My Thoughts:
A couple of years ago, we gave Weir's The Martian to Mini-him for Christmas. He read it, passed it along to us, and it sat on the shelf for two years. Until a couple of months ago when I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Just in time to find out that Weir's latest, Artemis, was available for review so I immediately downloaded it. Then got very nervous that it wouldn't live up to its predecessor. So, how did it live up to my expectations?

Set in space? Check.

Yes, yes, I know the whole point of grown up books with descriptive words is to paint a picture in the reader's mind of what the scenes look like. But, dang, I really wished this was a picture book so you know I can't wait until this gets turned into a movie. Which you know it will be.

Filled with humor? Check.

It's official. I'm pretty much in love with Andy Weir's sense of humor.

Loaded with tension? Check.

This time the it's not just space that's trying to kill our hero. There are actual people with actual weapons. And there's murder, and chase scenes, and a cop trying to take down our girl.

Also loaded with science? Check.

As with The Martian, I have no idea if all of the science rings true. It mostly sounds plausible enough and Weir writes it interestingly enough to make me want to read it and try to understand it.

But, this is also the only real problem I had with Artemis. It's set 100 years from now, right? But, on several occasions, Weir refers to devices and such that we use now. Based on the way that the world has changed in the past 100 years, I can't help but think that people wouldn't still be watching cable TV; that even for the older generation, laptop computers might be archaic; and that fiber optics might have been replaced by something we can't even imagine yet. Still, that's all a small enough thing, because...

Book I couldn't put down because it was so much fun? Check!

I adored Jazz, with all of her faults. And this time, Weir's lead character got to have real interactions with his other characters and I thoroughly enjoyed the relationships Jazz had with the men in her life. Did I like it as much as the first book? Maybe not quite; but, to some extent, that was only because I knew something of what to expect from Weir. Still, it's a a book I will happily recommend to anyone who enjoyed The Martian.

Andy Weir has done it agin. Artemis is a delectable space heist taking place on the moon. Jazz is a enigmatic heroine who is highly intelligent and a skilled smuggler to boot. Jazz just wants to be rich and smuggling is how she’s going to make it happen. When a opportunity arises to make some major coin despite the danger she says yes. Then begins the planning for how to stealth plant that is producing all the oxygen for the citizens of Artemis base.

Like Weir previous main character Jazz is whip smart and full of scientific information. Weird ability to explain the science without bogging the readers down in techno-speak is truly unique. Supporting characters in Artemis give the world a rich feel and like Mars make me appreciate the simplicity of planet Earth,

I’ve just recently become obsessed with all things about space and that is partially due to Andy Weir’s first book, The Martian, which I read back in 2015 and ended up absolutely loving. So, of course Andy’s newest book, Artemis, was one of my most anticipated I wanted to read this year. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, and having just finished it, I can honestly say, I loved it just as much as The Martian!

Can I start off by saying that there are SO many fun characters in this story, including the main character, Jazz, who is a pretty awesome bad-ass. Yeah, she may be kind of a criminal, but really more of a harmless smuggler, who is actually way smarter than I feel she gives herself credit for. There’s so much to love about her; her confidence and determination, and her ability to keep calm in difficult situations are just a few. She doesn’t always make the best of decisions throughout the story, but she has a way of making things work the way she wants them to, and you have to give her that! She’s seriously pretty awesome, as are so many of the other characters in the story. Read the book so you can meet them for yourself!

As I mentioned above, I’m pretty obsessed with The Martian, (both the book and the movie), and I was super excited to see how Artemis would compare. Of course I knew the story would be completely different, but the writing was so familiar as well, the style reminded me very much of that in The Martian. And, either Andy is super smart about science, or he *really* does his homework beforehand, because he does a great job at explaining all the science-y things that I don’t have a clue about. One would think I would completely space out at these parts, but instead I find them completely fascinating. I also love that the story had me in giggles more than a few times as well as I flew through the pages. That just made me love the story even more. Basically I loved everything about this book, and I ended up reading it in just a few hours time! (That doesn’t happen very often lately, so you KNOW it had to be an enjoyable read for me.)

Overall; I really enjoyed reading Artemis! I love the book just as much as The Martian and I hope they end up making a movie for this one as well. I’m patiently waiting for my library to get the audiobook in, which is narrated by the amazing Rosario Dawson, and I totally plan to listen/read the book again as soon as possible. If you’re a fan of The Martian, do check out Artemis! I know you’ll enjoy it as well.

