4.5/5 I haven't read The Martian (or even considered reading it for that matter) because I thought it would be one of those books that gets bogged down in the science and loses the narrative. But when I read a summary of this book, it sounded really fun- so I gave it a go.

I have to say, what this book lacks in literary merit it makes up for in just the sheer entertainment of it all. Yes, this book has lots and lots of science- technical jargon about welding, smelting, oxygen, and all of the other things that come with living on the moon. But it's also fun, and silly, and an all around great caper. I didn't want to stop reading.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC so I could review Artemis.

I'll start with the obvious: this book is not The Martian. It's more of a heist than an adventure, and though Jazz shares Watney's sarcasm and is a generally likeable character, I didn't find I was rooting for her the way I did Watney. This book got a bit technical at times, and I thought that interfered with the narrative. I enjoyed it, but didn't fall it love with it the way I did The Martian.

Let me start off by saying that I was very excited to read a new book by Andy Weir, mostly because I loved The Martian. But Jazz is nothing like Watley, so I admit to being a little discouraged as I read. Okay, now that we've cleared the air...

If you enjoy stories that are scientifically detailed and could plausibly happen in the future, then you should enjoy Artemis. As usual, Weir has done his homework and gotten the various science facts worked out. Rather than a combination Boy Scout/MacGyver (a la Watney), we have a protagonist who has made bad life decisions and lives outside the law. Jasmine Bashara is an entertaining mix of smuggler, entrepreneur, and 20-something on a quest to redeem some of her earlier mistakes. The way she goes about this redemption is what leads to the action of the story. The plot involves multi-million dollar business deals, criminal cartels, assassins, and other components of many crime caper movies. For the science geeks there are plenty of gadgets, chemistry, pressure differentials, and other principles and factoids.

I've read plenty of science fiction stories, some set on the moon (Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress comes to mind), but this book makes it seem very much like a small town. Limiting the number of inhabitants and having a single law enforcement officer gives it the feel of a frontier town in the Wild West days, which means readers who enjoy space frontier stories can enjoy it - even though it is set so close to home. There is also the fact that Jazz is a female protagonist and the administrator of Artemis is also female, so those who enjoy strong women as lead characters are also in luck.

Altogether, not as much my cup of tea as The Martian was, but still a solid Sci-Fi read and entertaining while keeping true to the science.

So disappointed. I began reading Artemis yesterday with great excitement and enthusiasm. After The Martian, I thought and hoped Andy Weir might become the Tom Clancy of the Space Genre. By 1am, I was half through and extremely disappointed, and headed to bed. I had to force myself to pick it back up the next day to finish. The language, vulgarism, and sexual content are a shock and disappointment. I still believe Weir can be a genre defining author and not just another sci-fi hack but he desperately needs to tack back toward The Martian territory where he was outstanding rather than this kind of lowest denominator drivel.

Thrilling, compelling, and extremely addictive! Andy Weir nails it with another space marvel!

3.5 stars

Fun and likable, but a far cry from The Martian. WAY far.

In some ways, I feel for Andy Weir. With The Martian, he wrote such a flawless, unique story that it was virtually impossible for his next book to measure up. Tough to fault the author for that.

It's clear he's trying to do something different here for fear of writing, effectively, The Martian on the Moon, but it ended up feeling more like he was working outside his wheelhouse.

One of the things that made The Martian so interesting and different was that there was NO backstory or subplot for the main character. It was just Mark Watney, Mars, and the problem at hand. Jazz Bashara, conversely, is basically ALL backstory. And that backstory isn't all bad, but a lot of it is trite, overwrought, and far from original.

That's the real issue with this book. It's essentially a piece of commercial fiction that follows the same plot that hundreds of books before it have used, the only difference being that this version of the "criminal with a heart of gold gets in over his/her head" trope is set on the moon.

The setting was, however, one of the pluses of the novel. Weir's moon colony was imaginative and evocative, and he deserves a lot of credit for atmosphere in that sense. And Jazz, as well as many of the other characters involved, is likable. The villain, though, is a weak one, and the plot has a lot of sap that was pleasantly absent from The Martian (read into this what you will about a man trying to write in first person as a female character.)

The science too, while easier to grasp, lacks the riveting mental puzzle feel that pervaded The Martian.

Perhaps I'm judging Weir too harshly by stacking this up against his previous book. I do wonder if I would have been less critical if this had been written by someone else.

In the end, it's a fun, well-paced story, if a step back from Weir's last offering.


