Overall, an enjoyable science fiction story, but with flaws. A criminal caper set in space, it had Firefly-esque moments and kept me guessing how it would turn out. However, the characters were not fully developed and the narration relied too much on information blurting rather than natural exposition of important details. And, I was irritated by the secondary characters judgmental and stereotypical reactions to Jazz's sex life; this seemed to be intended as a humorous theme and it did not work.

Internally Consistent, and Very Entertaining

I've been reading sci-fi for over fifty years, and have run the gamut from hard science and/or alien contact, and then through speculative fiction and on to cultural/social commentary fiction, and then to space opera, parody, dystopian nightmares and, most recently, quantum theorizing that runs anywhere from silly to bracingly thought provoking. But I've always had a special regard reserved for colonist stories, from Heinlein's early YA adventures to the latest variations on missions to Mars. Lots of those colonist books have great ideas and clever angles but it is very rare to have as deep, internally consistent, plausible and convincing a colony as the one described in this book. It is a finely crafted and well thought out world that captures the reader from page one and just keeps unfolding level by level and dome by dome.

I've read a number of reviews that fault the book for shallow character development and some questionable plotting, but I don't buy that criticism. You could say much the same, with more merit, about most of the commercial caper/suspense fiction currently out on the shelves. Here, putting aside the fact that we are on the Moon(!), we have an appealing, smartmouth, self-reliant heroine who handles a wisecrack better than most and is skilled at the telling throwaway line or slightly noirish gesture. As far as I could tell, while that might not be great literature, this is already way better than one can usually hope for. As to the caper's plot, it has enough steam and vigor to keep the action moving and to keep the characters on their toes and running around. I'm not sure what else you could ask for.

And did I mention? It all takes place on the Moon.

So, this was good sci-fi, a decent caper, and a tale loaded with interesting enough supporting characters and a winning, tough, appealing heroine. I was pleased and entertained.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Artemis by Andy Weir, is his followup novel to his mega-popular and spectacular debut, The Martian. Maintaining the ex- rocket scientist’s knowledge of physics and engineering, and how things should really work in outer space, Artemis follows the adventures (or misadventures) of Jasmine Bashara —- called Jazz by her friends —- on the only city on the Moon, which is called Artemis. Weir makes Jazz, a Saudi woman born and raised on the Moon, as the protagonist and narrator of this book. The novel starts with a quick introduction with a lot of action, in which Jazz is revealed to be a smuggler who brings in much needed items for the general population of the city at a price that is more affordable for the common city-dweller, while making a not-too-bad bit of profit for herself. There character of Jazz is interesting in that her ethnicity is not of primary importance, while her gender as a young woman in her mid-twenties, and her personality as a trash-talking, fearless and highly intelligent technician and engineer takes the forefront. The book takes a mostly light-hearted point of view of the transpiring events, as Jazz is renowned throughout the city as a humorous but troublesome individual.

Having established the character of Jazz and some of her friends and others who she is involved with in Artemis, the novel quickly moves into the main event that takes place in the story —- a wealthy businessman commissions Jazz to pull off a dangerous and risky assignment to sabotage the Moon’s only aluminum factory, so that Mr. Landvik can buy it up for a song and establish himself as the sole producer of not only aluminum, but its vital byproduct of oxygen. Jazz’s motivation is to make enough money to basically take more control of her life, and to allow herself the opportunity to do things she only dreamed of doing as a successful, but not overly wealthy or powerful black market smuggler.

While jazz is technically brilliant and quick-thinking, the assignment that started off as very risky but fairly straightforward soon collapses into a disaster with growing implications. One of those is that the aluminum plant is actually owned by a South American crime cartel as a way to maintain a foothold on the in and outgoing shipments of supplies to the Moon, and Jazz soon finds herself on a hit list with a very dangerous assassin taking a number of opportunities to eliminate the threat posed by Jazz. This element, along with the real-world issues one would face on the Moon to perform the stunts required of Jazz and her friends who assist her in these escapades, brings a lot of tension and suspense into the transactions. Although Jazz is first presented as a brilliant but self-centered individual, through the action and suspense is revealed by the end of the book to be a quirky, yet loyal and principled young woman who truly cares for the well-being of her widowed father and friends and acquaintances in Artemis. An entertaining and breezy read, I would give this science fiction thriller 3 out of 4 stars.

First things first, I considered Weir's second book as good as "The Martian."

