I thought this was another great book! I wrote more on Goodreads. I could see this becoming another blockbuster hit!

Having heard of Andy Weir's The MArtian novel, I was looking forward to this book being set on the moon.

I really liked the setting and themes of this book. However, I found the protagonist to sound more of a teenager than an adult in her mid-twenties. Furthermore, the science part of the book was a little draggy and I felt like I was slogging over a science lesson.

Three stars for worldbuilding and setting!

This is a locked room mystery. Artemis is the one and only city on the moon and bad things are happening. Jazz makes money on the side smuggling but when she is offered a very large sum to sabotage a industry she just cannot refuse. Jazz is a interesting character. She loves her city but skates on just the edge of the law. There are people that keep telling her that she is not living up to her potential. She is very smart and her definition of living up to her potential is different from others. However, this time she goes too far and causes a very big disaster. In the end she makes a big save and as the book ends she shows that she is still true to herself.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Interesting characters, interesting plot! and very interesting setting, too!

The attempt to make Jazz the next Mark Watney was too forced. Also, it was a bit too "sciency" for me.

Artemis by Andy Weir.  I really don't know much about anything science or space, but enjoyed the imaginative descriptions of Artemis and what a future moon colony would look like.  The book was entertaining to some extent but lost the sense of excitement about this book due to the personality of the main character. I liked the characters and their depth, knowledge and interactions. But honestly did not care for the main character. I found her to be rudely sarcastic and inmature for a mid to late twenty something.  To me her behavior was what I would expect from a young male maybe 14 or 15.  I finished only to see how they dealt with her because she was really the cause of all the drama.

I adored "The Martian," so I was disappointed when this book just wasn't as good. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun, fast-paced read, but I could not for the life of me connect with the main character, Jazz. She just felt too . . . forced. Some male authors can write fabulous female leads (Wally Lamb with "She's Come Undone" comes to mind), but Weir just didn't make me believe the book was taking place around a 20-something woman. Also, there's a pseudo romance thing Weir tries to make happen, and, to me, it fell flat. The story gained nothing from this "romance."

The science, though, was great- just like "The Martian" (which, in retrospect had a greater quantity of great science, so maybe that's what I'm drawn to). The action was well-paced, too, so honestly, it was a fun read. I liked it. I just didn't love it.

Everyone has to make a living somehow. Even on the moon.

Jazz Bashara grew up in Artemis, the moon's only human colony. Tourists flock here for the chance to spend their life's savings on a guided tour of the lunar surface-- which involves wondering about in a high tech hamster ball-- and sampling the local delicacy known as Gunk, a flavored algae no one voluntarily eats a second time. But for the full time residents, Artemis is a small town with the same problems as any community. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. And everyone knows Jazz Bashara is up to no good.

Jazz has a brilliant mind, but saw more fit to rebel against her traditional Muslim father than to apply it to her future. At 26, she finds herself the lunar equivalent of a UPS delivery person, living in an apartment the literal size of a coffin, and smuggling contraband from earth just to make ends meet. She dreams of the day she'll have a home she can stand up in, and access to non-communal bathroom, but Artemis is expensive. There's a sharp divide between the haves and have-nots: those who can afford to have an earth standard of living shipped into city and those at the mercy of the natural restrictions of living on the moon.

So when one of the wealthiest haves, a sketchy businessman who employs Jazz's smuggling skills on the regular, offers her a huge sum to take out a competing business, she takes him up on it. What starts as a complicated, but doable, task quickly spirals out of control. Jazz soon finds herself in the cross hairs of some powerful enemies and discovers Artemis's dirty secrets.

Any expectations I had for this book were purely speculative, because, unlike most of the rest of the world, I have not read <i>The Martian</i> or seen the movie. That said, I was surprised 1/3 of the way through to realize I was reading a lightweight heist novel with some heavy handed commentary on wealth inequality. Yes, it's set on the moon, and the author does not let you forget it, but it's the backdrop to the real issue: Jazz needs money.

