Weir's new novel was a breath of fresh air or should I say a cool breeze on a summer night? Well, even though neither of those can really be experienced on the moon, I found Jazz Bashara an entertaining protagonist and outlaw. Jazz's adventures in welding and combustibles had me confused and my head spinning (very similar to how I felt reading The Martian), but this was a brilliantly imaginative and riveting read.

All of the ingenuity and creativity that made The Martian great, but completly different.

I LOVED this novel.
It follows the main character, Jazz, who lives on the moon in a colony-like place. Throw in scientific knowledge, cheesy jokes, and a heist, and it was honestly the most awkward but human book I've read this year. I blew through this story and couldn't wait to find out how it ended. My only complaint is how...weird the main character can be at times but when you grow up on the moon since the age of six, maybe this had some affect on her. I love, though, how smart she is and that, for once, a female character isn't reduced to her body. She might be weird but she's got brains.
The world was built well and much of the science I could understand was legitimately explain. Again, loved it and I would definitely recommend!

I haven't read The Martian nor did I intend to, but now I really want it. From that, you can see how much I liked this one.

The story is quite different, though. First, it takes place in a city built on the moon and controlled by a Kenyan enterprise. Jazz is a street-smart young woman who is tired of only having a small capsule to call home and could really do with a private bathroom. A billionaire's offer to sabotage one of Artemis's monopolies was supposed to be her passport to a more comfortable life until she finds out the heist is against something so big that threatens not only the lives of people she loves but the whole Artemis.

Full disclosure? I'm not a sci-fi or even a fantasy novel fan. That is the very reason I had never taken interest in The Martian before. But I do like the idea of a city on the moon and having a female lead to top it off bought me here. But I had no reason to fear, Weir has a very good way to explain everything that always got me laughing instead of my usual bored-to-death whenever it's "let's teach the readers" time.

The book not only has a girl as the heroine, it barely even mentions the United States. It was patent that the author wanted to avoid the cliche and searched for different countries to compose his Artemis. It's nice to mention, he even inserted a statue of the Chinese goddess of the moon—whose name I'm sorry but I can't remember. Even though I called his effort patent, it was all very well mixed. I remember reading another book that had attempted the same and it became a circus of misfits. It was not the case in Artemis. Point to Weir.

(But knowing well about Latin America, the names chosen for the Brazilians were a little too Hispanic, in my opinion... Sanchez and Alvarez don't sound Brazilian to me.)

On the other hand, I think that the feats I liked were also what bothered me. Jazz wasn't much of a woman, I think you could rewrite the whole thing changing her pronouns to the masculine and it won't make a difference. Except for the awkward moments Weir seemed to feel the need to reassure the readers she was a woman, like making her change clothes in front of an audience, forcing a character to have romantic interest in her (he needs to work on his romantic skills if he really has to insert romance in his stories), repeating for no reason how sexy she is... They were just details so I frowned and pretended they didn't exist. Still, it was a bother.

Another issue were the excessive joking. Yes, they were funny, I liked how they soothed all the scientific explanations. It was also clear, however, that they existed for that very purpose. And while we're on the science, I don't think the book needed that much science. I wonder what someone who really understands what that was about would think but for me, while it wasn't boring, it was still an excess of details. Well, it was still amazing that he thought that far, that I'll concede.

In the end, the plot was way more simple than it really seems and it made me wonder if Jazz—and her employer—didn't go too far if that (spoiler censored) was his objective. Still, the conclusion was satisfying, and I enjoyed how he inserted some Economy talk there, I wasn't expecting that.

I'm excited to read not only The Martian but also Andy Weir's next works, since he proved he's build worlds and think very far about them. What has he got in store for us?

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

I am wondering if I was the only one that missed something earlier in this book and did not know how old Jazz was. I could have sworn that this was a young adult novel with the antics that Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara was up to and the simplicity of the earlier chapters. Granted, there were a few things thrown in that were a little more adult, but still not totally breaking the YA Genre rules completely. Then I am not sure how, but midway through the book, all the numbers came together and I realized that the character that I though was sixteen was actually twenty-six years old and only acted like an insolent teenager.

Artemis is the first and only colony on the moon consisting of two thousand people occupying connecting bubbles with names like Armstrong, Bean, and Shepard. Jazz currently works as a porter ferrying goods from one section to another with a bit of a smuggling business on the side. There are certain products that are not allowed, but since she is a rule breaker, she has decided what should be allowed as long as her rules are followed. Of course, this has put her on the outs with authority figures that she is constantly butting heads with, but that is not going to stop her. She needs to make more money since she has a debt to pay and as long as she follows her own rules, no one will get hurt.