I've read some reviews where people complained about characterization problems, but this didn't stop me from enjoying the book and considering the heroine refreshingly funny in her tomboy flawed way.
As a Brazilian, I also found a couple of details in the ARC I would have pointed out as not so really Brazilian, so I wonder if these details were later changed in the final version of the book.

In any case, I couldn't put this book down or stop laughing. So it's one of my favorites this year.

In a similar take on space to his first book, Andy Weir imagines life as a culture and colony on the moon. The moon has it's own economy and that's where there is potential for crime. This is a stand alone book from The Martian, which many readers might not expect given his first book was so popular. The book was an interesting read, although the author attempts to write from the standpoint of a teenage girl, with all the hormones and exploring your identity that that entails, and I wouldn't say that is a strong skill of Mr. Weir.

3.5/5 stars!

Jasmine Bashara is pretty much a female Mark Watney. I liked her, but she quickly got on my nerves. Luckily, the author kept things moving and I didn't have a lot of time to focus on her personality.

Jazz has been living on the moon with her father since she was 6. She's a trouble maker, she likes sex and she can weld the heck out of anything. Her relationship with her father is rather strained as he is a devout Muslim and she's a smuggler. It's expensive to live in Artemis, the moon's only city, so Jazz is always looking for opportunities to make more money. She's offered a chance to pull in the haul of a lifetime and she takes it, even though it's extremely dangerous. Will she be successful? You'll have to read this and see.

I loved the world building and the city of Artemis. I loved how the author created the economy of it as well as how different races from earth took over certain industries in the city. I didn't even mind how much I learned about welding. In fact, I liked that Jazz had a job that here on earth, would mostly be filled by men.

What I didn't like were her constant quips and smart-ass remarks. In The Martian, I didn't mind them as much, (as I said Jazz and Mark Watney have the same sense of humor), because Watney was alone on Mars and was attempting to keep the dark away. Jazz, who has a photographic memory, by the way, didn't need this humor to get by and as such, I found it annoying at times. There were some portions where the dialogue was clunky and also, how does the daughter of a Muslim grow up to love sex, drinking and smuggling? To me, there wasn't enough information there to explain those things. That bothered me, not enough to stop me from reading, but enough to prevent me from giving Artemis all the stars.

Overall, I enjoyed this science fiction/action novel. I especially liked the character of the moon's mayor and I wouldn't mind reading more stories taking place in Artemis. I just wouldn't mind less of the quips and maybe just a little less welding.

Recommended, especially for fans of science fiction and Mark Watney!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

This was not the review I was hoping to write. I haven't read or watched The Martian but friends all over have recommended it to me, so I was expecting Artemis to be similarly mind-blowing. Needless to say, it was not.

Quite frankly, I had so many issues, I struggled to figure out where to start. I suppose I'll talk about the good before the bad. The one redeeming feature was the amount of research that clearly went into the science and economics of Artemis, both book and city. Weir spends time to detail the science behind how this city on the Moon, Artemis, was built and maintained. We learn what kinds of manpower and resources are needed, the general design of the complex, and most interestingly, the politics and economics of funding Artemis. Everything is described in layman's terms and super easy to understand. I also learned way more about the art of welding than I'd expected. That is, however, about where the good ends.

I disliked pretty much everything else about this book. Not in a horrendously bad way, but many things were grating or felt mediocre. Firstly, the characters. The main character, Jazz, is supposed to be a 26-year-old Saudia Arabian woman who's lived on the moon since childhood. Her father moved to Artemis early on as a welder, bringing his daughter with him. So why is it, then, that her internal monologue sounds like it's coming from a college frat boy? Artemis is narrated from her perspective, adding commentary as events happen. Having to read it was easily the most painful part of this book. It's clear Weir intended for her to seem somewhat immature and rebellious, but he went way overboard. If she hadn't mentioned her age, I would have thought she was a teenager. The most frustrating part was that she seemed to have a compulsive urge add some sort of sex joke at least every two pages. Just. No. If the blowjob jokes had been even cut to half, this book would have been much more enjoyable.

Jazz aside, the supporting cast didn't fare much better. To me, they all felt flat and uninteresting, some to the point of being out of character. Richest guy on the moon who's probably a shady businessman? Greets Jazz like an old friend instead of the delivery woman she is and treats her just as casually. Hong Kong businessman visiting for a couple days? Emails sound like a businessman, IRL speech sounds like a distressed American teenager. Brazilian woman in her 60s? "Hold a moment. I don't explain myself to you. You explain yourself to me!" Yeah. Frankly, most of the dialog felt just as cringey and cliche. It was almost as though I was reading someone's attempt tried to emulate people talking to each other, but instead fell straight bottom of the uncanny valley of dialog.

