2.5 stars

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

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

Unfortunately, Artemis left me feeling disappointed and underwhelmed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall, not a book I would personally recommend.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A heist on the moon.

A heist. On THE MOON.

A HEIST ON THE MOON.

A few years ago I read The Martian because my sister forcefully said I had to. So I picked it up, not knowing much about the premise apart from “dude gets stuck on Mars.” I was expecting it to be dark and intense. So imagine my surprise when it was, yes, intense, but also a massive sass fest with laugh out loud passages.

So, how can you possibly recreate that magic in The Martian? Answer: with Artemis.

Artemis isn’t as funny (though it’s still pretty damn funny), but dear god is it intense. The world building of Artemis — the only city on the moon — was crystal clear and thought out so well. I had no trouble following along with locations and the science-y explanations (well, some of the science-y explanations, but it was laid out that if you didn’t understand it, it wouldn’t take away from the plot).

With every heist story, you need a great cast of characters to pull it off, and we certainly got that. They worked well together (albeit, reluctantly) and all had a clear role to play to complete the job.

Leading the story is Jazz.

Jazz is a dick.

She’s an awful, selfish, petty smuggler and I love her. She isn’t a good person, but she has a good heart. Her motives are sketchy, but she has morals — even when partaking in illegal activities.

Even better than Jazz is Jazz’s father. Such a nice, kind, welder. I want an entire story about him. Please?

I knew I loved this book when one of the characters calls out another for saying Captain Kirk is a sex crazed womanizer (because he totally wasn’t and was actually pretty progressive and feminist for a TV show made in the 1960s).

Honestly, this book was so fun. It was so addictive that I prioritized reading Artemis over drinking coffee (I’m okay, I promise!)

Artemis is out in the wild, growing on bookshelves at a store near you! Why not take a trip to the moon?

Thanks so much to Ebury Publishing for providing a review copy through Netgalley!

Confession: I never read The Martian, I only saw the film, but I enjoyed that very much. This wasn’t as much fun and I wasn’t as invested in Jazz as a character to care what happened to her. I actually think Jazz sounded more like a man at times than a Saudi Arabian woman, especially the comment about peeing in the shower. The whole moonbase thing is a great concept, and of course there is science-y stuff for Africa here – lol, the moon is even run by Kenya because of its prime launch position on Earth’s equator – but I can’t say I was gripped.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

Mooning Over Artemis

You guys know the Martian was what started me off in the sci fi genre- so I couldn’t have been more excited about this book! And now I get to review it- yay!!

One of the great things about the way Weir writes sci fi is that he makes it accurate, without being boring. Not that I’m a scientist, but all the scientific terminology subtly woven into the story created a very realistic atmosphere. By the end I actually felt like I knew what it’s like to live on the moon- which was awesome- because who doesn’t want to know what it’s like to live on the moon? It didn’t feel like world building at all- it just felt like an authentic experience (so who needs moon tourism now, eh?).

Plus, Weir has definitely got the witty banter voice down. So even if I’m not selling you on the great setting, I can tell you I *loved* the humour. I will admit the main character has a very similar jokey manner to Mark Watney, basically making her a female version of him- but who’s complaining, because Mark Watney is awesome!

The characters were a bit of a mixed bag- some of them were better fleshed out than others, so a couple felt a bit surplus to requirements. I did really enjoy the penpal letters between Jazz and Kelvin though- they added a lot to the backstory and I genuinely got invested in them because of their interactions. More importantly though, I did think the addition of some actual antagonists was really helpful to the plot and added some much needed tension.

Because it was the slow build up (after a little false start) that gave me some pause with this book. But then, once it did get going, man, it got good- I mean, it’s a heist in space- a space heist! Again, what’s not to like? If nothing else, this was a fun romp on the moon. And speaking of which- isn’t Artemis basically the *best* name ever for this book? The classics nerd in me just really appreciates how super appropriate that title is.