Turns out that there is something very sneaky going on in Artemis and when the local billionaire asks for a favor with a high payoff who is she to say no. Turns out that she was not given the full picture and when that job goes astray, she finds herself a wanted person. There is only one way out and this will put not only her life, but also the lives of everyone in Artemis, in danger.

Andy Weir is known for his humor and there is no exception here. The readers will find themselves laughing aloud and definitely shaking their heads in wonder in not only how Jazz got herself in this situation but also on how she will manage to get herself out. The way this book ends, you can most assuredly see a series in the making and if the rumors are true, the option to purchase this book as a new television series is in the works and we will soon be seeing Jazz in all her brazen ways.

An interact thriller of epic proportions. I'm usually reluctant to read a sci-fi book, just because there is always a lot of sci-fi jargon that is so thick and unknown to me that I have a hard time chewing through the words. This book was not like that. The sci-fi elements were easy to understand and it made me enjoy the story even more. This was a great thrilling story that anyone will love.

I'm just going to start by saying it took me forever to read The Martian. It was so worth the wait, though. Shortly after finishing The Martian, I saw that this book was available on Netgalley. I crossed my fingers and put in a request.

I am so glad that it was accepted!

This book was a intense from beginning to end. We are thrown into the world of Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara, a porter living on the moon who does a little smuggling on the side. Jazz is pretty down and out, money-wise, but she has big dreams. Hr big dreams require big money and when an opportunity arises to get-rich-quick, Jazz jumps on it. Unfortunately, this opportunity pulls her into a world of intriguing that quickly spins her life out of control. And we, the lucky reader, get to go along on the thrill ride.

There's so many things I loved about this book. I loved Jazz. She is a self-admitted asshole, but I still loved her. She is insanely smart, she takes absolutely no shit from anyone, and (though she would probably never admit it) she has a really good heart. One thing I require to love a book is a character that I can connect with and Jazz was that character for me. I enjoyed the secondary characters, as well. They weren't flat and one-dimensional which can unfortunately happen a lot with characters who aren't in the spotlight.

Aside from the characters, though, I thought the plot was incredibly inventive. Basically a heist book but on the moon. Loved it! The pacing was perfect. There was never a time that I grew bored or that seemed slow, at least to me. And I enjoyed all the science-y talk, though I'm not nearly smart enough to know if it was accurate or not. I will say that sometimes it took a leap of faith to believe that Jazz could figure some of the science out so quickly without *any* formal training, but I was willing to take that leap.

Oh, and I have to say, I am a fan of Andy Weir's humor. I love that he can make a book about criminal espionage on the moon have that bite of humor, as well. That was one of the things I loved about The Martian, as well. A man is trying his best not to die stranded on a very unforgiving planet, yet I would find myself cracking up every once in awhile. This book had that, as well.

All in all, this book was a great read. It was engaging, thrilling, and it was just plain *fun*! I think Andy Weir is slowly becoming one of my favorite authors.

I'm really torn on this review, because a lot of Artemis fell flat to me to the point where I wasn't enjoying reading it sometimes. I flew through The Martian. I loved Mark Watney as a character. He was funny, flawed, and real. I felt connected with his perilous stranding on Mars, I rooted for his success, and I felt whatever emotions Watney felt during his highs and lows and in-betweens. The Martian, for me, is a solid, traditional science fiction story. Artemis felt, at times, like an experiment with how many boxes can I check off, how many science-y things can I put my characters through, and how many near-death experiences can I put Jazz through...

Jazz Bashara is a twenty-six year old Arabic woman who is incredibly talented at science-ing her way through life and smuggling stuff. I liked that she was Arabic, and I liked some of the references to her heritage, but some of her heritage seemed superficial and not relative to her character at all. I kept thinking she was in her teens by the way she spoke about herself and everyone else around her. Some of her most cringe-worthy lines sounded like she was a girl trying to impress a lot of boys with her cool-girl attitude with the "Oh, I made a double-entendre, get your mind out of the gutter" sort of humor.

Jazz's type of humor and attitude toward life would be more believable for me if she had a foil, a character who contrasts with her to highlight her nuances, maybe a best friend who is incredibly feminine, but there isn't one. For all the touting of diversity and what-not, Jazz is really the only female character in the book (aside from someone at the end, but this other character really only acts as a plot device). The other main characters in the book are the stereotypical geek who doesn't know how to talk to women, the tough-love grunt, and the boyfriend-stealing charming gay guy. 