Happy Reading!

My Review:

I'd like to preface this review with how much I REALLY wanted to LOVE this book! I'd read so many glowing reviews for The Martian and having missed that spaceship, figured maybe this would be the one to get me wanting to read all things Weir...sadly, this wasn't the case. This doesn't mean I won't be reading The Martian, it actually has me all the more curious to see whether this was just a case of...well let's just get into it shall we. Artemis is based on a heist that is pulled off by our MC Jazz Bashara, a Saudi Arabian who was born and raised on the Moon city. As soon as I met Jazz, we hit it off! I love me a good sarcastic character who as they say has no hair on her tongue. Jazz is intelligent, resourceful, cunning, and at the very heart a HUSTLER! haha! she is after the $$$ & has pretty much got the business of smuggling in illegal goods on lock. There isn't anything that enters Artemis without her knowledge. With the exception of drugs, Jazz will get you anything you need for the right price. Jazz mentions a specific dollar amount (astronomical) that she MUST earn in order to something...it's never quite disclosed to the reader & I kept reading hoping that by the end it would be revealed only it never was. She has some high profile clients on the Moon & one of them recruits her to pull off a big heist. I won't reveal what that actually entailed since that would be spoilery but I could've used more heisty action.

We follow Jazz as she makes her rounds working her legit regular day job which isn't anything fancy or high paying, as well as her side hustle. It is inferred that Jazz is so intelligent, she could have an amazing career if she only cared to apply herself. We do see Jazz get herself out of some sticky situations using brilliant ingenuity. I really enjoyed meeting some of the supporting characters in this world & then others not so much. Although I began enjoying Jazz & getting used to her self-deprecating humor, I soon became aware of how excessively male characters were pointing out her promiscuity. Jazz rolls with the comments & never denies anything & yet she has no sexual encounters in the book whatsoever which left me a bit confused as to why she's depicted as being Queen of casual sex. So, I think it's safe to say that I was a bit dissapointed with the representation of women. I cannot draw comparisons with the well loved Mark Wattney in The Martian, but I also won't ignore what I do know of that character & how eerily close Jazz resembles him.

Here's where it gets a awkward...besides the fact that the only other two women in this book were at odds with Jazz, upon meeting one of them, Jazz assumes the woman is Latina due to having a "Latina complexion." This left me a bit confused as to what that looks like exactly being that I'm a Latina woman with family from Puerto-Rico, Salvador, and Argentina...over the holiday weekend we took a family photo and the range of skin tones ranged from white to olive to black with blue, green, and brown eyes. In another scene, the author breaks the fourth wall to assume we the readers don't know what a niqab is by stating "Okay, you can stop pretending you know what a niqab is. It's a traditional Islamic headwear that covers the lower face." which again left me with a raised brow and a icky feeling. I was prepared to give this book all the love for it's diversity but by the end saw how left it went with its efforts and assumptions.

One of things that lured me to request Artemis on Netgalley was its setting...who doesn't want to read a heist that takes place on the Moon?!?! Over joyed to dive right into the world building, I went in confident this book would suck me in. I LOVE world-building & it only comes second to my love for well fleshed out characters. The city of Artemis is 1 of I believe 5 dome-like cities. The book comes with a pretty cool map that gives you a better idea of what it looks like. Since Jazz is very mobile all throughout the book, we get to familiarize ourselves a tad bit better with this world & I really enjoyed seeing some of the other cities. Now, there is mention of Artemis being the property of Kenya but unfortunately that's as far as we get in terms of info. which I was a bit bummed out over because I wanted more on that connection. On the writing front, I will admit that I struggled with info dumping. The many scenes where we get Jazz walking us through the particulars of welding & the science behind it left me wanting to get back to the main story line in a hurry. I have a love for the subject of science however, the focus on welding took some of the fun away from the fact that we were on the Moon. The ending left me feeling as if there is potential for more story & I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still interested in Jazz's story, which means I guess you you can say I'm conflicted...

*Many thanks to Crown Publishing Group, Netgalley, Goodreads (also won a physical copy) and Andy Weir for the eGalley copy of Artemis in exchange for an honest review.

Jazz Bashara wants a life of luxury, complete with real bed, a bedroom she can stand up in, and a private shower. On the moon's only city, that's asking for a lot. And despite being a border-line (if not actual) genius, Jazz doesn't want to tax herself beyond making 416,922 slugs with her on the side smuggling business and part-time portering job. But when a wealthy client offers her one million slugs to destroy rock harvesters for a shady aluminum company, Jazz agrees—and her entire world is turned upside down.

