I want to start off by saying I was really excited to read "Artemis". I've heard SUCH good things about "The Martian", although I haven't read it myself, so requesting an ARC of this book just seemed like a no-brainer, right? Wrong. What should've been an amazingly diverse and interesting scientific book with action and intrigue was...well, all of that, don't get me wrong, but also dry and forced. Throughout what I was able to read of the book, because no, I could not finish it, the main character liked to tell the reader that she is in fact a girl and mentioned sex so many times, I was rolling my eyes. I'm not a prude, y'all, it just felt so forced.

Alright, enough ranting, let's get into what I actually liked. The science behind it all. The author did a really good job with this aspect. There were even maps at the beginning of the book, which I appreciated! The science was what I came for, and science is what I got. It was what made me keep reading as long as I did. So thank you for that.

Reradiation

The problem I have with this book is reradiation, that physical property that makes black cooler than white.

No Benjamin Franklin was not wrong, but his paper on snow experiment did not go far enough. Reradiation is a tricky concept. Sometimes black is hotter than white (walk barefoot in the Shwedagon Pagoda in the summertime and your feet will tell you that) but sometimes black is cooler than white (Tuarag robes, for example). The point is, in space you don't make stuff shiny to reflect sunlight and be cooler, in space shiny stuff is hotter because it can't shed its internal heat because the inside of the reflective surface reflects the heat back in, instead of shedding it out.

Andy Weir spends a lot of time, LOTS of time, explaining how things work on the moon but in his imagining everything is shiny. I don't buy it.

Some other details niggled at me too. Why didn't the rich guy who asks Jazz to commit the crime advance her money to cover costs? High tech crime costs money and Jazz has very little to acquire the tech she needs. (Remember the subplot in Ocean's 11?) And why didn't he offer her the use of his shower, instead of complaining that she smelled? Now that would have bought her loyalty.

You might like this book or you might not. I was annoyed at the overly descriptive writing.

I received a review copy of "Artemis: A Novel"by Andy Weir (Crown) through NetGalley.com.

It has been quite a long time since I’ve been so absorbed within a book that I was compelled to literarily devour it from cover to cover within twenty four hours. Artemis, chock full of action from page one, will quickly draw the reader in for an out of earth adventure on the moon colony that shares the name of the novel. Weir’s second novel doesn’t disappoint, especially having to follow up the wild success of his debut novel, The Martian. The Martian was my first book every reviewed on The Critiquing Chemist, and I hesitated to link my review because my formatting has evolved so much from day one. It almost makes me want to reread The Martian so I can update the formatting of a book I so thoroughly enjoyed. Regardless, based on my initial love of Weir’s work, I was ecstatic to be sent an ARC copy of his sophomore novel. Taking the place of the memorable Mark Watney is the spunky, funny, equally innovative and intelligent Jasmine Bashara, a.k.a. Jazz, whose foul mouth ranges the full spectrum of cringe worthy to literally causing the reader to laugh out loud. The supporting cast is equally delightful, including a Ukrainian scientist that contains all of the stereotypical tendencies that are associated with that career, and a head of security that dresses like a Mountie with the law enforcement philosophy of a Wild West sheriff. Toward the end of Artemis, I found myself having comparable exasperated feelings as when I read The Martian, with regard to the myriad of disasters our protagonists would find themselves in only to have just the right tool or the right problem solving epiphany in the knick of time. Overall, Artemis was a highly amusing read that will keep readers enthralled throughout as they embark on a harrowing adventure taking place within a city that calls the moon home.

Okay, I'm Jazzed.

Finally - a heroine who's independent, feisty and could give MacGyver a run for his money. That much of the time Jasmine ("Jazz") Bashara skirts the edge of the law makes her all the more interesting. Throw in a kinky sense of humor that doesn't let up from start to finish, and I'm in it all the way.

