Artemis

Overview: A tense murder-mystery in the first settlement on the moon. Filled with puzzles, humour, action, science and a great main character that I'd love to read more about.

After 1st Reading: Started it yesterday. Finished it today. There are so many things to make this book hard to put down. There's a good streak of humour, there's an interesting setting, then there's one detective-style mystery after another, just when you think you're onto solving one mystery - another pops up. Then there's the lovable-rogue main character, who you want to see is safe (so, just one more page) and then the faeces hits the rotary blade and our unlikely band have to deal with a huge deadly danger! Got to see if everyone is OK!

If a fire alarm went off, they'd probably have found me bolting out of the building while still reading...I'd evacuate of course...there's no way I'd let the book burn!

Yes, a good read all said.

After 2nd Reading: Was it as good as the first time around? Yes! This is a real page turner of a book with great puzzles that have you reading as fast as possible while your brain buzzes trying to put the clues together. While I don't think that the author has any plans for direct sequels, the main character, Jazz, is such a great protagonist that I would love to read about her further adventures I would just love the Administrator to blackmail Jazz into being Rudy's deputy. Not only would she be a great detective, but the Rudy vs Jazz friction would be hilarious I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of the gardener either...

A really good read.

3.0 out of 5 stars

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

In Artemis, snarky smuggler Jazz Bashara gets caught up in a dangerous get-rich-quick scheme that could rock the foundations of life as they know it on Artemis, the first ever Moon city.

Well, two major books into his literary career, I think Andy Weir's genre/style is apparent – sarcastic, genius narrators who Macgyver their way out of outer space jams. This leads to a generally palatable adventure that moves along swiftly and is enjoyable enough, but doesn't linger very long with me after I've turned the final page (or hit 100% on my Kindle, in this case). Artemis is told in a very visual, fast-paced way, which I think will translate well to the big screen (the film rights have been acquired). As a point of comparison, I thought The Martian was better served in book form, whereas the opposite might be true about Artemis.

The concept of a moon colony has been done before, but I liked Weir's take on what the economy would look like and how the creation of the outpost was firmly tied to corporations and the commercialization so prevalent in today's society.

My major issue with the book was that it felt like Jazz had this tacked-on personality trait of being a promiscuous woman, even though it added nothing to the depth of her character or the story itself. Every repeated mention or dirty joke about it felt forced, unnecessary, problematic coming from a male author, and generally kinda icky.

Overall, this was a mostly enjoyable adventure story, with a likable cast of characters, in an interesting setting. I can't give it a rousing recommendation, but if you loved The Martian, you'll probably have fun with this.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Like The Martian, the settings and situations in this book felt very real. The plot was a kind of a caper story with huge stakes but set in a small town where everybody knows you.
It was fun and fast moving and at times reminded me of one of my favorite books, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

I re-read this because when a friend mentioned it, I realized I couldn't remember anything about it.
While reading it now, it seemed almost entirely new.
I was surprised that the industrial sabotage wasn't treated more harshly.
After an earlier failure, the new plan seemed to hinge on something that wasn't true.
Well, I still liked it a lot, and I will probably get to read it for the first time again in another 3 years.