Okay- enough gushing, my rating is:

4/5 bananas

Follow up novel to a popular favourite - the same sense of humour and science-heavy thrill ride in space

The Martian stands out as one of my favourite reads in recent years, with one of the biggest literary crushes I've ever formed. Excitement, space, humour - it all worked, and Weir knows those elements are what helped made his debut so instantly popular.

Artemis takes a rather different premise, but pushes a few similar buttons to bring us a new heroine who hits those same buttons. Jazz Bashera may not be a scientist (she's a porter) but she talks to us in the same chatty and wryly funny style.

Artemis is the moon colony that is home to 20-something Jazz and several hundred other colonists. There is a thriving tourist industry that residents support, most of them living in conditions far below those of the rich visitors. Jazz benefits from the regular shuttles from Earth, smuggling in contraband to earn some much-needed money.

Jazz's decision to take on a rather high-profile crime, for a huge fee, sends the plot down a thrilling slide of conspiracies, danger and wise-cracking between the chases.

I felt the first few scenes were channeling Rob Boffard's Tracer in some part, but it did have the feel of Weir's first, of my lovely Mark Watney. Jazz is wonderful - she's not perfect, she's sexy and smart and an underachiever. She's the heart of the book, just as Mark was, but a few characters get to muscle in and stamp their mark as well, I loved her moral dad and the scientific friend with a crush on Jazz.

This kept me reading pages, caught up in the colony world despite understanding about as much of the science as I did in The Martian. It doesn't matter though, the story underneath it all is a fast-paced adventure with a lot of laughs.

If you liked his first, you'll not be disappointed. I'd love to see these characters cast for the screen, an other intelligent sci-fi film would be very welcome.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Andy Weir is one of my favorite authors, I adore the way he incorporates humor into his writing. While sadly, I didn't connect with Jazz as much as I wanted, I still enjoyed this book a great deal, and I appreciated the fun cast of characters it had to offer. I see myself reaching for this book again in the future, I love the way the science is explained, and the pacing was to my taste.
I know everyone is comparing this book to The Martian, and let's be honest The Martian is a tough act to follow. Artemis offers something interesting, and I found it really entertaining.

An absolutely brilliant heist story set on the moon. Full of detail and, like The Martian, a lot of science but it’s a fascinating and fun read with a great cast of characters and a lot of action.

So it’s safe to say that I have a rather complicated relationship with sci fi. I always say that I don’t really like it but there’s a surprising number of books in the genre that make my all time favorites list. When it works best for me I think is when it’s light on the science and heavy on the fiction. Long winded descriptions of how things work and why are a big turn off, I honestly don’t care.

This wariness of books heavy with science is in fact the reason I have never read The Martian. I heard there was a lot of descriptions and decided to stick with the movie (which I absolutely love btw). However, having now braved Artemis I think I may need to reconsider.

Very much like The Martian, Artemis is heavy on science, however this time rather than one astronaut trying to survive alone on Mars we have a whole colony living everyday life on the moon. All of them completely dependent on a myriad of systems that let them breathe, eat, drink, move around and keep them safe from any number of threats. It’s absolutely fascinating just how complicated these systems are and how everyday things are just a little bit different in such an environment. There is a lot of description in this but I absolutely loved it.

I have no idea how much is accurate or “real” science but it feels incredibly real and detailed and so well thought out. It’s never too overwhelming though and for someone like me it’s not too heavy and works around the story which is much more heist like in nature. Think Ocean’s Eleven on the moon.

Jazz is a porter and smuggler on Artemis and desperate to raise a very specific sum of money so when she’s offered a less than legal, highly risky job with a potentially huge reward she can’t resist. It all goes wrong however and she ends up on the bad side of some very dangerous people and the law. She’s forced to use her smarts and call in every favor she’s owed from her friends to pull off one more job which just might get her out of trouble or possibly even further in.