One of the largest problems of this book is Jazz herself. She's supposed to be a grown woman, but she narrates like a teenage boy. She's as obsessed with her sex life as everyone else in Artemis seems to be, and I have to wonder if author Andy Weir has ever met a woman before. She's also really chatty and familiar with the audience in a way that grates over time:

<i>"Getting the contraband to Artemis... well, that's another story. More on that later."</i>

<i>"Okay, you can stop pretending you know what a niqab is."</i>

The whole book has a very YA vibe to it. It's lightweight and the heist gets a bit ridiculous. I mean, they plan out every detail on an ipad like device that their enemies have proven to be able to hack, but I digress. Between chapters, we get letters between Jazz and her earth pen-pal that date back to when they are children, but this has little relevance to the story at large and often feels like filler. And we get moments that read like a bad cable movie:

<i>"He's right, Dad. I am an asshole. But Artemis needs an asshole right now and I got drafted."</i>

<i>Artemis</i> has it's moments. It's fast paced and often fun. The descriptions of the moon colony, and what life might be like were anyone to attempt settling it, are interesting. But if you're expecting anything more of this than a throw away caper tale, you're going to be disappointed.

I was so excited that there was a new Andy Weir book coming out this fall. I absolutely loved The Martian--and that is coming from someone who usually tries to avoid science fiction at all costs. But after reading Artemis, I was disappointed, I just couldn't get into the story, and didn't care for the plot or the characters. Overall, I'd say skip over this one. Or, if you're determined to read it, put it at the bottom of your to-read list and try something else first.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this new novel by Andy Weir. It was more than just a sci-fi novel. It also felt like a thriller. It had a lot of techie science that I enjoyed. It had nothing about growing potatoes — Yay! Seriously, it was an fast-paced story about a 20 something-year-old Arab girl who is also a smuggler. She also just happens to live on the moon and has since she was six years old. She gets into something a little over her head and the action is nonstop from that point on. Another great read from Mr. Weir.

Love this book! The way that the world is built and the characters are so interesting!! Definitely worth the read!

Overall, I enjoyed Artemis, which I'd call a futuristic caper story set on the moon. Jazz, the main character, is a twenty-something woman with roots in Saudi Arabia who grew up in Artemis. Jazz is brilliant but an underachiever. She trained as a welder and wants join the guild. In the meantime, she works as a porter and makes ends meet by working as a small-time smuggler.

When a rich resident of Artemis offers Jazz a fortune to do a small job for him, she quickly agrees. But she soon finds that taking the job put her in huge danger. Her only way out? Assemble a team that includes a bunch of guys she has complicated histories with and pull off a daring caper.

WHAT I LIKED:

Jazz was smart and snarky, which I love in a character. She’s definitely not a girly-girl. She has a rocky relationship with her father, her ex, this other guy with a obvious crush on her, and a pen pal in Kenya (Artemis was created through the Kenyan space industry.) And I always love a good caper story.

WHAT I APPRECIATED BUT COULDN’T REALLY APPRECIATE:

the world-building about life on the moon. There is a lot of fun, imaginative stuff there. A lot of the caper involves very technical stuff that was a bit too yawn-inducing for me at times. I don’t think I needed or ever wanted to know that much about welding….

I recommend this for fans of caper stories, fans of stories set in space, and science-y types. I look forward to reviews that compare this to the Martian. Maybe I'll try it!

I received an ebook galley from the publisher via Netgalley.

To contrast this book with Weir's previous one is unavoidable, and perhaps unfair... but this really does seem to me like a case of Second Book Syndrome, where the expectations are high for the author to miraculously produce a book that is just like the previous one but totally original at the same time.

I loved <i>The Martian</i>, and so was excited to read Weir's new book. It recycles many of the same elements of his previous novel--hard science presented in a fun way, with a snarky protagonist--but it lacks heart. Oh, it's still a fun, fast read, and has a lot of good things about it; the diverse cast of characters was a pleasant surprise, and although many never progressed beyond stereotypes, it was still nice to see such representation at all.

In <i>The Martian</i>, you sympathize with the hero because he's abandoned on Mars and must survive on his own. Jazz, the spunky Saudi-lunar lead in <i>Artemis</i>, struggles to survive when her greedy, impulsive antics get her embroiled in international mob dealings in the moon colony. And in the end, everyone who almost dies as a result of her shenanigans laughs off everything sitcom-style. It felt... cloying rather than cathartic. The setting is incredible, and Weir is a master at writing space MacGuyvers, but much of the action felt made-for-Hollywood and hollow.

