Artemis

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Artemis by Andy Weir

Amazon – Artemis

GoodReads – Artemis

Author – Andy Weir

Jazz Bashara is a criminal.

Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she’s stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first. – Goodreads Synopsis

This one feels hard to write; I’m not exactly sure how much I enjoyed Artemis. I really do like how Andy Weir gets into the nitty gritty with calculations of math and science. That part I LOVE actually. It is probably what made The Martian so great…but Artemis? Why did this one not feel great?

Oops not that Artemis

Having the story set on the Moon felt normal. Everything was explained properly, and I do not think it was overdone. Sometimes stories feel written just to show off the setting and with little thought on everything else. It blended well and the immersion was seamless, so why do I still feel off?

There is a heist?! Most of the story is fleshed out with planning and executing a heist!? That’s awesome! We are going to see how it is planned out with the use of science? Yeah, still awesome – I love me a good science heist. There is smuggling, corruption, crime, and beer – OK cool.

Then we get on towards the dialogue and the characters. Man this is what did it for me. At about halfway through the book (I think after reading one of the bar scenes) I went “Wow WTF am I reading right now?!” It felt like I was reading something cheap and trashy. That scene just rammed into me like a freight train. Mark Watney in The Martian felt real and fine for me to read, but there’s something about Jazz that just did not stick with me.  She just felt very shallow to me.

I generally enjoyed reading Artemis for the most part – it just had its few flaws. At only 300ish pages it’s worth checking out. Maybe it is a curse for your first book to come out as a total smash hit, because then you are always trying to live up to the success as the first one. People (like me) may also unfairly judge everything after that first wild success, but say one thing for Andy Weir – he stays true to himself and his writing. (Which I love)

It’s would be psychedelic to be a moonman though…

31 comments

  1. So true, I guess Mark Watney’s humor worked because of the fact that he was alone in the planet lol, but seriously IT WORKED! The Martian is still my go-to scifi book rec. Totally agree with you about the characters and the dialogues of Artemis, I’m just hoping that Andy Weir doesn’t stop writing and that he goes back to writing in the male POV (most of the Jazz’s dialogues/thoughts are just cringeworthy!!)

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  4. Damn, I was hoping it lived up to The Martian. I read that one in a book club and then went out and purchased it so I could read it again. Though I accidentally bought the “classroom” edition. Apparently the censored all the expletives Watney liked to throw at NASA in that one. I knew something didn’t feel right in it. Anyway, I still give Artemis a try since you “generally enjoyed reading it”. I’ll let you know what I thought of it. Great review- Robert

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  7. Nice review, C.

    Yikes. Math + M3 = N0T

    My nickname is Jazz so I’m struggling to remember that I’m not reading about myself. But on behalf of Jazz, I apologize for her shallowness.

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  10. This is a lot of what I’ve heard, so thank you, though I wish it was better. On the flip side, what a better follow up than what Cline’s ARMADA turned out to be!

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  12. I really enjoyed Artemis when I read it, though I agree that it wasn’t the follow up to The Martian that I wanted. I guess I just didn’t put too many expectations on Artemis and simply enjoyed being entertained.

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  13. I’m with you. I enjoyed “Artemis” overall, but found it very uneven, and all of the characters pretty shallow–like walking, talking cliches. I felt like Weir was trying SO HARD to write a “feminist” book, which I appreciate, but it came off as very forced and unnatural. Still, an exciting adventure, if you can just get past the awful dialogue…

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  14. This is on my to-read list, but most people seem to agree with your take, from what I’ve seen. Still hoping I enjoy it, even if it’s not quite on the same level as The Martian.

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  15. I listened to this book on Audible and found it entertaining during a long road trip. It did take me a bit to warm up to Jazz but overall, I enjoyed the story.

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  17. Artemis reads like a YA Sci-Fi novel. Actually, a friend told me Artemis reads like one one my novels, which I found strange. I mean, I write YA contemporary, no science or anything. Saying that, I enjoyed Artemis, but I was confused since I expected it to be more hard science fiction.

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  18. Great review! I really wanna read this book since I loved The Martian, but I’m scared as well, since I’ve heard that a lot of people agree with your feelings on the characters/dialogue… But I’ll get to it soon and hopefully it’ll be okay haha!

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  22. Fully agree in that I wanted to love it as much as The Martian, but even despite Rosario Dawson narrating, I couldn’t get into it.. I don’t know that he would have to write a male protagonist to make the next book better, but either way, I just know I didn’t finish this one :/

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  27. Ha! Yes! I think I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads. Jazz had such a shallow, annoying-teenage-girl character type that really got on my nerves. The plot was interesting enough to follow through to the end, but I was so turned off Weir that I now hesitate to read The Martian…

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