The conspiracy behind the heist isn't entirely believable to me, so the action and the science needed to resolve the arising problems ultimately fell flat. And, minor spoilers, but. Am I really supposed to believe that whoever designed Artemis didn't have backup plans in case the entire colony got flooded with some awful unbreathable stuff? That's just bad science. Any good developer/engineer/architect would probably consider this possibility, and I find it difficult to believe that this scenario didn't pop up in the theoretical models during planning.

What we were promised in Artemis: a high-octane heist, bad-ass female main character, diverse cast of characters, humor, science, moon stuff. What we got: a sorta cool heist, one stereotypical female main character, a cast of stereotypically diverse characters, humor, science, moon stuff.

Overall, Artemis is a pretty fun, fast read. Aside from those issues I wrote about above, Weir's writing style makes it difficult to put the book down once the action really gets going. I really enjoyed the concept of colonies on the moon and the details Weir interjects into the concepts and science of moon colonies. This will be one that a lot of people will be divided about in its reception, but it's a decent follow-up to his first.

Another great book by Weir, though not as great as The Martian. For this one, I am not crazy about the female narrator's dialogue and inner thoughts. I think Weir should stick to male protagonists because he did so well with that before. This one could be awkward sometimes. But other than that, a really great plot, perfect scene, some great characters.

2.5 stars. Andy Weir's plot-fueled second novel involves a heist on the moon, which immediately grabbed my attention. The story, once it got going, was very readable, and the well-researched details about life on the moon colony were rich and fascinating. I really appreciated the diversity of characters. Unfortunately, the main character came across as an uneven and ill-considered caricature; the characterization was stilted and her narrative voice felt too much like a male author failing to write a female character. As a result, her choices and actions were not very compelling, which was frustrating as it was those choices driving the plot. Other characters in the book were thin and undeveloped. The humour and tone was not to my taste; moreover, sections of the book were very unevenly paced. Overall, an entertaining story and fascinating world-building, but lacking in characterization, character development, and pacing.

Artemis shows continued growth in Andy Weir's range and I am loving it! The characters are well developed and brought me into the story with a desire to see how they succeed or fail, The setting on the Moon helped the story line for me as I imagined a main character like Jazz being able to be such a successful hustler in her mid-twenties. The science, as in the Martian, was well thought and an added bonus.

The Good: I enjoyed the scientific aspects of "Artemis," and it had an interesting premise. Like "The Martian," the science 'felt' real, like it was provable and explained in layman's terms. The cast was ethnically diverse and attempted to respect cultural differences and mores.

The Not-So-Good: I had a difficult time connecting with the protagonist. Her intelligence seems to be the only positive trait about her, as she's continued to treat people around her -- both friends and family -- like dirt. I'm not sure why people want to cling to her, look to hear for leadership, or want to help her. Also, I found the aftermath's reaction of the people who have suffered by her hand to be extremely unbelievable. She was responsible for some truly horrid things, and the surrounding characters treated it as a "well, you win some, you lose some, right? Ha-ha!" attitude. It did not feel genuine.

Also, the dialogue was somewhat humorous, but felt strangely forced.

All in all, a big step down from "The Martian." The pages kept flying by, but the end results wasn't satisfying or believable in the context of the story.

A page-turner of a sci-fi adventure. Reminds me of the best Asimov. It's set further in the future than "The Martian" but retains the subtle "real science" of Weir's first novel - and as in that one, a key plot point turns on real science (chemistry, this time). I loved the protagonist, her father, the shadowy power figure - a fun and quick read. I'm sure there will be a movie.

An absolutely stellar novel by Andy Weir. This book was full of action, interesting characters and witty writing. Everything I was hoping for in a follow up to his first hit, The Martian. I read the entire thing in one sitting, I couldn't put it down. Full of spacey science for the book worms who love that kind of thing (me!) but not as heavy handed as it was in The Martian.

I love it when non-diverse authors make a serious effort to write a book with a fully diverse cast. And yet, it’s hard because as a member of one of those categories (Weir who is male is writing about a Muslim woman as a lead character) I felt like the character was unfamiliar to me. Which is probably fine, unless it isn’t. And it’s easy to pick nits so I’ll leave that be. Otherwise this is a Weir-ish (i.e. a lot of hard science within an actual story) novel about a colony on the moon and what the politics and practices of that sort of place would look like. Our protagonist is a non-practicing Muslim woman who just happens to also be a genius and a smuggler. And a great cast of other characters who are all on the moon thanks to the Kenyan space program. If you liked the Martian but wish it had some women in it, you’ll probably like this.