I still rate the book as a three, as it is still a fast and fascinating read, but I am left with a profound sense of disappointment.

I never got a chance to read The Martian so I wasnt comparing it to Artemis like a lot of people will probably end up doing. This was my first look at Andy Weirs story telling and I have some mixed feelings. I loved the adventure on the moon vibe and the feel of it being set in the near future. Things take off when the main character Jazz is hired for a job outside her normal smuggling activities and makes enemies of some powerful people. Ive always liked the criminal with heart of gold trope.

I loved all the moon facts and how Artemis, the city on the moon, sustains itself, but I wasnt really interested in the welding part. Those parts were a little tedious for me. I also thought living in 1/6 Earth gravity for long periods of time would cause problems for the human body. The author explains it, but I still didnt understand why it wasnt dangerous. Despite all the science stuff, the writing was easy to get into. Calling the handheld devices Gizmos wasnt the most imaginative thing Ive heard.

The idea of a female smuggler on the moon totally hooked me. Jazz is fiesty and smart enough to be anything, but her laziness tends to get in a way and she knows it. I could totally relate to that. A few of her lines were a bit akward and took me out of the story, but I didnt mind it too much because Ive even commented on how my lights looks like a boob. I liked that she came up with these crazy plans. I also loved how the dynamic between Jazz and her father developped. Even though they grew a part he's still there for her. She just wants to be independent and make up for her screw ups.

This book has a good amount of diversity, but Im not sure how accurate it is. Since I liked the side characters so much I really wish they would have gotten more developpement. I usually talk about the other characters in my review, but they just didnt seem to have much depth to them so there isnt much to say. For the most part, the pace was alright and the last 15% was exciting. Despite my issues this was an enjoyable and quick scifi read. I loved the criminal aspect and the main characters sass was entertaining. I might still give The Martian a try in the future and see how it compares to this book.

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As I assume many people are, I was super anxious to read the next book by Andy Weir. I was a huge fan of The Martian and his style of writing. Given this I jumped at the chance to get an ARC. I began reading immediately! As I read the first section, I was disappointed and, quite frankly, mad. It seemed like this book was beginning almost the same as The Martian. Our protagonist is running for the air lock with a busted suit... Really?!?!? I put the book down and didn't come back for about three weeks. It kept nagging at me. I loved his other book and this one is supposed to be different. I picked it back up and continued reading. I was not let down! I thoroughly enjoyed Artemis. Weir does an excellent job of sussing out life on a Lunar city. I really liked Jazz! I like smart characters who are quite smart-ass and she definitely fit the bill on that one. It was a quick easy read with some excellent vocabulary and, once again, science plays a big role. I highly recommend!

Potentially interesting mix of mystery and science-fiction. But very disappointing result for me.
I enjoyed so much The Martian, that when I saw Andy Weir had a new book out, I jumped on it, without reading the synopsis. That’s what I do with authors I’ve really liked…
Does this sentence sound familiar? Yes, this was the exact same sentence structure I used to begin my review of Sourdough. Unfortunately, things didn’t work as well for me with Artemis. And I may need to reconsider my blind jumps…
This time, Weir no longer sends us on Mars, but on the Moon. The heroine is Jazz. There are 3 confusing mentions of her age, but I believe she’s 26. Originally from Saudi Arabia, she arrived at 6, so she basically grew up on the Moon. She lives in Artemis, the only city there.
At first, I was intrigued at how the author would present that city. The administrator is a woman, the former Kenya’s minister of finance – with a wink I guess here towards diversity in fiction. Well, apart from that, it’s not too exciting, to tell the truth. Why bother move there, if you basically find there all our common problems, with unfair hierarchy, major gaps between the rich and the poor, and horrible housing conditions for the latter group?
Jazz is definitely not rich and has no real job so far, so she survives by smuggling contraband from Earth. But one day, one of her regular clients offers her big money for a special job. It’s definitely tempting, though if she’s caught, she will be exiled to Earth, a place she absolutely does not want to go back to. Only considering the technical challenges, she accepts, totally oblivious of major and much more dangerous forces at stake behind the whole deal.
This sounds like a mix between mystery and scifi, and could definitely be promising. There were some nice suspenseful scenes indeed.
And there was some potential in the letters that Jazz exchanges with Kelvin, living in Kenya.
Alas, the story was totally bogged down for me with A LOT of technical words, including tons of chemistry and physics. If you thought there was too much technology in The Martian, it was NOTHING compared to Artemis!
Besides, I really could not stand this young geeky (though the geeky part I like), vulgar superwoman. My rule of thumb for an author is that you have recourse to so many f* words, it reveals the deficiency of your vocabulary, and really I’m wasting my time reading your book. Plus, I found some passages really rude and of bad taste.