I have a feeling that Jazz will not be quite as popular as Mark Watney. She’s abrasive, has dubious ethics and despite being highly intelligent (possibly genius) she’s always looking for the highest reward for minimal effort. She keeps everyone at arms length, reader included, but despite some initial reservations she did grow on me. I loved her rebellious attitude and smart mouth and some of her comebacks really made me laugh. She’s a risk taker and is completely unpredictable which always makes for good reading.

The supporting cast of characters also make for great reading. Some are a little bit stereotyped in places but there’s something very likable about them and I loved the way they bounced off each other. The moments where they’re bantering were probably my favorite parts of the whole book.

The story is a little complicated in places (and not only because of the science) but it’s pretty fast paced and there’s plenty of action. There is the odd moment where it slows down but it did hold my attention throughout and it’s incredibly impressive the amount of detail and work that has clearly gone into it.

Overall, I’m really glad I gave this a go and it’s definitely one I’d recommend if you like a clever heist story.

Artemis by Andy Weir

Life isn’t so easy for the poor in Artemis – the Moon’s one city. While the rich inhabitants and the excited tourists enjoy a pleasuredome of delights and privilege (complete with organised tours of the Apollo XI landing site), those who serve them in some way are lucky if they live in a room large enough to stand up in. Jazz Bashara, who’s lived on the Moon since she was six years old, doesn’t. She scrapes a living as a porter, delivering items from the cargo and tourist ships that regularly arrive from Earth, and supplementing that income with a good old-fashioned activity – smuggling.

Jazz has her dreams and to fulfil them she needs lots of ‘slugs’ (or money). One day one of her reliable wealthy clients offers Jazz the job of a lifetime. It goes beyond smuggling. It could get her into serious trouble, perhaps even deported to her family’s original home in Saudi Arabia, but the money sings. Jazz can’t say no. It’s not long before she wishes she had.

Artemis is the highly anticipated second novel by Andy Weir, author of The Martian. The wonderful and original The Martian is a very hard act to follow and the author has his work cut out. In some ways he pulls it off – the world building is fantastic. Just as he had made us experience the hostile surface of Mars, now we see what life could be like perched on the Moon’s surface in enclosed bubble domed cities, underground, in spacesuits, in tunnels and in its bars. It’s a claustrophobic and dangerous world (Moon dust can slowly kill) but it’s also exotic and beautiful – and it has a strong pride in its lunar history.

It isn’t just the landscape and environment that are visualised so powerfully – the society is also made real, complex and intimidating. Politics, economics, greed, science, innovation and inequality all play their part in shaping life in Artemis. While there isn’t much violence, there’s a sense that it may only be a matter of time. Once the shine has worn off.

Jazz is surrounded by a host of interesting characters, all with their own conflicts, hidden feelings and motivations, and many, but by no means all, are drawn towards Jazz. I really enjoyed some of these characters and if anything I wished we learned more about them. Jazz, however, I didn’t get along with so well. She’s supposed to be 26 years old but you wouldn’t know it unless you were told. She appeared to me as a stereotype of how a man might think a teenage girl might think and behave. This sounds harsh but I was really disappointed in her character and in the way she was written. Fortunately, the others around her gave me more to like.

My biggest issue with Artemis, though, is with its dialogue. At times I literally cringed at the juvenile squirmy jokes which are constant. The long-running joke about testing a condom wears thin (in a manner of speaking) as well. There’s a lot of talk about sex while nobody actually has it. Perhaps it’s to remind us that these young people are adults instead of the teens you’d assume they are. None of this dialogue seems realistic for a 26-year-old woman. A few characters – such as the police officer Rudy – speak with maturity but when they do they sound like parents chiding a child.

It’s difficult not to compare Artemis with The Martian, especially as I loved The Martian so much. As I say, there are aspects of Artemis that I really enjoyed, particularly with the visualisation of its setting and the composition of its society and rules, but, as a whole, I was disappointed by Artemis not least because I had such high and possibly unrealistic hopes. Those hopes, though, will carry me on to his next novel. I must say, though, that the cover of Artemis is spectacular!

Other review
The Martian