artemis, however, is no fire. As Jazz says, “A fire in Artemis would be a nightmare. It’s not like we can go outside.”

Just as in ‘The Martian’, Andy Weir wades easily into the scientific reasoning behind the reality that would challenge earthians living on the moon.

The explanations are handled well and with a good dose of knowing that living on the moon is exotic and for those of us who don’t know about it, the mundane is thrilling. The tone is similar in that respect to The Martian. There aren’t many writers who could take what is essentially a one-act play and turn it into gripping Human vs Planet super-action. Weir did it then and he does it now. Better than anyone I’ve read, although I’ve not read much science fiction admittedly. Better than anyone I’ve read in most genres at least.

His characters talk to us not as scientists, but like knowledgeable friends.

The characters are real. They want things that are unrelated to the storyline. They live and breathe and exist in creative ways all of their own. The storyline builds around the current crisis faced by the protagonist, hedges a bit to the cultural and the practical – for example, immigration tends to focus in sector-specific work and from certain countries of origin (historically) and on Artemis almost all the welders are Saudis. “We’re just the people who ended up controlling the welding industry.”

Then Weir also brings in the political rulings and structures of earth, the future, the economics of trading blocks and the adjustments needed within the internal runnings of cities at the small and global level.

The intelligence of this intense and thrilling read is astounding. I can’t recommend this book enough. I loved the depth, the fun, the stress, the characters, and the action. And not to forget the science or the mountie who could just as easily have come out of a good Mills&Boon book.

One of my best reads of 2017.

Artemis by Andy Weir is published on 14 November 2017

Andy Weir is the best in the business for the level of semblance of reality in science fiction. But that's not the only reason that makes him a masterful storyteller, it's how well he uses science for telling a compelling story. The description of science behind living on the moon, which doesn't get too technical is very engaging. The premise is interesting, but sometimes the humor seems to be forced.

It’s not the technical depth that inspire awe but his attention to detail of the consequence of science on day-to-day life. It’s one thing to note that the boiling point of water drops as atmospheric pressure drops, but how many people would stop to think about how that affects the taste of coffee on the low pressure atmosphere of Artemis? How the low gravity effects people with arthritis and people with crutches?