It's fun. It's political in places. It's a caper in places. It's a book where the MC's world erodes away and she must pull it together—first to save herself, then her family, and then the entire city. It's billed as a heist space-caper, but it's really just an adventure on the moon with lots of science thrown in to make it plausible. This novel is really nothing like The Martian aside from an incredibly snarky heroine. While I liked Jazz, there were a lot of times where it was hard for me to believe she was female, based on her attitude and some of the comments she made and how she described herself. Aside from that, I liked the snark and the sarcasm, and I enjoyed that she wasn't an entirely trustworthy narrator.

I loved the city and the world-building, although I was super confused why the Kenya Space Corportation named all of their domes after American space pioneers instead of, oh, another country that also did space-y things...first.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

If you can get past the fact that this character feels the same as Weir’s main character in The Martian (I was able to) I think you’ll enjoy this story! I loved the adventure of it and the setting of the lunar town, Artemis.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher!

This is another humorous book of sci fi action from Weir. A great narrator leads you through a fun cast of characters to deliver you to a satisfying ending.

Andy Weir is not a one-book-wonder. Artemis, his follow-up novel from The Martian, is set on the moon and is a brilliant novel of humanity's "keep-on-keepin'-on" along with a smattering of avarice, greed, and survival. Highly recommend!

Disclosure: Received e-copy from publisher and NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

Ok, so friends said it wasn’t good. I read it anyway and I liked it. Jazz kicks ass and solves her problems with her brain; any strong female lead character is a good one in my opinion. Plus, any mystery/heist book that is set on the moon and therefore has to take zero gravity into account (and does it right!) gets my vote.

I would encourage anyone who has read “The Martian” or seen the blockbuster movie to put aside any preconceived notions about what Andy Weir’s second book “Artemis” will be like. “The Martian” generated so much advance buzz, in part because of the unusual way it achieved bestseller status, that it wouldn’t be fair to compare the two books.

Jasmine Bashar is a struggling independent delivery person on the moon base of Artemis where she engages in small-time smuggling in order to improve her marginal and mundane existence. Then she’s offered a chance at a big-time payoff and the wild ride is on. Essentially this is a fast-paced action caper with plenty of humor and science thrown in, but setting the book on the moon enriches the story. Jazz is a resourceful and clever problem solver (think a female MacGyver) and the perilous situations she finds herself in kept me racing through the book. I felt that the extensive scientific descriptions somewhat slowed down the pace, but other readers may appreciate that level of detail. “Artemis” is a fun and fast read that allowed me to focus on lunar shenanigans instead of the problems here on earth.

My review was posted on Goodreads on 11/26/17

4.5/5 Stars

Like a lot of people, I think The Martian by Andy Weir is one of the best books written over the past few years. It took a little while to become as popular as it did, considering Andy began releasing the book in parts on his website, but with the inclusion of a film starring Matt Damon, it garnered a ton of attention, and deservedly so. It had a perfect mix of hard science, space travel, humor, and a character you could really root for. So now we have Artemis, Andy's follow-up ( not a sequel to ) to The Martian which just so happens to also take place in space (surprise surprise).

Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara is a porter in Artemis, the first and only city on the Moon. Though it generally takes large amounts of wealth to enjoy the city's many hospitalities, Jazz scrapes by with her meager salary and side hustle, smuggling in contraband to some of the city's wealthy. One day, a client of hers offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make some serious dough, but getting caught can lead to her deportation back to Earth. What begins as a wonderment of life on the Moon unfolds into a life-altering and dangerous heist, one that uncovers more than she asked for, but one that could end up giving Jazz all she has ever wanted.

Weir does a fantastic job setting up the entire city in the first couple of chapters, beginning with Jazz attempting her EVA exam outside of the bubble to life in the underground and above. He also gives Jazz plenty of redeeming qualities that will resonate with a lot of readers. The only downside of the book is Jazz's personality: you will either love or hate her. While she is introduced as a twenty-six year old with genius level smarts, she comes off as a angsty teen in most instances which can be a turn off to some. But I will say, Rosario Dawson makes up for any shortcomings because she really brought Jazz to life in the narration.