Jazz, now in her mid-20s, has lived in Artemis - the first and so far only city on the moon - since early childhood. Residents live and work in five self-contained spheres called bubbles that have numerous fail-safes to protect residents from an unfriendly moon atmosphere. People come from all parts of Earth to live and visit (tourism is big business, and trips from Artemis to Earth take half a dozen days or so). Jazz herself is from Saudi Arabia, brought by her father, who practices the welding trade in his adopted city. They aren't particularly close - for openers, he's a practicing Muslim and she has no interest in any kind of religion.

Because it's forging new territory, life on Artemis isn't as fully regimented as is Earth; some rules, for instance, like no firearms (or fire of any kind, for that matter), are more stringent, mostly for safety reasons. In addition to her regular but peon-type job, Jazz has been smuggling goodies up from Earth for quite some time. But because she's almost desperate to earn lots of money (called "slugs" on Artemis) so she can move out of her coffin-like living quarters and eat food that isn't reminiscent of Soylent Green, she's hoping for something closer to a windfall.

Then along comes her big chance, in the form of filthy rich businessman Trond Landvik. He's consumed with the notion of putting Artemis's huge aluminum smelting operation out of commission so he can buy it at a fire-sale price and take over. Knowing her proclivity with a blowtorch (some skills she bothered to learn from her father) and willingness to color outside the lines, he offers Jazz a monumental amount of slugs if she can disable the company's four "harvesters" that gather rocks from the moon for use in the smelting process.

Needless to say, things don't exactly go according to plan, and Jazz and her cohorts more than once find themselves between a rock and a hard place (literally). Telling more would ruin the story for others, though, so you'll just have to read it to find out who wins and who loses.

What I will venture to say is that I liked this book even better than the author's previous book, "The Martian," which also earned 5 stars from me (and FYI, each of the two books stands totally alone). Admittedly, Jazz can grate on the nerves a bit, although overall I enjoyed the heck out of her sense of humor. And as was the case in "The Martian," the technical stuff is both educational and fun but can be a bit overwhelming at times.

But in the end, I loved it. Many thanks to the publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Holy crap!
I am never good at writing reviews for books like this because I don't want to spoil a thing, but if you read "The Martian" and you're a fan of a good sci-fi novel, PICK THIS BOOK UP!

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.

The setting was amazing, I loved the lunar city. The hard science was impressive, though not particularly entertaining.

Beyond that, the book struggles. The characters were derivative; Jazz reads like a teenager even though she's 26, every other character reads like an archetype: Jazz, the underachieving genius, Trond, the eccentric billionaire, Rudy, the by the book lawman, Ngugi, the more than meets the eye leader, et cetera, et cetera. It's tempting to brand this as YA. (As an aside, Jazz constantly sexualizing herself read oddly, like Andy Weir needed to remind us every 20 pages that she has boobs. Also, she often breaks the 4th wall, which is incredibly distracting given this isn't a framed narrative or anything that would justify that behavior in a character.) The plot is riddled with all the clichés and predictability of a commonplace thriller. All in all, an easy read with a few aspects were impressive, but not a worthwhile one.

Great beginning but then it lags. Building a world is never easy, but when it's foreign to the reader, it needs more description to be as visual in the reader's head as the writer's.

In the follow up to the highly successful The Martian, author Andy Weir fails to live up to the wonderful first book. In this second novel Artemis, his protagonist, a young woman named Jass, who works on the colonized moon as a delivery person, gets involved with helping someone to take over one of the many business ventures on the planet.

At first I was into this work as it reminded me of a favorite sci-fi film - Outland - but this book never lives up to its potential. Furthermore, in what appears to be a try at humanizing our character as we see pen pal conversations at the end of each chapter, do not help. In fact this latter story made me feel like I was reading a pre-teen young adult novel, and the tone of these excerpts did not balance with the rest of the novel.