*I received an ARC of this book via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review*

The Martian was one of those books that took me by surprise; a really great debut novel for Weir. I did not have high expectations for Artemis because how could Weir top The Martian! He did it by trying something completely different. I read this book in 2 sittings and once I got to a certain point I could not put it down. You take 1 flawed main character, that you can't but love, add in Weir's weird sense of humor, a murder, a really convoluted plot, and place it on the moon. 1 bestseller coming right up. I will definitely be buying this for my libraries.

Artemis by Andy Weir is the story of the struggle for control of the first lunar city and how a young smuggler got caught up in the deadly fray. There is lots of action and a main character I loved but would get so exasperated with. I have to give lots of kudos to Mr. Weir for another great story.

Jasmine, aka Jazz, immigrated to the moon with her father when she was just six years old. She is a bright young woman but suffers from poor life choices. She currently works as a porter, though she could have chosen almost any career path given her intelligence. Being a porter allows her to smuggle in contraband from Earth with the help of her friend Kelvin. But Jazz has standards, no guns or drugs, just a few harmless items to make a bit of extra cash on the side. A girl has to make a living. Right?

When one of her regular clients offers her a chance to make one million slugs (moon currency), Jazz sees it as the opportunity to finally get out of poverty. So what if she has to move up in the criminal world from smuggler to saboteur. No problem, for a resourceful girl like her. What could go wrong? Everything of course, and she ends up unwittingly messing in the mob’s territory and the stakes are high and the consequences far reaching.

There is a lot to like about this book. My favorite aspect was the main character of Jazz. For someone so brilliant, she could be so stupid and arrogant about… well most everything. I wanted to reach into the book and just slap her sometimes and tell her to grow up and put her big girl panties on. It is always a good thing when I get this invested with the character(s). Also, the plot was well thought out and the action and twists kept the reader full engaged with the story.

I was expecting a more science oriented story, given Mr. Weir’s reputation, and there is a fair amount of science in the book but not overly so. Since the story is not hard core Science Fiction, I think it will appeal to not only to sci-fi fans but fans of young adult and general fiction readers.

I received an ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to the publisher for an advance reader's copy.

Artemis isn't nearly as compelling as The Martian, but what could be? It lacks the cinematic plot and high stakes that made The Martian so riveting, but it's still an enjoyable caper with plenty Andy Weir's signature tone. His greatest talent is packing a book full of hard science while still maintaining clarity for those of us who couldn't care less. I'm left in awe every time!

Now female characters...not so much. I'm not sure that making Jazz a woman really added anything to the book. The same character could easily have been male and hardly anything would have changed, which is a shame. I appreciate that he's trying to not only write about white men, but it seemed strange that he thanks several women for helping him write a plausible female character when so many of the times her sex is pointed out felt clunky and forced.

Do not expect another "The Martian" in this new title by Andy Weir. In "Artemis" he takes a stab at redemption and introducing a female protagonist. That on top attempting to make his story more"accessible" (i.e. less science-y) results in an enjoyable yet somewhat disappointing read.

To be fair, any follow-up to a successful debut title will suffer some comparison let down, but the biggest success of his first book was the main protagonist; Mike Watney was a solid character that every reader rooted for. In "Artemis", Jazz's motivations were completely predictable and while, as a female reader, I appreciate Weir's attempt at writing a female character, she rang a tad false. Why the author seemed to believe that readers needed, what I found, unnecessary reminders that Jazz is female a bit off-putting. The scenes of her getting "hot and bothered" around the station Security Chief and comments about her perceived sexual promiscuity were eye-roll inducing and perhaps revealed more about the author than the protagonist. At least he made her smart.

The lunar escapades were what saved this title for me. The tasks that had to be accomplished while in a vacuum, micro gravity, and by someone with less than professional experience resulted in rather hilarious hijinks. This is where Weir's strengths are; illuminating the human experience in an environment seemingly designed to murder them. That's what I wanted more of and sadly did not get enough to satisfy.

Overall: Recommended with reservations.

This was an ARC given to me for free by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The fact that this was free, did not make me like it more or less. Hell, I mean, the last free book I got I hated, and felt like I wasted my time with. But, this book is a lot of fun, and I strongly recommend it.

First off, I would like to say that, I didn’t like The Martian. I felt The Martian was a good story, and it made a fantastic film, but I didn’t like the way the book was written or characterized. I also found parts of the plot for The Martian to make me suspend my disbelief too much. That being said, it is still a good story, and I’ve been waiting for Weir to return. When Weir announced Artemis, I was excied. A moon city with moon crimes, count me in! Let me tell you, this is a fantastic book.