Those who are looking for The Martian, Part 2 will be disappointed, but there is still plenty of sciencing to go around. Weir does not let up on the amount of over your head, over the top hypothesis/experimentation/success or failure and that is what I have come to love about his work. It gives me something to do when I finish the novel: research and learn. He also brings just enough humor for those who loved Whatney's antics. The "moon" building is fantastic and you can picture what life could really be like on its surface.

I had high hopes for this book after being completely engrossed by The Martian. Weir's storytelling and scientific writing is still A+, but I found myself lacking any interest or emotional connection with the characters themselves. Ultimately, I didn't even finish it. I've spoken with a few other patrons at my library that had the same experience. I would still recommend it to patrons who enjoy science fiction, but if they've read The Martian I'd warn them that they might not have the same experience.

It’s rare that a film adaptation is as good as the book and even more so for the movie to be better, but that, I thought, was the case for The Martian, and I’m guessing will be true as well for Andy Weir’s sophomore effort Artemis, the film version I’m assuming is just about ready to start shooting based on the huge success of its predecessor.

The title shares its name with the moon’s sole city, home to 26-year-old Jasmine Bashara, whose job as delivery person is a big plus for her real money-making job: smuggling. When one of her regular clients proposes a much more lucrative (and risky) job, one that is a big jump up in criminality, she takes him up on the offer. As one might expect, things don’t go as planned and soon she is running and hiding for her life, pulling friends and not-friends into the ever-escalating danger, and eventually risking the lives of everyone inside Artemis.

Though on the surface Artemis appears wholly different from The Martian – Muslim female vs. white male protagonist, working together vs. working (mostly) in isolation, big crime organization vs. big govt. organization — the two share a lot of the same DNA, for both good and ill. There’s a lot of sharp banter and internal quipping; a good amount of science, math, and engineering; both characters fix, jury-rig, or take apart a lot of machinery, often on the fly; there’s an urgent deadline or bad things will happen, and so forth. All of these are executed to varying degrees of success. If you loved The Martian, my guess is you’ll like Artemis, probably quite a bit. If, like me, you found Weir’s first book enjoyable but held back to just above middling thanks to its flaws, you’ll probably have the same criticisms here.

Jasmine is an engaging if not always likable (just the opposite on many occasions actually) character, and her voice is mostly fun to follow along with. But her character is marred by not really feeling like a 26-year-old Muslim (non-practicing) woman but more like a 19-year-old male version of one (maybe cutting down on her blowjob jokes would have helped ameliorate this). And she’s a bit too brilliant and handy, making it hard to feel any true concern when she ends up in a sticky situation.

Which she does. A lot. One of my criticisms of The Martian was the repetitive nature of the plot: crisis — “oh shit” explanation of just how bad it is — Math + Science + Tools + Handiwork — crisis solved —new crisis — repeat. The same pattern holds true here, and while individually the scenes are well done, the cumulative impact is that they start to pale and rob the later scenes of true suspense.

On the other hand, despite issues with Jasmine’s character and super-skill, I have to give props to Weir for stretching himself authorially, not just with gender and ethnicity, but also in the way he presents more of a dark/depressed side to Jasmine than we ever saw with Watney. Again, the execution is mixed, but her hardscrabble life, her estrangement from her father, her troubled love life and current isolation make her a richer character in lots of ways, and I would imagine this bodes well for his next work.

Beyond Jasmine, the other characters lack any real definition, serving more as necessary props to the action, sometimes in predictable fashion. The science is often interesting in itself (such as why coffee on the moon would be so bad), but often feels a bit clumsily inserted, and bogs the story down in too many spots. Similarly, Weir relies a bit too many times (or for too long at a time) on wholly expository scenes that also slow the pace. Finally, there were more than a few times where acts seemed just too implausible, beginning with Jasmine’s easy acceptance of the client’s proposal. As one more specific example, a hotel security guard explains that he didn’t chase someone because “He had a knife. Best to let him go.” This in a half-kilometer wide bubble in a city where two people were just brutally stabbed to death.

I breezed through Artemis in a single sitting, so despite the pacing issues it’s a fast read, and it’s certainly something I’d recommend to fans of The Martian. If you thought The Martian was just OK, I’d say you'd say the same here. But the film version on the other hand . . . .

Andy Weir the author of The Martian has just released his second novel, Artemis. This second book is not a continuation of The Martian. It is a standalone sci-fi crime novel.

As someone who enjoys mystery/thriller and also Sci-Fi, this book was a good blend of both worlds. The story takes place on the moon and deals with a young woman named Jazz. She is a delivery person who moonlights as a smuggler.