Many an author does not do as well with his or her sophomore work, and the same goes for Weir. Here is hoping that with lessons learned he will continue in the fine work as produced in his first book. (I received a free ebook with the promise of leaving an honest review).

http://theliteratekitty.blogspot.com/2017/10/lunar-conspiracy-sciences-ht-out-of-me.html

So let's get this out of the way, right off the bat: anyone expecting a stellar follow-up to Andy Weir's immensely-entertaining debut, The Martian, with his sophomore outing (the soon-to-be-released Artemis), may be a little disappointed... not because it isn't a fun read, but because the bar was set SO very high from the get-go.

The Martian was in my top-five books for 2014, because it hit on all cylinders. Smart, funny, smart-ass, regular-guy hero? Check. Fascinating setting, depicted in glorious detail so that it felt like I was there, too? Check. Seemingly-impossible snafus to get out of? Check. Thrilling, edge-of-my-seat kind of ending... that also seemed plausible? Yep, check.

On paper, Artemis has most of the same kinds of things going for it. Bright, wise-acre, ordinary-gal hero (a young female protagonist who's on the shady side, but close enough)? Roger that. Cool setting, given ample descriptions to make it "real" (a little town on the moon)? Got it. Jams and scrapes aplenty (on the moon, as with Mars, it sorta goes without saying they're seemingly impossible, eh?)? You bet. Nail-biting ending? Yep, more or less.

Why, then, did Artemis leave me content to move on to the next read... rather than unwilling to pick up something new for a few days, as its predecessor did? Let's take a look...
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Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara is a porter in Artemis, the first permanent settlement on the moon ("porter" being a euphemism for smuggler, by the way). It's not so much that she's an outright criminal, more that she knows how to slide past a lot of pesky little legalities while trading in contraband, and in turn ekes out a very meager living for her efforts. So, although she's a huge disappointment to her welder father (who naturally wanted his talented daughter to follow in his respected footsteps), she manages to fill a necessary void (people who really want contraband-whatever are gonna get it somehow, after all, and Jazz does it without hurting anyone else, which is good for everyone) and mostly stay out of (serious) trouble.

When one of her regular (and more-lucrative) clients offers her a very different sort of job, though, everything changes. Things go wrong in a huge way, and Jazz finds herself at the center of a conspiracy worth gazillions to more than one party. Suddenly, she is in (seriously-big) trouble, not to mention hella danger... and finds herself in the unusual (and undesirable) position of having to ask others for help trying to fix the humdinger of a mess she has landed in.
_______________________________

To Artemis' credit, Jazz is a feisty character with oodles of spunk (which plays nicely with her talents and skill sets, which I really appreciate). Additionally, there are several interesting characters for her to play off of (something The Martian had little of, given its structure), which allows for some humorous scenes. Artemis, itself, is a strong presence here, too, which further makes for good reading.

One of the biggest problems I had with Artemis, though, is the science... or rather, the amount of it. There were long passages when my eyes sort of glazed over, reading about pressurizing this or welding that. (Err on the side of being a bit skimpy on the tech instead of throwing it all in kitchen-sink style, I say.)

Another thing is that it seems to take an awfully long time to get to the "situation"... which (descriptions of the science around/behind it, aside) then doesn't take all that long to resolve, considering the build-up. I felt a little cheated at the end, sort of like, "Is that it?". (Again, this comes in stark comparison to The Martian, in which the entire story deals with handling one, always-growing, ever-changing problem.)

Finally, in the realm of "it ain't broke, so don't fix it", Weir may have only two novels under his belt, to date, but both follow a very similar pattern... which is notable, when that formula (for instance, the messages to a friend on earth) is so specific. (As it happens, it's a good formula that serves him well, but still...)

Am I glad I read Artemis? Yes, and I definitely enjoyed it (though I didn't love it). Is it something of a letdown, after the brilliance of Weir's first book? Well, yeah, that, too. (It certainly wasn't "meh", but it wasn't "OMG, wow", either.) Will I look forward to whatever comes next from Weir's head and pen (ok, keyboard)? Absolutely... so in the end, no harm, no foul (even if this outing wasn't his best work).

~GlamKitty

[Note: I received an advance copy of this book in return for providing my honest thoughts on it via this review.]