I didn't care much for the plot either. The first half of Artemis is portrayed as a heist, but the execution felt mediocre. Jazz's goal is to destroy a couple mining robots OUTSIDE of Artemis for various nefarious reasons. The premise sounds interesting. However, I refuse to believe the prep work for such an important project ON THE MOON would take only two days. Firstly, she spends less than an hour examining a dummy robot for weak points, plays 20 questions with the guy that bought it (not the engineer), and already has a way to destroy it? What? That's an insult to the engineers who designed these bots. Then, she successfully designs a circuit board, something she's never done before, based on a couple web tutorials, gets it fabricated in one day, and it works on the first try? Ha. As if. Gather the rest of the materials was clever, I'll grant, but the set-up and planning needed should have taken far longer.

In the second half, the stakes are raised and Jazz has to learn to cooperate with people. What was frustrating, however, that utter lack of tension. Anywhere. Jazz is constantly making (sex) jokes. If she's teaming up with other people, they're bantering regardless of location or activity. There was only one time, at the very end, where I actually thought something bad could happen.

Overall, this book was a struggle to get through. It was never to a point that I considering DNFing, but it wasn't great either. I would give this book 2 stars, but the awesome science warranted an extra star. I give this book 3 stars.

I really enjoyed this science fiction adventure. The book was well written. The characters and plot were intriguing. The plot was well paced. The book was an entertaining read.

Jazz Bashara has lived her whole life on the moon in the city of Artemis. A brilliant, independent young woman who has little tolerance for rules, and wants to do more than just survive, Jazz long ago turned to less than legal ways of making extra income. However, she is good at what she does, and she does have some moral rules about what kinds of jobs she’ll do.
When the right opportunity presents itself via a very rich, regular customer, for a big payout (with lots of risk), she takes it on and does her best. Unfortunately, things go awry, and she barely escapes with her life. To make things worse, her employer has been murdered and it’s certain that she will be the prime suspect. Jazz has to figure out who killed him and clear herself. Can she solve the murder before the real perp takes her out or law enforcement catches up with her?

Clearly, this is not The Martian. Completely different kind of story. What they do have in common:

 Written by Andy Weir
 Takes place in space (well, away from Earth at least)
 Very detailed and technical bits throughout

The characters were interesting. I kind of had a love/hate relationship with Jazz. Her choices frustrated me. Her attitude frustrated me. But her moral compass wasn’t that far gone, and she was wicked smart and dedicated as all get out. But the constant jabs and sarcasm left me feeling like her emotional growth had been severely stifled. Her attitude seemed more suited to a testy teenager than the woman she actually is.

The relationship that Jazz ends up in isn’t really properly developed. There was no chemistry. The words told me where things were going, but I just didn’t feel it/see it. And frankly, I didn’t see the point. The story wasn’t improved by their relationship becoming romantic, especially since it was on the ending note.

I’m not gonna lie. I preferred The Martian. It was stellar. This is pretty good. Not something I’m going to run around town screaming about. But, it was a good story. The mystery itself was well thought out. I love that current concerns were worked into the story (an interesting lesson about the cycle of economies!). And, as you’d expect from Andy Weir, lots of technical stuff. Those who loved The Martian will appreciate that about this story. Those who found all those details burdensome will hopefully appreciate the story itself.

However. It very much felt like this book was written to continue to appeal to the original sci fi fanbase, while making his work more accessible to readers of more popular genres (mystery, thriller, etc.). I’m not sure it worked entirely. While I understand that topping The Martian is a near impossible feat, changing tactics to gain wider appeal is tricky. I’ll read the next thing by Andy Weir because I think he’s a wonderful writer overall, but I hope it’s more The Martian than Artemis.

Crown Publishing and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Artemis. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

With the commercial success of his debut novel The Martian, it seems that author Andy Weir has written Artemis with an eye towards a similar future. I could easily see the adaptation of this book into a movie, with its strong, capable heroine, exciting action sequences, and a thrilling plot that races along at a breakneck pace.

Jasmine Bashara is a native of Artemis, the lunar colony that has become a tourist destination for some of the richest people from Earth. With an eye towards a better future than her present reality, Jasmine's hustling ended up placing her in hot water. When a job goes horribly wrong, will Jazz be able to turn things around for the good of herself and her city?