The less known about the plot of this novel, the better. Let me say, it follows a snarky smuggler named Jazz who helps gets contraband on the moon and sells it to try to make a profit. One day, shes offered a job that pays so much money, she can’t refuse. This book is a fun page turner. Weir was able to write a great sci fi thriller, make it believable, give us characters to root for, and conclude everything really well. It feels weird to say, but this is one of the best sci-fi thrillers I’ve read in years. Weir has a great sense of pacing and kept me glued to the page until I finished. Did I mention the pacing? Yes? Well, it’s fantastic, this book flows so well, it’s like I’m reading a hard sci-fi Don Winslow book. It’s wonderfully paced, but not as political or violent as a Winslow book, maybe that’s a bard comparison, but it’s true when it comes to the pacing.

The only thing that kinda irked me about the book is the ending which I won’t spoil. It fits, but it just didn’t jive right with me. Another thing that really irked me, which I don’t want being taken the wrong way. I love representation in literature. I just don’t want to read about straight white dudes, doing straight white dude things, and Weir creates this great multi-cultural moon colony with a fantastic Saudi main character who isn’t a practicing Muslim, but comes from a Muslim family. Many other characters in the book as well, Brazilians, Kenyans, Chinese, all wonderfully represented. Then there’s one character who’s sexuality comes into the conversation, a lot. Almost every scene with that character, they mention the sexuality. I found it to be a bit overkill, and more harmful than helpful. In the end, it was kind of humorous, but it still got under my skin and irked me a little bit.

That being said, this is a fun sci-fi thriller, and I can’t wait for the movie to come out.

4/5
Observations: Don’t fuck with Mounties.

Great characters, interesting plot, cool science going on, lots of humor. I will definitely be recommending this at my library.

Artemis review

Artemis by Andy Weir is a standalone science fiction fantasy novel.

I decided to read this book because I saw it offered on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I was a big fan of The Martian Mr. Weir wrote a few years back.

I was so excited to see this new book from Andy Weir. I was a HUGE The Martian fan and that book was definitely in my top ten all favorites. I however didn’t love Artemis as much as The Martian. I loved the plot of Artemis taking place in a community living on the moon and the main character being a bit shady and getting involved in a conspiracy to take over the community.

This novel is written incredibly well and again Andy Weir nails it on describing all the scientific challenges with living on the moon. Where this book went wrong for me is the pace was incredibly slow and the characters completely fell flat. Because The Martian was so wonderful and the pace lightening speed, I found my self constantly comparing it to Artemis. In the Martian you felt connected to Mark Watney and the incredible challenges he had to overcome to survive. My heart was invested into Mark and his survival. In Artemis, the main character is Jazz. She is a 26-year-old female smuggler on the moon. I felt zero connection to her and I felt I never really got to know her. As a character she behaved and spoke like a 17-year-old boy. Until I realized her age I thought Jazz was a 17-year-old boy and it actually made better sense in the story. Mr. Weir seemed to struggle building this female character and for me it just steered me away from caring where this story was going. I give this book 3.5 stars. Mr. Weir clearly has done his research on the science of living on the moon and I found all that interesting and appealing but the characters just didn’t do it for me.

I had a love-hate relationship with Jazz. Her motivations just didn't make complete sense to me sometimes, so it was hard to get a handle on her. I love that she's strong and wicked smart, but her reasons for her actions didn't always jive with me.

My biggest beef with the book was the technical info. It really gets bogged down in details about welding and mechanics. I understand some readers might love it, but I need a mix of visual and written instruction for that stuff, otherwise I'm lost. If that element weren't so heavy, I think I would have enjoyed this more.

I do also feel that while the last quarter has some great action, the beginning plods along and not much happens. I'm glad I read it, but this totally feels like a movie, so I wonder if Weir was writing with that in mind.

An ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. *Thank you so much!*

Let me start with this: I do recommend, and it's nothing like The Martian (which I LOVED!! FYI). It's got comedy, murder, smuggling, and lots of sciency geek speek, lol. I enjoyed the female protagonist, and all the side characters too.

Brief (I hope) synopsis of the book.
Jazz lives on the moon and has since she was 6.


When I moved here I was six years old - that was the minimum age for residency back then. Since then they've bumped it up to twelve. Should I be worried?

(I think I snorted when I read that line. :) )

She makes a living as a smuggler and thru this met billionaire Trond Landvik. Long story short, Trond outlines his plans for world moon domination and offers Jazz an opportunity to make some money.


"I'm sorry, but this isn't my thing," [Jazz] said. "You'll have to find someone else."
"I'll give you a million slugs."
"Deal."