Andy Weir, a Campbell Award winner in 2016, had researched his first book, The Martian, starting back in 2009, then released it chapter-by-chapter on his website for free, compiled the story into a Kindle edition for $0.99, rose to the top echelon of Amazon's sci-fi bestsellers, after which the book was picked up by Crown Publishing in 2014. Presumably, some editorial polishing occurred. The book shined, hit the bestseller lists, became an Audie Award-winning audiobook, and was adapted into a film with Matt Damon. I’m sure that the pressure to live up to those results in a follow-up novel was and is immense. So I’m sad to say that I am sorely disappointed in reading Weir’s new outing, Artemis.

The exact cocktail that makes a book about a man struggling to survive as the sole occupant on Mars involved bravado, bluster, humor, 80’s music, geekery and hard science. Weir’s use of these things in The Martian paid off, as did the tight plot, time pressure and focus on survival. Mark Watney’s characteristics do not, however, drape handily into a barely female character like Jazz Bashara. Her character in this book is a thinly built, wise-cracking criminal with boobs (pretty much Weir’s own words), and the story of her criminal activities and gambit to survive their consequences is not well developed and isn't compelling. I was put off early in the book by the fact that Jazz appears to have been initially developed as a gender-neutral or possibly male skeleton character who was later given breasts to make her female, a female birth name (Jasmine), a nationality (Saudi) and religion (Muslim, but just barely). There is nothing about this character that reads as a female. (This is, by the way, stuff that currently makes female writers and readers rail vehemently.) We never find anything of depth or empathy in this character and her story. She is immature, risk-taking, shallow, and has few if any real friends, other than her pen pal. She is 26 years old, a criminal, unobservant, and even ignorant of important facts. For instance, if you are a smuggler operating in the equivalent of a small, enclosed city, it would behoove you to know about the major crime syndicate operating in your community, what they own, who works for them, and how to stay out of their way, assuming that’s even possible with a major crime syndicate. Jazz, we are led to believe by the end of the book, runs the sole smuggling operation on the Moon, working with the assistance a childhood pen pal employed back at the Kenya Space Corporation. The mob has no interest in getting a take of her profits evidently. (Because crime syndicates aren't interested in smuggling, natch.) She singlehandedly keeps the street drugs and guns out of Artemis, and the mob is just fine with that. The mob has a sole enforcer living in the Artemis base and even he doesn't have a gun. The enforcer and Jazz mostly stay out of each other's way until they don't. Jazz's biggest fear is getting deported back to the earth. Not because she's a Saudi woman who would have to live a more restricted life there if she remained in Saudi Arabia with family, which she seems likely to have to do if she's deported without assets, but merely because she has been raised since age six in a low gravity environment and will have to take treatments to build bone density and muscle mass. No consideration to her culture and potential social circumstances is given, presumably because that's just too complex. Jazz is supposed to be so smart and has so much potential. Where is the evidence of that in her actions and choices?

So much of the plot is implausible, and then we have the style in which this book is written. That old saw about writing- don’t tell me, show me- is ignored with an extensive epistolary element with her penpal Kelvin, which lazily explains the backstory of Jazz’s relationships (with Sean, with Tyler, and oh by the way, now she’s a slut because she has post-break-up sex with other men), and the founding of her/their smuggling operation. We never meet Kelvin, her partner at KSC, who sends up the goods she wants to smuggle into Artemis on the weekly shipments that leave the KSC launch site for Artemis.

Rooting for a blustery Mark Watney to survive and safely return home from Mars was something that engaged the reader, and in the story itself, an entire planet. Rooting for a blustering, liminal female criminal saboteur, who ignorantly gets caught up in a mob operation, is pretty hard to do. We could call it an anti-hero story, but honestly, with stretches of awkwardly written science separating complicated EVA action, and with hardly any real character development, it is difficult to engage the reader enough to make fine distinctions. I stuck it out to finish this book, but a planned buddy read of it was canceled to preserve the well-being of my blogging buddy.

A disappointing read.