If the current rating system would allow, I would give Artemis three and one half stars. The overall feeling of the book is great, but, as readers delve deeper into Jazz's world and her motivations, there are some aspects to the plot that do not make a whole lot of sense. Artemis is definitely entertaining, with a strong and well developed main character. The book is geared toward bringing science fiction to the masses, so diehard fans of the genre may not be interested. I look forward to reading more by author Andy Weir in the future, as his ability to craft an interesting, but not technologically heavy, science fiction novel has my interest piqued.

Confession: I have yet to read Andy Weir's The Martian. I know what you're thinking, "How could he have missed reading that one?!" I honestly don't know. I loved the film adaptation of the book, and the kindle version has languished on my kindle for over a year. For some reason I just never got around to reading it. My negligence aside, The Martian became such a critical and commercial success that author Andy Weir has released a sophomore novel Artemis. I'm pleased to report that this novel hasn't sat dormant on my kindle. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that I doubt you'll be able to ignore it either.

Artemis sees Weir tackling a story that takes place a little bit closer to home than his previous novel, closer to home than Mars at least. In this novel, man has conquered space and made their home on the Moon. Artemis, as the lunar colony has been named, plays host to a variety of tourists, wealthy industrialists, and the people who work for them. Jasmine Bashara, Jazz has lived most of her 20+ years on the moon. Her father is a well-regarded welder who longs for Jazz to follow in his professional footsteps, but Jazz has other plans. Her job as a porter who ships the various goods that make the city run pays only a meager salary. To earn more slugs (the currency of the moon), Jazz has turned to smuggling in contraband for some of Artemis's wealthier citizens.

A local businessman who regularly uses Jazz's smuggling services has called her in for a chat. He has a grand scheme to take over the monopolized aluminum smelting industry on the moon. The plan hinges upon someone sabotaging automated harvesters that scour the moon's surface. Jazz has the capability to both space walk and weld, skills that are paramount in successfully completing the job. In exchange for her services, Jazz would receive one million slugs, enough money to live comfortably and realize her dreams of her own business. But things will not be easy, especially in space!

I thoroughly enjoyed Artemis. The Martian was essentially an escape thriller that happened to take place on Mars. In Artemis, Andy Weir sets a fast-paced heist thriller on the moon. I'm no scientist, so I can't speak to the scientific plausibility of Weir's imagined colony. Still, Weir's consistency in quasi-scientific logic goes a long way in making this out-of-this-world fiction set in an authentic reality. Jazz is unapologetically crass at times, but operates with an unflinching moral compass that makes her instantly engaging. The supporting cast of space-dwelling misfits are equally attractive. I still haven't read The Martian, but if Artemis is any indication of the quality of entertainment that Andy Weir can concoct, I certainly won't put off reading it much longer.

I wanted to read this book because of the idea of a city in the moon, the author explains with simple language how could it be created, a lot similar on how he explained everything in The Martian, but I thought that this time the character personality was too exaggerated. She had too much regret about what she did in her past but not a lot of remorse for being awful in her present.

Andy Weir's back with another book set in space. However, this is more of a hard sci-fi adventure story as opposed to a lost in space book. Jazz has grown up on Artemis, the lone moon colony. She has a penchant for making terrible decisions and is struggling to make ends meet as a porter. But the porter job also gives her access to smuggle contraband in. When a customer offers her a fortune in exchange for some sabotage she quickly gets in over her head. Now she has to extricate herself from the situation without getting murdered or deported.

While I like Weir's writing, he doesn't know how to write women. Jazz has the exact same personality as Mark Watney in "The Martian". She acts more like a 14 year old boy than a 26 year old woman. Jazz's negative character traits are so over the top, I don't know why anyone helps her. Her acidic tongue is just too much, not to mention how lazy and impetuous she is. That being said, I love her intelligence. Weir's biggest strength is how he's able to take complicated engineering concepts and dumb them down into laymen's terms without you even realizing it has happened and then merge them into a story. I love how he does it. Not only do you get to read an entertaining story, but you also get to learn something.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for posting an unbiased review. I loved The Martian and was excited about reading another book from the same author. This was a very different type of story. First, it takes place on the Moon rather than Mars, and rather than being about exploring a planet, it involves an established city on the planet.