She is clearly a business savvy smuggler. ;)

The nefarious plan (in a nutshell) is for Jazz to break the "dump trucks" that bring moon rocks to a smelter which as a by-product create oxygen which is then used to provide breathable air on the moon. The reason Trond wants Jazz to do this is so he can then take over the contract (there are reasons, which you will learn when you read the book way beyond this point. But it's related to something called ZAFO.).
"What's ZAFO?"
"Suck a dick!"

Unfortunately Jazz's plan doesn't go according to plan and her once clandestine mission is discovered and she needs to figure out how to finish the job. Incomplete job=no money. BUT!! As she is working on a plan, she discovers something.


I walked up to the Landvik estate's main entrance and rang the chime. No answer. Huh. That was odd. .... That's when I noticed the damage to the door. ... I pushed open the door and peeked into the foyer. No sign of Irina or Trond. A decorative vase lay on the ground...a splash of bright-red blood on the wall-
"Nope!" I said.
I spun on my heel and stormed back into the hallway. "Nope, nope, nope!"

(ahahahaha!!!)

So now Jazz has to find and stop a killer (because they are after her too).


"Goddammit!" I yelled to him. "Will you stop whining about your problems during my murder?!"

Thankfully Jazz has some friends (and father) she can rely on to help her end the whole drama once and for all.


I hopped off the roof and landed next to him.
"You shouldn't jump down that far," he said.
"You shouldn't fuck other people's boyfriends."
"Oh, come on!"
"I could get used to this new relationship we have."

(OMG, I find this whole relationship dynamic soooo hilarious! :-D )

Many shenanigans follow.


Crashing your pressure vessel into things is bad. It can lead to unscheduled dying.

(Bahahahahaha!!!!)

Of course things don't go according to plan - again.

This whole deal centers around Sanchez Aluminum, and Loretta Sanchez is the CEO and founder. When Jazz goes forth and starts her destruction, Loretta doesn't leave for safety, and instead stays to inspect the problem Jazz creates. Loretta isn't prepared to leave her smelter (it melts the rock which produces the oxygen).


"A smelter I poured my life and soul into, which you just destroyed, you reckless puddle of exudate!"
"Don't think I won't look that up!"

Jazz is a sarcastic and SMART woman who could have been a very successful (legal) businesswoman on Artemis. But through life choices she ended up being a smuggler instead and despite all she did (I left out A LOT!!! And it's a doozy of a thing, trust me - it's good), she isn't deported from the moon (she finagles a way to stay on the moon). Let's just say those million slugs she was promised to create all this havoc? She doesn't exactly get to keep it. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed Artemis and found it to be very entertaining. As I said before, it's not like The Martian, but it is certainly well written, and Weir's comedic talent is fully present. I didn't laugh as much as I did with The Martian, but I did laugh. The world building is amazing,


[Ngugi] made sure Kenya enacted special tax breaks and laws just for the new megacorporation. What's that you say? Favoring a single company with special laws isn't fair? Tell that to the East India Tea Company. This is global economics, not kindergarten.

and I felt I knew everything there was to know about living on the moon (the good and the bad - which I pray isn't what happens when the human race decides to be stupid and live on the moon). The science speak is definitely present in this book, which I will admit to skimming because I am soooo not a science person, but I read enough to know that Jazz is one smart cookie who is wasting her talents as a smuggler.

There is murder in the story, which is a shame, but it proves necessary to move the story along to the next point. I loved how Jazz didn't go into the house like the stupid heroines of horror movies. Clearly she watched YouTube and found "horror movies for smart people." ;) Yep, that is totally a thing - look it up.

Overall I do recommend you read this. Especially if you are already a fan of Andy Weir.

4 stars

And I leave you with something that should (I hope) make you smile.

"Is that a condom?"
"Yes!" he said proudly. "My latest invention."
"The Chinese beat you by seven centuries."
"This is not your everyday condom!"
"Why would anyone buy this?"
He grinned. "It's reusable."
"Are you shitting me?"
"Not at all!" ... "After each use, you turn the condom inside-out and put it on the cylinder-"
"Ew."
"Then you turn on the cleaner."
*
"I'm not looking for investors. I need someone to test it."
"And you think I've got the dick for the job?"
He rolled his eyes. "I need to know how it feels for the woman."
"I'm not having sex with you."
"No, no!" He winced. "I just want you to use it the next time you have sex. Then tell me how it affected your experience."
*
"I need data from a woman who is having sex for fun. The woman has to be sexually experienced, which you definitely are-"
"Careful..."
"And likely to have sex in the near future. Which, again-"
"Choose your next words wisely."
*
"Did you get a chance to use the condom?"
"It's been twenty-four hours! What kind of sex life do you think I have?"
*
"Did you get a chance to test the condom?"
"No, I haven't had sex in the two days since you gave me the condom."
*
"Hey, did you try out the condom yet?"
"Goddammit, Svoboda!" I said.
"What? I'm waiting for feedback here."
I threw up my hands and walked away.