Andy Weir’s The Martian was one of my favorite reads from last year, so I was so excited to receive a review copy of his latest novel, Artemis. I wasn’t convinced that it could possibly live up to the thrill of The Martian because, seriously, how do you top a survival story about an astronaut who is stranded on Mars? But hearing that Artemis was a sci-fi thriller about carrying out a heist on the moon (!) gave me hope that Artemis would be just as entertaining a read for me as The Martian was. And I’m excited to report that it came pretty darn close!

Artemis is actually the name of the city on the moon where the story is set. Aside from the fact that it is covered by domes to compensate for the lack of gravity and to keep out troublesome space dust, Artemis is pretty much just like your average city or town on Earth. Artemis has touristy areas because of course going to the moon is a huge attraction for those who can afford it. It also has residential areas for those who reside on the moon full time. Artemis also has a similar class system to what is on Earth, where the rich live well and the poor do what they can to scrape by.

Jazz Bashara, the main character, is one of those poor residents who does what she can to scrape by. She works as a porter, delivering goods to residents all over Artemis, but the job barely pays her rent. Jazz has dreams of a bigger and better life for herself and so she has a side “job” working as a smuggler to bring in a little extra income. Street smart and incredibly resourceful, Jazz has somehow managed to corner the market on smuggling in contraband goods from Earth. For those who are willing to pay, Jazz can get them pretty much anything they want.

Jazz is a pretty fascinating character in the sense that she doesn’t really seem to have any qualms whatsoever about engaging in criminal activities. It is this quality that makes her the ideal candidate for a scheme that one of her wealthy regulars is planning. It’s a dangerous job, practically an impossible one, really, and one that could get her deported back to Earth if she were to get caught. That said, however, if Jazz can pull it off, the payoff is a truly life-changing amount of money. It may be “Mission Impossible,” but Jazz would do pretty much anything to secure that kind of income for herself.

She agrees to the job, but quickly realizes that she is in over her head. What starts out as a challenging heist soon lands Jazz at the heart of a conspiracy to take over control of Artemis itself. How will she get herself out of the mess she has landed in and what will happen to Artemis if the conspiracy is actually carried out? It’s a real nail biter!

LIKES

Jazz was, by far, my favorite part of Artemis. I just found her so intriguing. Jazz, who is in her early twenties, has come to the moon from Saudi Arabia. She is living on her own after a falling out with her father over some poor choices she has made in her young life. Jazz is both intelligent and street smart, and she’s very resourceful. I loved that even though she was resorting to less than legal means to supplement her income, she totally owned it and was unapologetic about what she was doing.

I also enjoyed the father-daughter dynamic between Jazz and her dad. Jazz is not a practicing Muslim, but her father is and he’s very religious. Because of this, some of Jazz’s lifestyle choices have created friction in their relationship. I thought Weir did a wonderful job of portraying the nuances of this strained relationship: the awkwardness, the disappointment, the longing to reunite, and beneath it all, the unconditional love. I loved all of the father-daughter scenes. They were written very realistically and tugged at my heartstrings.

I also loved the action and pacing of the novel. Just like with The Martian, I devoured this book in about a day. Weir does a fantastic job creating an exciting balance between “science talk” and intense, action-packed scenes as Jazz sets out to complete “mission impossible” and then especially once that initial mission goes haywire and spirals into something else entirely. I always feel like I’m learning a lot while being thoroughly entertained at the same time when I’m reading one of Weir’s books.