Artemis is the only city on the moon. It consists of five huge domed segments, all jointed by passageways. The main character is Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara, who makes her living as a small time smuggler. For much of the book I wavered over whether I liked her, but in the end I did. She is a well-rounded, but flawed character. I liked her wisecracking style and self-effacing humor. I also liked the eccentric group of friends and business associates that surround her.

The story begins by describing her life on the moon, both her legal delivery business and illegal smuggling of contraband. But when the opportunity to make a big score drops in her lap, the risks are great, but the money is too much to turn down. So the small time smuggler tries to pull off the big heist and gets caught in the middle of forces battling for control of the Moon. Jazz soon finds herself way over her head, running from both a professional killer and the law.

Weir’s loving description of this city on the Moon was fascinating and very realistic. Like on Earth there were different social class neighborhoods and different nationalities tended to control the various trades and industries. One of my favorite things was his description of the national landmark for the Apollo 11 landing site, complete with visitors’ center and train from Artemis to the site. There are even guided walking tours outside for tourists.

As much as I enjoyed ‘The Martian’, I just can’t say the same for ‘Artemis’. The concept is compelling: a young female smuggler living on a lunar colony gets involved with a conspiracy that threatens the livelihood of the community.

But the fun stops there. As others have noted, the protagonist Jazz walks and talks like a female Mark Watney. That could almost be bearable except....so does every other character in this book! The juvenile bro-snark dialogue wore thin early on, largely because it wasn’t balanced out anywhere. I can roll with goofy laughs, but prepubescent guffaws from grown adult characters was not my style at all.

The science is solid, but oddly repetitive in a way that makes me wonder who Weir was writing for. Simple, basic concepts like the effects of the moon’s reduced gravity were mentioned over and over in a way that felt condescending.

Finally, Weir once again opted for telling instead of showing just about everything. Tedious, tedious, tedious.

I feel like the movie rights will still be snatched up on this one and maybe things could be tightened up in film or television show form. The setting is cool and the characters are admirable. (+1 Star) They deserve better though.

It's really more like 3.5 stars to be honest. 5 stars for plot / enjoyability, but he lost 1.5 for his terrible writing of a female character supposedly of color :/ unlike some I don't have a problem with her potty mouth or toilet humor (contrary to what a lot of comments say, plenty of late-20s-early-30s women would make your mom does porn jokes, I'm one of them...) but for literally 20% of the book I thought the narrator was a dude. There's nothing that makes her relatable as a woman. Maybe that's my fault for assuming the default is male, but that's the sad reality of most fiction.

In addition she's supposed to be a non practicing Muslim raised by a devout father but makes some tasteless jokes I'm not sure would be realistic, as well as using a niqab as a disguise which felt sort of... gross.

For those who loved THE MARTIAN, this book will not disappoint. Jazz, a 26 year old main character who is attempting to pull off the perfect crime in Artemis - the only city on the moon. The sarcasm and humor are spot on and make this book of more than 300 pages an enjoyable read.

While I enjoyed reading Andy Weir's The Martian, I often get lost in my general lack of memory in regards to science and the finer fundamentals. Usually this is where he loses me, but in this case I struggled to finish it because of the consistent sexual harassment aimed at the main character and its regular shrugging off to establish that she's "just one of the guys". This in addition to the lack of morals in the futuristic society completely turned me off to the world and the book. I'd be far more interested to read how a Saudi and/or muslim woman would write this story and the world they'd envision, as opposed to being used as a vessel for a white guy to sexualize and force into uncomfortable situations. No, thank you. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, and I think I'll spend more time reading and recommending women writers in this genre instead of this book.

When I found out Andy Weir had written another novel and I was granted the opportunity to read and review it, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. Artemis was my chance to finally become acquainted with the author who was responsible for the explosively successful novel turned movie (starring Matt Damon), The Martian. So, The Martian has been waiting for me (patiently) to read in my Kindle as well as to watch on Demand. Suffice it to say, I've been hoping to become one of Weir's many fans.

Am I one of those fans after reading Artemis? Ummm... that remains to be seen.

Jazz Bashara has lived on the moon and made a life for herself as a smuggler. Living on the moon is complicated. I won't bore you with those complications but I can say that it was interesting learning how humans get around with only a fraction of Earth's gravity and the complex system that delivers oxygen to the 2000 inhabitants of the moon cities.

Jazz, who's usually involved in petty smuggling crimes, has the opportunity to make a whole lot of money. Because Jazz wants to live the good life, this seemingly impossible scheme to disable an aluminum, and make a helluva lot of money, Jazz embarks on the impossible. We come along for the entire ride... for better or worse.

