Artemis by Andy Weir – A Book Review

Blurb:

Ever had a bad day? Try having one on the moon…

WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon.
Population 2,000. Mostly tourists.
Some criminals.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it’s not enough.

So when she’s offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it. But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it’s a lot more dangerous…

 

Author: Andy Weir

Publisher: Ebury Digital

Release Date: 14/11/2017

Pages: 320

Genre: Science Fiction

My Chosen Format: Kindle

My Rating of ‘Artemis’: 4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon UK, Amazon US

 

Review:

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.

Artemis is Andy Weir’s much anticipated 2nd novel and follows the story of Jazz Bashara (smuggler extraordinaire). Much like ‘The Martian’ it is a stand alone tale. Much like ‘The Martian’ it is set in space. This time Weir takes us to the Moon instead of Mars.

Weir had A LOT of hype to live up to coming off of ‘The Martian’. Was ‘Artemis’ as good? Simply put; no, it was not. But it was a good read. It just didn’t come close to reaching the same level as The Martian, in my opinion. 

It had every chance of almost reaching such lofty heights, only for the author to stumble at silly hurdles. One such hurdle was when Jazz needed to know a certain bit of info. The reader is suddenly broadsided with the realisation that she has a photographic memory that extends to knowledge of tv shows she hates and hasn’t seen. Little things like that happen throughout and really lessen the ‘oh my god, I don’t think there’s any possible way this can be averted’ moments that were so enjoyable in ‘The Martian’. It almost feels like the author is trying too hard at points. 

That being said, ‘Artemis’ is well written, as one would expect from Weir, and laced with science, also as one would expect from Weir. 

The pacing of the story is good and, those annoying little stumbles aside, there is more than enough to keep the reader eagerly flipping through the pages. 

My only other negative is that some of the characters don’t read like adults at some points, or at least their dialogue doesn’t. That could just be me being overly picky. 

As you can see from my giving it a 4 out of 5, there is plenty on offer to keep the reader entertained. So long as you do what I did in accepting ‘The Martian’ is done and dusted, and treat ‘Artemis’ as the totally unrelated standalone that it is, you should enjoy it. 

It leaves me anticipating future work from Weir and wondering where in the cosmos, if indeed he sticks with space and sci-fi, he will take us next.