Executive Summary: The world building was far far better than the actual plot, but I still found the book enjoyable. It's not as enjoyable as [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg 21825181] though.Audiobook: I was a bit torn on [a:Rosario Dawson 784633 Rosario Dawson https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] as a narrator. I'm not generally a fan of celebrity readers, even if they are talented actors. I felt like early on in the book she was a little bit “off” but as the book went on, I thought she did an excellent job with the narration. She added in a few voices to really give it an extra something when listening. I'd recommend the audio as a good option for this book, and I'd definitely listen to another book she narrated.Full ReviewI'll admit I bought this book without ever reading even the blurb. It was Andy Weir's new book and I loved [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg 21825181]. Its shadow looms large here. How do you follow up on something so successful? The answer for me is a bit mixed, but mostly positive.Artemis is awesome. Though I don't mean the book. I mean the place in the book. Andy Weir did a fantastic job creating it. Almost too good of a job. I kind of made the story he set in it a bit underwhelming. I really want to visit the place (though since I have trouble riding many amusement park rides, I don't see how I'd ever actually make it to the moon; Maybe they could knock me out first?).The main character is pretty well written. She's smart, capable, and quite a bit sneaky. The supporting characters are interesting and flushed out enough to feel well developed if we were to dig a bit deeper, even though we never do. I also liked the way we get the Jazz's backstory through a series of emails with someone back on earth.So if you've got an amazing setting and a pretty well written main character, why the mixed thoughts? Well the story itself wasn't all that interesting/unique. You could have (mostly) set this book on Earth and most of the plot points wouldn't have really changed.It just felt like this awesome world building he done was mostly wasted. Of course things would have to play out differently on Earth. You couldn't have moon walks or low gravity, but the “loveable criminal with her own set of morals” has been done to death.Overall I'm glad I picked this one up, and I'll totally buy Mr. Weir's next novel without reading the blurb again. I really enjoy the way he mixes in science without making the book feel “too hard sci-fi”. I kind of want a sequel (or maybe a prequel?) to this book where we just get more awesome stuff with Artemis. It really was the star of this book.

Hovers over 2 stars “It was OK”, Hovers over 3 stars “I liked it”. Yep that about sums it up. The Martian was a riot with a wonderful plot line and characters. Artemis is a bit of a forced plot driver on a potentially interesting basis - lunar base. Hats off for the choice of the new “Hero” but does it work? Not really. This is not really a case of “Should try harder” but of the contrary - maybe he should have tried less hard to create a page turner and let his attention for detail flourish more. Still. I did like it and it was a very easy read.

Heerlijk! Ik las zoveel negatieve reacties dat ik zonder veel verwachtingen begon te lezen. Mij eerste boek van Andy Weir, mogelijk daardoor toch onder de indruk van het verhaal. Ik genoot erg van de setting, de stad op de maan. De technische kant van de hele zaak vind ik (als niet technische mens) net voldoende belicht. Hierdoor lijkt de stad net dat tikje dichterbij. Jazz vond ik (in tegenstelling tot vele andere review schrijvers) een toffe madam. Ik zet zeker de Martian op mijn to-read lijst. Maar ik laat even wat tijd tussen deze en de volgende van Weir.

Yeah, it's a heist book. Imagine Ocean's Eleven, but on the moon. And with more welding and less casinos. It will probably be a fun movie, but the book was just ok.

It's fun, but I found the main character to be annoying and hard to relate to, every time she said “I have a plan,” it just kept spiraling into worse and worse problems until the dramatic finale of the novel.

A caper that involves metallurgy and chemistry? And EVA safety protocols? On the moon? Sounds like it could be dry reading, right? Wrong! Weir successfully uses the high stakes involved to make scenes that revolve around welding gripping reading. Compelling characters that science their way through what could otherwise be a Raymond Chandler novel make this book and helped me not mind too much the time or two when I saw what was coming a little too easily. Ymmv.

Andy Weir knows how to write an enthralling tale. Got to give the guy credit for having the guts to use a female protagonist. A couple things bother me about the story, but the author is well-known for getting his science facts correct - so I won't question that part. The leading character has some very strange morals.

A decent premise brought down by the very questionable writing of the characters and the increasingly improbable events which lead to the climax. Still thoroughly enjoyed the pace and overall writing style which is very reminiscent of his other two works, but aside from being a palette cleanser between denser works, you're much better off elsewhere in his catalog.

I adored The Martian, and I really wanted to like this book, but it felt clunky in places and the main character is odd and cringeworthy at times.

That being said, I would be happy to return to the world he has created, but with a slightly different collection of characters. Bring back Svoboda, Rudy and Bob!

this book was super fast paced, which was great, except for the ending unfortunately. jazz was a super feisty, super badass main character but she did not let anyone forget that she was a criminal. overall the plot was great, and it was a super quick read (i read the whole book in one sitting!). if you didn't like the martian or are afraid of how scientific it'll be i definitely recommend artemis instead. andy weir is a great realistic space sci-fi author and this book felt closer to a ya than his other book.