Let's begin with some positivity, Artemis was a very interesting book. I don't read too much Sci-Fi but when I do, I can't help but become engrossed in the landscape, the thoughts or visions for our future once we shit all over this planet with our pillaging of its resources. Anyway... initially I was hooked. Jazz is an interesting, brilliant, heroine but about 25% in, I was over her. I mean seriously over her.

I do enjoy funny characters as much as the next person, but when there is some real dangerous shit happening, I figure more humans have the capacity to appreciate that danger instead of making snarky... jokey remarks about it. As if it's not enough that the whole town thinks of her as an whore, her dad does as well. I mean seriously? When her father joined in on the promiscuity jabs I was just like whatever. There's some serious moon air they're smoking (but not really smoking because a fire would be the worse thing ever).

Either way it goes, Artemis is definitely an interesting read. I can't say with any certainty I'm a drop dead fan of Andy Weir's but I still on planning on reading The Martian. I have not given up on this author just yet.

Copy provided by Crown Publishing via Netgalley

Andy Weir's "Artemis" has the same vibe as "The Martian" so I expected to enjoy it for all the same reasons, but many of "The Martian"'s strengths become pitfalls when they are repurposed in "Artemis."

Jazz /is/ Mark Watney (the main character in "The Martian"). Not only does Mark's voice make for a poorly-written woman, but his personality doesn't suit Jazz's situation. His endless internal chatter worked for someone alone on Mars—he didn't have anyone to talk to—but why does Jazz speak the same way when she's surrounded by others? Her long tangents, musings, and science lessons interrupt dialogue and reduce the supporting cast to yes-men. There's little for anyone else to do but sit back while Jazz banters with the reader.

If "Artemis" preceded "The Martian," it would be easier to evaluate Jazz without thinking of her as Mark-lite. Unfortunately, she suffers for the comparison because she's half as clever and relies on her feminine wiles at all the wrong times:

In this scene, Jazz has just been asked to sabotage some machinery in exchange for more money than she's ever had in her life. The machinery is new to her, but she studies it to discover its weakness. And then:
"Okay," I finally said. "I have a plan."
"Yeah?" Trond dropped a socket driver and scurried over. "Do tell."
I shook my head. "Don't worry about the details."
"I like details."
"A lady's got to have her secrets." I stood up. "But I'll completely destroy their harvesters."
"That sounds great!"

"That sounds great" is what I say when someone says, "I'll have that report for you after lunch." It is not what anyone would say in response to "I know your entire fortune is riding on this, but A LADY'S GOT TO HAVE HER SECRETS."

The real reason Jazz has secrets is because Weir is hiding her cards from the reader to build suspense. He partially succeeds. The sabotage scene is briefly suspenseful when Jazz brings the wrong tools for the job (darn details) and can't spark a flint in a vacuum. Don't fret, Dear Reader! She remembers in time to lecture about oxidation while building a workaround.

Question: Why does Jazz forget to bring proper tools for her secret plan?
Answer: "Artemis" doesn't have a plot. It's an after-school special where the host says things like "Look at this flint, boys and girls, it won't make a spark and I'm going to tell you why."

Unlike in "The Martian" where all the experiments worked toward one goal (leaving Mars), the end goal in "Artemis" isn't immediately clear. There are some machinations by power-hungry rich people, some techno-babble, and a whole lot of contrivances built around Jazz's awesomeness—no joke, most of the climax is caused by her welding abilities being too perfect.

I liked the concept of Artemis, the international city on the moon that uses weight as currency, but this idea has more wasted potential than payoff. Jazz tells us it's the first truly international city, but it's written to feel less multi-cultural than a midsize city in the U.S. Weir's reliance on cultural stereotypes makes Jazz's world narrow. He gets points for a diverse cast, but it feels less like representation and more like pandering when the characters' actions are governed by shallow assumptions. This criticism extends to Jazz—Weir can say she's a woman as often as he likes, but she never stops being Mark. Fortunately, every time I slipped up and started imagining Mark in her predicament, there was a reference to her sex life or something like: "I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I'm a girl, so I'm allowed."

If you read the first couple of chapters and it doesn't bother you that a 26-year-old woman speaks like a 15-year-old boy—keep reading, you'll have fun. But if it bugs you then bail early—it doesn't get better.

NB: This book was provided for review by the publisher, Crown Publishing (via NetGalley).