[sound recording] :, 59 pages
English language
Published Nov. 12, 2017 by Audible Studios on Brilliance, Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio.
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. But everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
Maybe the worst dialogue I've ever read. Just read a Wiki summary for this one.
The main character's voice was perfection.
I enjoyed it .. it was fine. But not as wonderful as The Martian and Project Hail Mary.
AFAIK Weir himself says hes not good at writing female characters.
Yeah...
I may have listened to this as an audiobook, can't quite remember.
Not quite up to the standards of [b: The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413706054l/18007564.SY75.jpg|21825181] and [b: Project Hail Mary|54493401|Project Hail Mary|Andy Weir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597695864l/54493401.SY75.jpg|79106958] (though, frankly, three books at that level in this amount of time would be downright suspicious). The tone is a little less appealing and the plotting is overly tidy at times, but Weir keeps it enjoyable and briskly paced. He takes a somewhat sophomoric approach to writing a female narrator, though; hopefully not something he'll attempt again soon.
Definitely not as good a The Martian, it's main weakness is that it's too slow initially. The lunar city setup is quite interesting and the actual main character a very interesting young woman! She's not a brilliant scientist/engineer in this case but she's certainly not boring. Not going to spoil more.
A great heist story on the moon.
I found this book to be incredibly boring and contrived. Weir seemed to want to write an edgy female scientist so he made her promiscuous and from Saudi Arabia. Not that there's really any sex in the book, just a lot of talk about her rep and a reusable condom. And welding. It's tiresome and I had to start skimming pages in some sections just to finish. The characters are flat and stereotypical. I disliked it so much, I took myself off the library wait list for hail mary.
Andy Weir writes fast-paced, engineering-oriented scifi well. This heist on a moon colony, featuring a vaguely Saudi, lapsed Muslim protagonist was a quick and light read. There's welding and problems with low-gravity/zero atmosphere and family bonding and shady business dealings. So, almost perfect.
But look, some people shouldn't be allowed to write books about women, and Andy Weir is one of those people. Also, mostly, I wanted it to be the Martian redux. And by trying to make a convoluted conspiracy plot, Weir has wandered away from what he does best: MacGyvering in Space! books.
I enjoyed Artemis.
Cons: It not as well put together as Martian - the pop culture references, gender roles and lgbtq representation is stuck in the mid 2000's and don't have the excuse of Mark's limited media sources.
Pros: I really enjoyed the asshole of a main character being a woman. I loved it. Jaz makes bad decisions as easily as breathing, AND she owns her mistakes, and has her own code of honour.
Jaz is a genious AND doesn't give a crap about 'living up to her potential', she wants to be rich and have an easy life and not owe anyone anything. This type of character is usually portrayed as male and I really dug it.
Pros: The states didn't settle the moon. The world seems to have moved on from North American domination, and Kenya settled the damned moon thank you very much.
The story is written in a colloquial English, I think it is geared towards the younger audience. The book is written in an action style, so there is always something happening. This approach and the story sucked me right in and I couldn't put the book down. It's an easy and fun read about the life in a Lunar city.
Meh.
Not a fan of the way he writes female characters.
Most of the scenes seem like flimsy dressing in support of contrived technical situations.
Some fun world-building about the moon though.
This was a wonderfully Machiavellian novel... There were more twists, turns, and intrigues than I could have hoped for; they almost made me dizzy. The author's sarcasm and humor were enough to make me laugh out loud (a few times). And as in his first novel, the technology and geekiness were fun. A great entertainment.
I just love Andy Weir's take on sci-fi. There is science, there is logic, there are so many puns. A smart female protagonist. More than one female characters total, as a matter of fact.
There was a great diversity of characters which only seems a bit artificial now that I think about it. During the book, it just seemed natural that there would be a bunch of different people in a place as artificially grown as Artemis. I guess I'm overanalyzing it right now.
One question remains: What happened to Svoboda's "payment"? I mean I guess I know, but that's just guessing.
Rosario Dawson's interpretation of the Artemis audiobook is wonderful. I can already see Jazz by listening to Dawson's voice only.