Cheers!!

After thoroughly enjoying "The Martian", I looked forward to Weir's next book. Again, he writes a good science infused adventure....but I really felt like it read more as a YA genre.... maybe because of the attitude described of the main character, maybe due to the 'penpal like letters', or just the youthful description...... It was a good, quick read....offered an interesting window into that 'future'?! I do/did like all the scientific explanations/offerings. I'll look forward to his next offering too! It was good enough!
I did receive this e-galley free from NetGalley, in return for my own fair & honest review. All opinions offered are my own.

I'll definitely keep reading Weir.

_Artemis_ is not a rehash of _The Martian_, and it shouldn't be.. It does, however, use Weir's formula of a not-to-distant future, with well thought out, detailed, and believable technology. It doesn't require buying into a 'Weirverse' where "This ain't your familiar world," and we have to accept whatever deus ex machina solutions the author throws at us.. We understand these people and their culture. And we don't have to suspend disbelief to accept their technology.

Two weaknesses: First, _Martian_ entailed a long series of life-threatening situations and clever technological solutions, which were believable and what that story demanded. _Artemis_ uses and somewhat overuses the same formula: there have to be repeated life-or-death situations; the heroine has to come up with a brilliant techno-solution each time; all saves and rescues have to be accomplished at the last second. We even get a diminutive female heroine with no apparent self-defense training, able to repeatedly overcome attacks by a professional killer. In other words, it devolves somewhat into a trite, predictable thriller.

Second, Jazz's endless snarky responses grow tiresome. And they are the snark of 2017. The smart-assery of 50 or 100 years ago was different, and it will be different 50 or 100 years from now. She is a snotty smart-ass from a 2010s sitcom. It grates a bit, like characters in a Disney fantasy animation talking like today's teenagers.

But read it. And read the next Andy Weir book.

Andy Weir has another winner on his hands. It's quite different from his first book, The Martian, but every bit as enjoyable. Once again there's a fun mixture of comedy, drama, adventure, and science., and once again it's presented in first-person-- this time by a 26 year-old woman.. Artemis doesn't concentrate on the science as much as The Martian did, plus there are a lot more characters who interact with the heroine, so it's probably much more accessible. I'll be recommending this book to everyone.

Artemis

by Andy Weir

What’s better than being stranded on Mars and abandoned by your crew with only potatoes to live on?

Anything really.

Anything would be better than that.

But if we are talking in terms of Andy Weir’s brilliant first novel THE MARTIAN, what would be better that Andy Weir writing the witty and scientifically credible story of one character? That would be Andy Weir creating a witty and scientifically credible story about a whole city on the moon with an awesome no nonsense female protagonist smuggler. Which he did when he wrote ARTEMIS.

Having loved Weir’s writing voice in THE MARTIAN, I scooped up ARTEMIS immediately and summarily devoured it. The protagonist, Jazz, a citizen of Artemis, the moon colony, slaves away as a smuggler to save up enough slugs for a better life. Because moon real estate sounds pricier than New York and San Francisco combined. An integral player in the city’s sordid underbelly, Jazz is roped into a scheme by a wealthy benefactor while desperately dodging the ever-watchful moon cop and a new slew of moon mafia. Which, let’s face it, is kinda challenging in a city that’s literally under a bubble. (Note to self: this could be included in the genre: books that effectively employ domes as a device.) Let’s just say that oxygen is at a premium in zero G.

With a seriously diverse cast of characters, an entirely new take on moon landing and a unique pen pal scenario, Artemis is bound to launch to the bestsellers’ list immediately. Pun intended.

Kudos to Weir for introducing a minority female protagonist who is dynamic, intelligent, flawed, and beautiful - and incidentally, like a lot of the awesome dynamic, intelligent, flawed and beautiful female characters in my own life.

Plus, reading Weir is like taking a cool science class as an adult, just in a totally different atmosphere.

I think this will make a fun movie, It was not that great of a book. Bit of a let down from the Martian, the dialogue was clunky and I'm not sure Weir was entirely comfortable with the female voice. The moon colony setting was enjoyable though.