Artemis: A Novel

An interesting story set on a lunar colony, Artemis. The main character, Jazz Bashara, is introduced as a smuggler involved in getting minor prohibited items (like cigars) into the city for her clients. We soon learn that she has apparently made some bad life decisions early in her life that has led her to become estranged from her father and people who thought she would make something of her life due to her high intelligence.

She also has a past debt to pay off, and one day she is given the opportunity to pay if off when one of her clients proposes an audacious sabotage attempt by her in order to corner a market on Artemis. But the attempt goes wrong, and Jazz now finds herself not only a fugitive from the law, but also a target of a mob that is very angry at the sabotage. Running for her life, she has to discover who is after her and the connection to an item that she saw earlier in the story.

More of an SF thriller than a Hard-SF story like the author's previous book, "The Martian", this story also has lots of technical details, but they form more of a background to the story and illuminate how life might be like on a lunar colony. The character of Jazz is shown as not only a smart ass, but also very intelligent, and she would require her quick thinking to save herself from some life-threatening situations. But the solution to the final crisis in the story may well need her to do the ultimate sacrifice to save the city.

The story ends with a short Q&A session with the author, as well as some notes on the economics behind Artemis and getting people to the moon.

While I have mixed feelings about the main character, Jazz, Andy Weir has once again crafted a science fiction novel with a cool premise and writing that keeps you hooked. Who among us has not pondered the possibility of human colonization of the moon?

Here, we see Artemis as mostly a tourist destination, otherwise a self-sustaining city spread out among a number of connected "bubbles," complete with tradespeople of all sorts, homes, restaurants, hotels, shops, one medic, and one Mountie-turned-mooncop. Jazz is a porter, which allows her to supplement her income by smuggling contraband to the city. But then one of her regular customers makes an offer that's insanely dangerous. If she gets caught, she'll be deported to her home country of Saudi Arabia, which she hasn't seen since she was six years old. But if she doesn't get caught, the payoff will be more money than she could hope to make in years, smuggling or no. When things don't go entirely according to plan, she must make some difficult choices to save her life and the city she loves.

Throughout, Jazz is pretty rough around the edges. She's sarcastic and quick-thinking, but has an abrasive edge that keeps people at arm's length. That abrasiveness also made me not like her much in plenty of places. However, characters don't always have to be likable, and she certainly seemed authentic in who she was. By the end, I had mostly come around to her, though we certainly wouldn't be friends in real life. Weir reveals information about her character and her past little by little, both in the main narrative and in email exchanges between Jazz and her friend Kelvin, who was once her childhood pen pal. I enjoy that method of storytelling—it's a good way of explaining past events without info dumping, plus I've always like stories told through diary entries or letters.

Like with The Martian, Weir relies on real science (and, in Artemis, economics) to tell his story. While the details lost me at some points, I love that there are facts to back up the story. No, we don't have any moon bases yet—but if we did, Artemis the city seems a pretty realistic way it could be set up.