As a big fan of The Martian, I was so excited to be approved for this ARC. I had already pre-ordered Artemis on amazon. I was not disappointed in that Artemis shares the same attention, technical detail, and incredible intelligence in world building and problem solving as The Martian, as well as Mr. Weir's signature humor. Unfortunately, I don't think things were done quite as well in this book as in his last. Although it was still an entertaining read.

Artemis is about a twenty something woman who's grown up for most of her life in the first colony on the moon. She accepts an industrial sabotage job in order to make the huge amount of money that she needs for mysterious purposes, and shenanigans ensue. Overall, I found this highly entertaining. Although the novel had a few issues and did start to lose me toward the end.

My expectations of Weir's writing might have been a little too high, based on The Martian, which made this fall a little flat in the end. I really appreciate Weir's dry, irreverent humor, but in this book it often felt a bit forced, and more crude than humorous. Our main character Jazz was way too smart/talented to be believable as a human being. She was like a super hero. Or super computer. Any problem could be solved easily by her super human abilities. The very few times she needed help she turned to her cast of cardboard cut out caricatures masquerading as secondary characters in the book. All of these characters seemed like that could be really interesting, had they been fleshed out at all. Unfortunately, they weren't. I appreciate Weir trying to write a female main character for this book, but I say trying, because I don't think it worked that well. I had a hard time connecting with Jazz or hearing her voice as anything other than Weir's. She was not much more fleshed out than her shallow side characters. I spent the entire book waiting to learn more about all of them and connect to them, but it never happened. I also remember two distinct spots in the book where Jazz describes something she had no way of seeing/knowing. It was jarring and strange. In one spot it has her describing a fight in great detail that is taking place on the other side of a door. The whole time I was like she can't see this, how does she know? And another time she describes her own death. I can understand that the information was necessary to the plot, but it took me right out of the moment and felt very odd to be told what was happening by a character who would have had no way of knowing.

For the most part I really enjoyed reading this book. I was able to look past the fact that Jazz sounded more like an older guy than a young woman and that she would low-key need to have super powers to accomplish the things she was doing. It was humorous and mostly entertaining. The technical descriptions only became tedious once or twice, and there was only one instance about 75% in, when I truly debated setting the book down and giving up. This didn't blow me away like The Martian did, but I enjoyed it and will still look for more of Andy Weir's work in the future.

*ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

I really wasn't able to get into this. I don't know if it's me or the book. I did read and enjoy The Martian, but this felt like just a repetition of the same personality, but in a girl this time. Which just fell a little flat for me. I did not finish this though, so I feel strange giving this a full review. :c

I love his writing. It’s smart, sarcastic, and quick. He knows how to construct a hell of a plot and excellent characters and I enjoyed how this one was a thriller with a western feel but in space. But something fell flat. The breaking of the 4th wall was unnecessary, he tried too hard with the sarcasm, and dude, we get it. You’re smart with science. It was a quick read with strong female characters and I recommend it but it does fall flat at times.

An exciting, fast paced book, that readers will find hard to put down. Readers of "The Martian" will find similar explanations of processes, and procedures of life in space. Andy Weir's humor is prevalent through the entire book. Some of the situations the protagonist gets into may require some suspension of disbelief, but not to the detriment of the plot. Overall a great read, and recommended to anyone who likes science fiction, action, and adventure.

On the moon's only city, Jazz gets by from smuggling and delivering items to wealthy citizens. When she is offered more money than she can make in a lifetime to sabotage a company, she jumps at the chance. When she is caught, she finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy, where the stakes mean life and death for herself and the city itself. This was an well written and dynamic story. The characters and plot were creative and interesting. I look forward to reading the next book by Andy Weir.

How do you follow up a mega hit? On the heels of <em>The Martian</em>, Andy Weir's breakaway hit that seemingly came out of nowhere, Weir does a wise thing and DOESN'T try to recreate the magic of his first book. Instead, he goes a slightly different route. Instead of a survivor-in-the-wild adventure story, we have a story that is more of a YA mystery. With a female protagonist. But the hard science that we loved in <em>The Martian</em> is still here.

