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.