The plot involves her getting an offer from a regular smuggling customer to help with a shady business deal. She agrees but quickly her part of the plan goes sideways. Quickly she finds herself on the run from both the moon’s only cop and corporate hitmen. I don’t want to give any spoilers but there is more to the deal and the hitmen, you will just have to read it to find out.

Eventually to fix her problem she gets a group of friends together to help pull a scam. Her plan is very reminiscent of heist movies like Ocean’s Eleven.

The story has a good place. There is some decent world building without having heavy infodumps. There are also a number of action scenes each one building more risk to Jazz and her team.

My only complaint about this story was that Jazz seems like a YA character. Yet to appeal to older folks she has streaks of vulgarity and sexuality added. One moment she is just an insolent youth the next she is a foul-mouthed slut.

Overall I would recommend this Artemis to anyone looking for something to read. It has the right amounts of sci-fi, mixed with mystery and crime caper to keep the pages turning.

Solid sci-fi read. I enjoyed the setting of Artemis, a town on the moon. The author did a great job of making it feel real. As for characters, our protagonist Jazz was the only one we really got an in-depth feel for, which to me wasn't a negative since she was very entertaining. She definitely doesn't fit the mode of your typical heroine. In other words, she is bitchy, lazy, a criminal, and smart (feel like females really only get to be intellectually smart OR street smart-she's both- and she lacks emotional intelligence so yay getting past archetypes). Jazz definitely didn't set out to be the heroine either, her life goals are to smuggle, make money and be lazy. But when a heist Jazz is working on goes wrong, she finds that the alternative is even worse than her crime. She, and those she drags more or less unwillingly, make a plan to save Artemis to keep life the way it is in their little bubble. Definitely pick it up if you like sarcasm and action.

'Artemis' by Andy Weir is his follow up to 'The Martian.' I loved that book, and this one wasn't too bad either.

Jazz Bashara lives on the moon in a city named Artemis. The city is made up of a series of domes named after famous astronauts. There is a booming tourism business to visit the moon landing site nearby. But Jazz is struggling to make money. On the legal side, she is a courier. On the criminal side, she smuggles things in from Earth for citizens of Artemis, including a crazily wealthy client who likes his cigars. He proposes a job for Jazz that will make her a lot of money. If you think everything will go perfectly, you didn't read 'The Martian.'

Comparisons are inevitable. Mark Watney and Jazz Bashara are both wise-cracking protagonists who are also very good at solving problems. Mark does so with more discipline and rigor, Jazz, less so, but in both cases this is in keeping with her character. Mark is more of a loner by circumstance and choice, but Jazz has a whole group of friends, enemies, and former ex-lovers.

I loved 'The Martian' as well as the movie that was made from it. This book took me a bit longer to get in to. I really didn't care for Jazz's particular brand of coarse humor, and, I felt, it took away from the character. Still the book gets to a point where the narrative whips along and I found myself turning pages wondering what was going to happen. I wasn't disappointed.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Crown Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

First off, I enjoyed the story. Living on the moon, how cool would that be? From the sound of it, not much. Jazz Bashara, is a 26-year old smuggler. Living in a room the size of a coffin, she is struggling to make money so she can pay for a debt she feels she owes. When a wealthy businessman offers her an illegal job where she will make a million slugs, Jazz can't refuse. However, things don't go as planned.

I only recommend this book if you loved The Martian. I enjoyed the movie a lot more than the book. Everything I disliked in The Martian is tenfold in this book. Once again all the science knowledge bored me. But the worst part about this book was the protagonist herself, Jazz. She was so annoying! Half the time I thought she was 16 years old and I had to keep reminding myself that she is in her 20s. Mr. Weir needs a lesson on how a woman's mind really thinks.

I felt like I was reading a YA sci-fi book. This is my 2nd read from this author and I'm not sure I will read any more from him.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for the opportunity to read a copy of Andy Weir's "Artemis" in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. The premise is a good one but it's lacking the charm of The Martian and instead of Watney's humor we get Jazz's sophomoric humor that might appeal to a 12 year old boy. The book was full of eye-roll inducing "humor", to overly technical information that I cared nothing about (welding). In between, my intelligence was insulted by Jazz over-explainging everything in a sarcastic annoying way.

I applaud the author for choosing to make a female protagonist but why such an annoying skanky one as Jazz with the forced humor and cheesy dialogue?

* I received a copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review