Finally, the world-building was fascinating as well. I loved Weir’s vision for what a city on the moon might actually look like and I thought the shout-out to so many famous astronauts by having the different compounds named after them (Armstrong, Aldrin, etc.) was very cool. As Jazz walked us around the city of Artemis, Weir’s attention to detail was just impeccable. He really thought of everything when it came to how people could actually eat, sleep, work, shop, and otherwise function as a society on the moon. As much as I loved Weir’s attention to detail, I will confess I wish he had come up with more imaginative names for their main food staple (“Gunk”) and for their smartphone equivalent (“Gizmo”). I don’t know why, obviously a personal quirk with me, but those names just irritated me every time they came up throughout the novel.

DISLIKES/ISSUES

As much as I enjoyed Jazz’s story, I did have a couple of minor issues with Artemis.

The first is that, at times, Jazz reminded me a little too much of Mark Watney, the main character from The Martian. It was especially noticeable when I first started reading because their use of humor and sarcasm was so similar. My first thought was “Hey, Mark Watney’s on the moon now!” Once I got to know Jazz better, it wasn’t as noticeable, but I still wish their voices were a little less similar. Some of Jazz’s jokes, in particular, sometimes sounded to me more like something a teenage boy would say rather than a 20-something woman. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story, but it did give me pause a few times because it felt like the joke didn’t quite fit the character, if that even makes sense.

Another issue I had was with Jazz and her pen pal from Earth. The main action of the story is periodically interrupted by letters to and from this guy in Kenya. Aside from establishing that he was her contact for the contraband she’s smuggling, I just felt like they were in the way and didn’t add much to the story. I’m sure they probably won’t bother others, but that element of the story just didn’t quite work for me.


FINAL THOUGHTS

If you enjoy good science fiction and badass protagonists, I’d definitely recommend reading Andy Weir’s Artemis. While fans of The Martian might not find it quite as riveting as Mark Watney’s survival story on Mars, they should still find Jazz Bashara’s lunar adventures to be quite entertaining. I’d also recommend it to those who haven’t yet read The Martian. It might prove to be even more entertaining to those who aren’t tempted to compare Artemis to The Martian.

RATING: 4 STARS

I am a big fan of The Martian and was excited to read this book. Pros: fast-moving, interesting and creative setting, fun and accessible science. Cons: lack of character development, stereotypes were abundant but never discussed, dialogue uninspired. I enjoyed the first half more than the second. It's a good concept and setting, but I would have liked more depth. I will still want to read the author's next book.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I have not read The Martian though I have seen the movie multiple times and love it. obviously I should read the book. I did read the first couple of pages out of curiosity because I wanted to know if the writing style was the same or if Andy Weir could do different voices. it's the same, if you're curious. smart aleck and short fast, hard sentences, Hemingway-esque.

artemis features an Arabic heroine who is sassy, smart and resourceful. she knows welding, math, smuggling, explosives and EVAs. the plot is convoluted with a number of different characters and motivations (mostly organized crime and $$$). it's set on the moon.

I liked the range of nationalities, the working together on an insane caper, the science, and the fast pace.

if you liked The Martian, I assume you will like this. if you like science fiction and heists, you will definitely like this.

I mostly liked The Martian, and so I was a little excited to see what this one was about too. And from the synopsis, the plot looked really cool too. A heist that uses science-y stuff, a gray hat smuggler who has a code and may have gotten in over her head. It sounded awesome.

The reality of the novel though was slightly different unfortunately. While I liked some of the characters (more on that shortly), I just couldn't stand Jazz, the main character. She was supposed to be an adult woman, but she seemed much more like a teen boy. There were jokes that ran the entire book that just had absolutely no purpose, and didn't need to be there. I didn't mind the character of Kevin, but, this pen pal thing also seemed to have very little point.

It was mainly the secondary characters I liked here. Svoboda was pretty cool, and Dale was okay. Heck, even Trond, the 'bad guy' and his daughter Lena were surprisingly interesting characters. I would have loved to read more about them as well as Svoboda, Dale, etc. than repeated descriptions of Jazz shivering in a wall.

And then the ending. For most of the book I thought the science part was coo, but that one part at the end. Really? Anyway....

It wasn't a bad book, but I did go into it expecting quite the amazing book, and unfortunately this wasn't it.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Crown Publishing