Through Net Galley, I had the opportunity to read and review a free copy of this book prior to its release date. I knew it was coming. After having read The Martian, I jumped at the chance to check out Andy Weir’s next book. So when it came up on Net Galley? Yes, please! Please, please, please let me read it!

For those of you living under a rock, Andy Weir wrote The Martian, which sold like crazy and was made into a movie. The main character was portrayed by Oscar winner Matt Damon. So all in all, the author is probably a gazillionaire now (hopefully in dollars and not in the form of slugs).

Ok, that aside I’ll tell you what I liked about the book. First off, I enjoyed reading the author’s “voice”. The first paragraph or two of The Martian is what sold me on the entire book and why I read it to the very end…well, in part. Artemis was no different in that respect. It’s also in first person, as in his previous book. Second, I’d completely forgotten that the main character was a female until it was made obvious. Besides that, I’d forgotten her ethnicity. For me, moon people don’t have an ethnicity. The main character was born in Saudi Arabia but grew up on the moon from the age of 6. The book is full of diverse support characters. Finally, the science! I LOVE sciencey books. Crichton is my favorite because of the detail he spends on describing the science behind the story, like a mini lecture. That’s a turn off for a lot of readers so let me reassure you: Weir is “Crichton-light”. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t offer good explanations in his books. He does. They are entertaining and informative. He just doesn’t spend entire chapters in explanation. They’re more like snippets, paragraphs or sentences of information. For anyone with a short attention span, this is perfect!

What you may not like? There’s language, a lot more than the previous book. I get it. People curse. You hear it everywhere. But where The Martian was light on it, Artemis is not. The good news? There isn’t romance…well, except one kiss? Phew. Sorry, but I’m not big on romance. I want action and science! It’s the moon for crying out loud. Who’s got time for love on the moon? Pfft.

My favorite of Weir’s is still The Martian. However, this was another good book from the author that I enjoyed. For SciFi fans, I recommend this read. For those that want the audiobook, the author tweeted that Rosario Dawson will be narrating the story. Awesome!

Andy Weir does it again! Refreshing space story with all the spacey tech talk but not so overwhelming that it's not easy to understand.

Jazz was hoping to get a fresh start when she decides to move to the moon maybe even move up the proverbial ladder. She comes from a lower caste and starts doing things highly frowned upon to get by. She thinks they are alone on the moon but are they truly? Will she get away with what she's done? I really enjoyed getting to read this book which questions what exactly do you think bad is? Will you stretch your morals?

ARC from NetGalley for a fair & honest review.

This book was everything I hoped it would be, to put it plainly. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Something like The Martian would be difficult to top. This one didn’t top it, in my opinion, but it came pretty close.

It has all the wonderful sciencey science that you’d expect, and hell, if all the science isn’t actually feasible if a city on the moon existed, then it sure sounds like it is. It sounds like it knows what it’s talking about. I have no idea how a welding torch would work in a vacuum, but I’m pretty sure it would work how this book says it’ll work. It’s got all the snark, nerdy humor, and thrills that I hoped for as well.

I started this one thinking that I could read it in short spurts between chores and work and sleep. What happened was me starting it before bed, and then reading until the wee hours, reading until my eyes hurt, and reading until I sort of regretted reading so late because work was creeping up on me… and I ended up doing it all in one huge spurt.

Jazz is a fantastic character, who I wanted to win, even despite the moral grayness in which most of the stuff she does resides. It was refreshing to have the protagonist be an Arab woman. Actually, I loved how multicultural Artemis was depicted, in general. Many cultures on Earth were depicted on the moon in different characters that we meet. My favorite was Rudy, Artemis’ policeman, a former RCMP officer, who is, sometimes (in Jazz’s eyes anyway) more or less Dudley Do-Right. And yet, he isn’t a one-sided or stereotypical character. He’s realistic. I know dudes just like this guy in real life.

There is a mystery unfolding as this book goes, and I couldn’t guess at any of it. I got blindsided several times as more and more of the plot was revealed. I’m usually a good guesser, but this one blinded me (usually with science, as it happens). It really did keep me on the metaphorical edge of my seat. It certainly kept me awake long enough to finish it despite being tired, so make of that what you will.

Definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year, so it’s pretty safe to say that this one is definitely worth your time! If you liked The Martian, or if you like science or space in general, you will very probably like Artemis.

It has been a while so I was scanning through NetGalley to see what's new and I came across a new book by Andy Weir (aka the guy that wrote The Martian aka that book I love [well I mean, one of many BUT STILL, it's up there]), Artemis. So of course I requested it and was lucky enough to get a copy in exchange for a review.

First thing first, Artemis isn't The Martian. I mean, obviously. Different plot and all. But it's not an instant favorite for me like The Martian was. That would have been incredible if he could have pulled that off again. I was excited to start this but still tried to temper my expectations knowing I could easily set them way too high. I'm glad I kept that in mind because I did enjoy this book.

So with that disclaimer, here's what the story is about. I should also point out that I did NOT read a description before starting. I was doing jumping in and trusting whatever Weir did would be entertaining.

There's a city on the moon. It's sometime in the future (somewhere around 50-100 years from now. Maybe) and there's been a functioning moon city for what seems to be about 20 years. Jazz Bashara has grown up in the city since she was 6 and works as a porter, delivering packages around the city. And maaaaaaaybe some of these packages aren't exactly legal but what city doesn't have a least a little bit of smuggling going on. And it's not like the stuff is dangerous. No drugs or weapons. Just things like cigars for an eccentric billionaire. She's got debts to pay, don't judge.

Jazz is living in tiny quarters, keeping expenses down, and committing some light crime to save up some money. So when one of her clients offers her all the money she's saving for and more, for a little bit of sabotage, well, she can't pass that up.

Things don't go as planned (do they ever? Of course not, cos if they did you'd have no book), stakes are raised, conspiracies revealed, etc. etc. And there's science. A lot of science. Space science.

Weir should be commended for the cast he's created. It's not all white dudes. There's actually very few of those. Or I mean, few compared to other media where they are, just, all the people. If the cast had been mostly white men that would have stuck out. Artemis (the name of the moon city) is a global collaboration, headquartered out of Kenya. Jazz and her father are originally from Saudi Arabia and while Jazz doesn't seem very religious anymore her father is still a practicing Muslim. There are characters from Russian, Brazil, Norway, Kenya, Ukraine, all over. The characters seem pretty evenly split between men and women. Not all of the characters are straight (and those that are gay have more personality traits than just "are gay"). So WELL DONE THERE, SIR. He ever made sure in the acknowledgements to thank people who helped him when writing a female Muslim character from Saudia Arabia, a person he most definitely is not.

And beyond that, the story is interesting. I was engaged, there was SUSPENSE and some mystery. And yeah, a lot of science explanations that sometimes worked well and sometimes felt like a little too much exposition. But I skimmed over most of those because while I like the idea of that stuff in here, in practice I do not need the details explained to me. I believe you. That's not saying I necessarily think those should be taken out. This is a thing that works for him and there's definitely an audience for it. I am just not it, but I am able to enjoy the rest of the book.

Overall though, when compared to The Martian, it's just slightly less. There's less humor (though there are funny moments), the stakes feel lower, the danger less immediate, the science explanations a bit more shoved in. It's all still there and perhaps it's unfair to compare one book to another but too bad, I'm doing it anyway.

Overall, I liked. Would recommend and probably read again, although it unfortunately does not reach the same levels as The Martian which I will love forever and sort of want to reread again right now.

I was a bit apprehensive starting Artemis. Although I had found The Martian funny, I felt like it wasn't a story aimed in my direction. While science fiction should have some "believability," I am not a reader who needs it worked out to the nth degree. I will suspend my disbelief for quite a lot, and don't need too many details on how the potatoes are grown.

However, while Artemis is still full of Weir's explanations as to how this whole Moon colony could be possible, I think the fact that his main character, Jazz, wasn't stranded alone on the Moon helped significantly. Weir excels at quick, witty dialogue a la Aaron Sorkin. Jazz's interactions with other characters over the course of her heist were enjoyable and countered the technical-description-heavy moments.

One concern throughout the story is Weir's characterization of how a woman would behave and describe herself. I wasn't too put off by some of the comments, but it was distracting and made me hyper-aware that it was a male author trying to adopt a woman's voice and failing.

I would recommend Artemis to any fans of the Transformers or lovers of hard science fiction with a wicked sense of humor.