<em>Artemis</em> is set on the moon. It is the name of the first, and only lunar city. Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara lives in Artemis and has since she was six - for two decades. She's got an incredible talent for welding and it's a trade that could serve her well, but Jazz is too much of a rebel to conform to a steady, union job. Instead, she scrambles for an existence by smuggling small-time goods into Artemis. She dreams of the day when she can lead tours on the lunar surface - a job only a very few, highly trained, individuals get to do, and they are well compensated for their efforts.

But things have been slow and Jazz failed her most recent EVA test on the surface. What she needs is a top-of-the-line space suit, but to get that, she needs money.

After delivery some smuggled goods to her best customer, Jazz is made an offer that she simply can't refuse. The customer has a plan to take over the production and delivery of oxygen to all of Artemis, but he needs Jazz's help in sabotaging the equipment that currently brings in the supplies. In exchange for her work of destruction, she'll be paid a small fortune - enough to buy the suit she desperately needs. Of course, she could wind up killing everyone on the moon while she's at it.

I really liked that this story was so completely different from the previous book. I thought about it quite often - making the comparison that is inevitable considering <em>The Martian</em>'s popularity. Jazz was a very different character and she was quite likable - not an easy feat given that she's a smuggler and saboteur. However, I was CONSTANTLY picturing her as a fifteen or sixteen year old. Everything she did and the way she spoke suggested a wise but immature girl, rather than a woman in her mid-twenties. I was fine with her being younger and it definitely seemed 'right' but subtle reminders of her age took me out of the story.

Jazz has a pen-pal relationship with a male on earth. These notes back and forth only add to the suggestion of Jazz being a teen rather than a young, mature woman. The notes are quite interesting, giving us a unique look into her personal life, and I did wonder, early on, why these missives were included in the story. It becomes clear later on.

The science that Weir adds is great and certainly part of what we readers have already come to like about his work. Yet this sometimes felt too much - that the science explanation for something was being offered just for the sake of showing off the technical knowledge and not because it was necessary for the story.

Still...I enjoyed my time in Artemis, with Jazz and those she worked with and those she worked against. In trying to rate this book on its own merit, and not as 'the next book following <em>The Martian,</em>' I would definitely find it flawed but enjoyable and something that would prompt me to want to read more by the author.

Looking for a good book? <em>Artemis</em> by Andy Weir is an adventure/mystery on the moon with plenty of interesting characters, solid science, and a decent story. It is definitely worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Andy Weir is back! After the immense success of “The Martian”, Weir catapults another protagonist against nearly insurmountable odds. Unlike “The Martian” who had to survive alone in uninhabitable surroundings, his new character is up against a hostile environment as well as on the run from everybody around her. Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara lives in Artemis, the first and only city on the Moon and makes a less than decent living as a “porter” transporting goods arriving from Earth to the inhabitants of Artemis. Even eking out her income smuggling all kind of forbidden goods to the richer citizens of Artemis, she is far from assembling the money to fulfill her dream of opening her own shop. Then she gets an irresistible offer from one of her clients that would solve all her problems once and for all or put her in the deepest trouble ever. Naturally not all goes well and she finds herself in the middle of a shady conspiracy and on the run from law and criminals alike.
As in “The Martian” Andy Weir skillfully interweaves facts with suspenseful fiction which makes “Artemis” another gripping and unputdownable reading! His writing style is as witty and inventive as in “The Martian” and I can recommend “Artemis”to SF buffs and mystery story readers alike!!!

I really enjoyed this one! Maybe not quite as much as "The Martian" but this has more rollicking adventure in it. I loved our main protagonist! She is a fun and daring character, and I liked her immediately. The mystery is good, and keeps you reading to figure out exactly what is going on. I also loved the setting. Weir has a real talent for incorporating all the science into the story without it getting boring. The dangers of living on the moon really add to the suspense. A great read, and one I recommend!